DANGEROUS LIAISONS

Director Stephen Frear's best film, Dangerous Liaisons, can now be viewed in its finest form. The detail to his stunning images, sets, and costumes has never been sharper. Based on the famous 1782 novel by Choderlos De Laclos, this tale of deception, sex, and love, proves to be as important today as when it was first written. Michelle Pfeiffer, John Malkovich, and Glenn Close are terrific. Even Keanu Reeves does a comendable job. Still, the real star here is the cinematography, which is perfectly represented in this DVD release. Various layers of colors compliment the many layers of clothing, and dark scenes have depth in their shadows. This DVD offers viewers the choice of letterboxing or P&S, and while the aspect ratio is somewhere around 1.66:1 and preferred, the P&S version has barely noticeable differences. The wonderful score by George Fenton achieves the representation it deserves in DVD, with its replication in the English Dolby Digital 5.1 encoding, The sound effects are sparse in both 5.1 & the standard Dolby Surround, but they're adequate.

The Special features segment of the DVD menu offers a worthwile section with information about France before the Revolution.