“Welcome to the delicious hell that is high society,” beckons the trailer for “The Seduction,” HBO Max’s steamy new French-language drama inspired by “Dangerous Liaisons.”
And indeed, when most of us last saw the Marquise Isabelle de Merteuil, she was in her own private hell, wiping white powder off her tear-stained face. This 18th-century Parisian socialite, memorably played by Glenn Close in the 1988 Stephen Frears movie, was ruined every which way — schemes exposed, reputation in tatters, shamed and booed at the opera.
Well, “The Seduction” has something to say about her story — or at least, her backstory. The latest adaptation of the 1782 epistolary novel by Choderlos de Laclos, somewhere between a prequel and a remake, retains much of the main story but takes a radical detour into the female gaze.
In other words, “it’s the #MeToo of the 18th century,” says director Jessica Palud, of the six-episode miniseries that launches Friday.
So how does one make a #MeToo version of a society where men had all the power — and the swords, too? Where the only weapons available to women were their feminine wiles?
The show, an origin story for Isabelle (its title in French is simply “Merteuil”), accomplishes this partly by elevating a minor character, the elderly aunt named Rosemonde, into a powerful figure played by Diane Kruger. Kruger’s wealthy and independent Rosemonde forms a surprising alliance with young Isabelle (Anamaria Vartolomei) as the two women seek to navigate a repressive Parisian society and “reverse the codes,” as Palud puts it, becoming masters of their own destiny.
Also playing major roles are Vincent Lacoste as Valmont (Rosemonde’s nephew), stepping into the devious shoes of John Malkovich from the Frears film, and Lucas Bravo (yes, the “hot chef” from “Emily in Paris”) as the villainous Gercourt. In interviews, the cast and director explained the new approach to a well-known — and oft-adapted — tale.
Trying to understand Isabelle
Vartolomei plays Isabelle, the future Marquise de Merteuil, as a poor convent girl when she first falls in love with Valmont, whose trickery launches her onto an entirely different path — into the lion’s den of top Parisian salons.
The actor says so admired the performance of Close in the Frears movie that she felt she had to “take some distance from it.” Wherever Isabelle may end up at the end of the series, she says, what’s new here is an understanding of from whence she came.
“She’s a victim, she’s an orphan … no money, no power, no contacts, no support,” says Vartolomei, of her character’s roots. “With the help of Rosemonde, she will slowly build her way into pleasure, into high society, and she will navigate them and find her freedom and her independence.”
“She’s a very complex character,” the actor adds. “What thrilled me is that I can dig inside of her and try to understand her.”
Shifting the gaze in “The Seduction”
Kruger says she was “quite apprehensive” when she first received the script, thinking: “Do we really need another adaptation of a pretty perfect movie and pretty perfect book?”
But then she considered the possibilities of a new approach to the story. “What really struck me is that as I get older,” Kruger says, “I realize that all these classic stories are told to us from a male protagonist, a male point of view. What would those stories look like if we shift the gaze and dive into the female storylines?”
Even if the show portrays 18th-century women finding their own strength, Kruger notes that they were limited to the weapons at their disposal — basically their virtue, seductiveness and money. Rosemonde is getting older, which means she is starting to lose currency. (Her character faces some of the same challenges that Close’s Isabelle faced in the Frears film.)
“It was very important who you married, what family you were born in, how youthful you were, how pretty you were,” Kruger says. “Women used different weapons (from today.) This was what was available to them. But on the other hand, they also were women with feelings and emotions and rage.” Kruger relished exploring such feelings.
Men in “The Seduction”: A kinder, gentler Valmont, and a dashing new villain
It’s hard to perceive of the scheming Valmont as innocent — after all, he deceives Isabelle brutally at the beginning, using his aunt as an accomplice. But Lacoste plays the viscount in a somewhat gentler way. It’s clear from early on that he truly loves Isabelle, despite his early treatment of her.
“I feel like in this version, the feelings of Valmont are clearer,” Lacoste says. “Through the whole show, he battles between being the greatest Casanova, and being in love with a woman who hates him.”
He says that approach gives the character a new look: “It was necessary to have a fresh start.”
Like Kruger, Bravo plays a character that had only a minor presence in earlier versions, but has been expanded in the new show. His Gercourt is, like rival Valmont, a libertine, or pleasure-seeker — but he’s more evil.
Told by a reporter that he seems like “a really bad guy” on the show, Bravo grins and replies: “Thank you!” He’s obviously going for the villain vibe.
“I had complete freedom to create my own character,” Bravo says. “That was fun, because it felt like having a part in rewriting a bit of something that’s been so iconic for a long time.”
The actor feels that having a female director was crucial in casting a completely fresh eye on the well-known story.
“It changes everything, to be honest,” Bravo says. “Because the way the eye lands and where it focuses is completely different than what a man is trying, the stories a man’s trying to tell. ”
Refreshing an old tale
True, Kruger’s Rosemonde is initially hardly a paragon of female solidarity — she helps her nephew, Valmont, deceive and humiliate Isabelle as a young woman.
But the two women, each needing something only the other can give, form a growing alliance that director Palud interprets as an 18th-century #MeToo moment.
“We have this woman (Rosemonde) who thinks in a certain way, freely … but finally who is still locked up in an extremely masculine world. And then there is this young woman who arrives, Isabelle de Merteuil, who represents a bit the #Me Too of the 18th century, who is saying, ‘With me, it won’t happen like that. I’m going to reverse the codes.'”
“And indeed, that’s what’s happening today,” Palud says. “In fact, we have young women who dare to speak more, who dare give their voice, who dare say things, with an older generation who sometimes says: ‘We can’t say that.’ That’s what the show is about.”
