SOURCE: Kauffmann, Stanley. “Worlds Apart.” New Republic 201, no. 24 (11 December 1989): 24-5, 28.

In the following excerpt, Kauffmann compares Valmont to Stephen Frears' Dangerous Liaisons, arguing that Valmont is the weaker of the two films.

In less than a year since Dangerous Liaisons comes another film made from the Laclos novel. This one is called Valmont (Orion), after the leading male character; was directed by Milos Forman, whose last work was Amadeus; and was adapted from Laclos by Jean-Claude Carrière (with, uncredited, Forman). Carrière has had one of the most active of screenwriting careers since he began in 1961, a career especially famous for his many collaborations with Luis Buñuel and especially blotted by his collaboration with Peter Brook on the atrocious Swann in Love.

Here Carrière falters again. Valmont is called a free adaptation of Laclos. This is like calling Riunite a free adaptation of Mouton Rothschild...