Valmont is a 1989 romantic drama film directed by Miloš Forman and starring Colin Firth, Annette Bening, and Meg Tilly.

Based on the 1782 French novel Les Liaisons dangereuses by Choderlos de Laclos, and adapted for the screen by Jean-Claude Carrière, the film is about a scheming widow (Merteuil) who bets her ex-lover (Valmont) that he cannot corrupt a recently married honorable woman (Tourvel).

Earlier, Merteuil learns her secret lover (Gercourt) has discarded her and is about to marry her cousin's daughter- the virginal 15 year old Cécile.

Angered over the hypocrisy of Gercourt's insistence on a virgin bride while keeping a lover of his own, his concealment of the upcoming marriage, and his slight of her character, Merteuil plans revenge.

She approaches her former lover, the womanizer Vicomte de Valmont, and proposes that he take Cécile's virginity before her wedding night to humiliate Gercourt.

After learning of this, Merteuil attempts to create opportunities for the pair to consummate their love, but Cécile is too innocent and Danceny too honorable to take advantage.

Valmont's funeral is filled with his former lovers, including Merteuil, who is devastated at the loss of her best friend and oldest rival.

Some time later, Madame de Tourvel lovingly places a rose on Valmont's tomb before returning to her waiting husband.

Madame de Tourvel's future is less tragic: instead of dying of a broken heart, she returns to her forgiving and understanding older husband.

The website's consensus reads: "Valmont undermines the essential qualities of its main character's literary counterpart, but solid casting and Milos Forman's deft direction help mitigate those flaws.

Comparing it to Dangerous Liaisons, which was based on the play rather than the novel, Ebert wrote that Valmont was a much different film than its predecessor.

Where Dangerous Liaisons was "cerebral and claustrophobic, an exercise in sexual mindplay", Forman's version was "more physical" and the seductions more arousing.

Travers concluded, "Overlong and marred by clashing accents and acting styles, Valmont lacks the wit and erotic charge of Dangerous Liaisons.

[9] In her review in The Washington Post, Rita Kempley was equally unimpressed with Valmont, describing it as "sumptuous suds, a broadly played trivialization of de Laclos's 18th-century novel of boudoir intrigue".