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Cruel Intentions
Slaking a thirst for dangerous games, Kathryn challenges her stepbrother, Sebastian, to deflower their headmaster's daughter before the summer ends. If he succeeds, the prize is the chance to bed Kathryn. But if he loses, Kathryn will claim his most prized possession.
1999 · Directed by Roger Kumble · 97 min · Drama · Romance · Screenplay in the scene database · 14 frames
Tagline
In the game of seduction, there is only one rule: Never fall in love.
Plot
In New York City, wealthy teenager Sebastian Valmont regularly manipulates and seduces women, but seeks someone who poses a challenge to his charm. He settles on Annette Hargrove—the daughter of his new school headmaster—who is staunchly opposed to sex before falling in love. Sebastian and his equally manipulative stepsister, the intelligent and popular Kathryn Merteuil, agree to a bet: if Sebastian fails to seduce Annette, then Kathryn gets his vintage Jaguar XK140; if he wins, Kathryn will finally have sex with him. Kathryn tries to recruit Sebastian into her own scheme to take revenge on her ex-boyfriend Court Reynolds, who left her because of her promiscuity and began dating the naive and innocent Cecile Caldwell.
Sebastian's initial efforts to seduce Annette fail as she has been informed of his reputation. He suspects Annette's friend Greg, a closeted homosexual, of being responsible and blackmails him into convincing Annette of his good nature. Later, Sebastian learns that Cecile's mother warned Annette and agrees to corrupt Cecile as revenge. Kathryn notices romantic tension between Cecile and her music teacher Ronald Clifford, and reveals this to Cecile's mother, who fires Ronald. Sebastian and Kathryn convince Ronald to fight for Cecile by writing her a love letter which Sebastian uses to lure Cecile to his bedroom, where he coerces her into receiving oral sex from him. The next day, Kathryn advises Cecile to have sex with Sebastian and be promiscuous so she can learn to please Ronald.
Spending time with Annette, Sebastian develops genuine feelings for her, attracted to her honesty and ability to make the normally stoic Sebastian laugh. He kisses Annette but she resists because she reciprocates his feelings and fears she cannot restrain herself around him. Sebastian calls her a hypocrite for rejecting the opportunity for true love and she finally relents and begins undressing, but Sebastian, confused about his own feelings, declines to have sex with her. Annette leaves the following day, but Sebastian finds her, professes his feelings, and they have sex.
Plot summary from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA.
Crew
- Screenplay: Roger Kumble
- Cinematography: Theo van de Sande
- Edited by: Jeff Freeman
- Music: Edward Shearmur, Richard Ashcroft
- Production design: Jon Gary Steele
- Produced by: Neal H. Moritz
Cast
- Sarah Michelle Gellar as Kathryn Merteuil
- Ryan Phillippe as Sébastian Valmont
- Reese Witherspoon as Annette Hargrove
- Selma Blair as Cecile Caldwell
- Louise Fletcher as Helen Rosemond
- Joshua Jackson as Blaine Tuttle
- Eric Mabius as Greg McConnell
- Sean Patrick Thomas as Ronald Clifford
- Swoosie Kurtz as Dr. Greenbaum
- Christine Baranski as Bunny Caldwell
Production
- Country: United States of America
- Language: English
- Studios: Newmarket Capital Group, Original Film, Neal H. Moritz Productions
- Budget: $10,500,000
- Box office: $76,347,426
- Themes: bet, virgin, drug abuse, sibling relationship, based on novel or book, sexual obsession, upper class, cynic, sadistic, eroticism
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