Original subtitles

THE SEDUCTION

Come in.

I met a lovely young man.

I'm glad to see you preserve your beautiful vitality.

Did you receive my letter?

Yes.

I'll be in Versailles tomorrow.

Your fate will be decided there.

With your beloved Gercourt?

It was just playacting.

Gercourt and Castellet have already secured the king's decision.

Your title and property will be taken from you.

Well, if the final act is already decided

the show promises to be a mediocre affair.

Even if, in this play, the role of the surprise witness

and perfect traitor seems to suit you perfectly.

Isabelle, I want to help you.

Take this.

Money?

Is that what our friendship has comes down to?

You must trust me.

Leave for London as quickly as possible.

But why?

I'll go to Versailles.

It's impossible.

I have to defend myself.

Up to now, you've known better than to underestimate me.

You should continue.

Leave for London today.

I have precious friends who will...

"Lady Isabelle..."

That will allow you to settle there.

When should I pay you back?

Never.

You are free.

Thank you.

Madame.

I'm starving.

Madame de Volanges is here, Madame.

She is accompanied by a bailiff.

Very well. Bring them in.

But...

they didn't ask to see you.

Hello.

Madame.

I didn't want to disturb your dinner.

Madame the Marquise, please.

What are you doing?

An inventory.

You know how much I loved my brother.

This castle reminds me of him.

So you'll understand that I can't allow you to raid this house

before you leave it for good.

I am Marquise de Merteuil

and I will die Marquise de Merteuil.

You will die as a whore.

The way you were born.

And the way you've always lived.

How could my little Cécile, my tender child

fall under your control?

The Comte de Gercourt will expose you in front of our good king.

You have never been married to the Marquis de Merteuil.

You have simply abused the kindness and the generosity...

of a old man.

Your brother was an old pervert who treated me like a piece of meat.

I've been married before

and I deserve every last pisspot in this castle.

You're crazy.

Go on.

Madame?

I came to say goodbye.

I heard you were going to Versailles.

To say goodbye and maybe talk about Cécile?

Cécile is neither with her mother nor with the Marquise de Merteuil

who refused to receive me.

If you know where she is, I beg you.

Alas.

I am sorry.

I can't help you.

I don't understand.

I was told that the Marquise de Merteuil was in trouble.

I could have helped her.

She chose a different path.

But, like you...

I have a bitter taste in my mouth.

I thought she was mine.

Isabelle is burning with rage.

and won't die without giving up a fight.

Your face seems veiled in melancholy.

Go on, young man.

Madame, I forbid you.

You forbid me?

Yes, I forbid you.

I forbid you not to see yourself as I see you.

Look at yourself.

This woman...

Is she made for regrets?

If Cécile could hear you speaking to me so freely...

she would be so proud of you.

Excuse me.

- Madame, I feel really-- - That's enough!

Excuse me, Madame.

- I'm thinking about Cécile, so... - She's not here.

Do you know where she is?

I know everything about my nephew's life.

Get out.

Get my horses ready, I'm going out.

Yes, Madame.

Dear Vicomte, I had to see you urgently.

Come with me to Versailles.

Vicomte...

I'm sorry I come unannounced.

My dear Vicomte, how are you?

My situation is extremely serious.

I am ruined, humiliated, destroyed.

My dear Vicomte...

My life is in your hands.

I beg you, come with me to Versailles.

Only your presence will allow me to be heard.

Hello, Cécile.

Madame.

I had a dreadful conversation with your aunt.

I know.

She's right.

Alone in Versailles, I would be helpless.

Let's go together.

I risk losing my title and my property.

I'd rather die than imagine you losing everything.

So you want to help me?

Me? Begging the king for my life and the life of my dearest friend?

Not at the sacrifice of my reputation, no.

Definitely not.

You're a man, a vicomte no less.

I'm sure you'll be able to be heard by the king.

No.

I am fortunate to have been born a man vicomte

and the nephew of my dear aunt

who looks after me like an angel.

So I'll be spared.

Your position is more delicate, I agree.

I'd love to help you.

But how?

I know you, Vicomte.

Now that we're alone, stop playing games

and tell me clearly what you want.

Everything.

You.

Your hand.

It's ironic, but that's the way it is.

Your salvation will come from the Church

or more precisely from a friend of mine

a cardinal, who owes me a favor.

He has the power to marry us again.

This would make our first union null and void.

Not even the king will be able to disapprove.

You'll forgive me if I don't kneel to ask for your hand.

You know as well as I do that you're already mine.

By marrying you, I give myself to you a second time.

It would be a fitting end to our story.

In fact, I've already started writing it.

I'd like your opinion.

Is that your story?

"Ready to marry the man she describes as perfect and sublime.

Your heroine says she's in love, burning with pleasure and shame"?

Oh, sure, it's just a bit arranged.

Literature must transform reality into something more beautiful

to make it more interesting.

Be careful!

Valmont.

Chevalier, stop, please!

Seeing you defend him makes me want to shoot the bastard even more.

Give me your weapon.

Chevalier.

I don't know what part you played in my misfortune, Madame, but...

If anyone has to pay, it's me.

I pushed Cécile in this direction to complete her education.

Now, she's a free woman.

She has nothing to be ashamed of.

And especially not in front of a fool like you.

Shoot.

Come on, shoot.

Shoot!

Isabelle.

- Give me the gun. - No, Mademoiselle.

Cécile, I love you.

That's all I have.

At first, I thought...

I thought that loving you

meant accepting you as you are and not as I dream you.

Not possessing you, but accompanying you

loving you as much as I can.

That I should belong to no one and take pleasure in it.

Learn to be as free as you.

So you would love me.

But no.

Of course not, Miss.

My head tells me to think that way.

But my body yells at me that the way I love you is true...

and healthy...

and beautiful.

So why do I feel so lonely and lost?

Chevalier.

What if Danceny was right?

This simpleton?

This simpleton is here right now

with the woman he loves and who loves him back.

Are you that scared?

Of what?

You're not listening to me.

Come.

This is my life.

And it's yours.

I'm showing you who I really am.

And here?

Read them, please.

I have nothing to hide.

I'll leave you to it.

Take your time.

Do you want me to believe that you have become another man?

I've seduced women

whose husbands are among the most powerful men in the kingdom...

there is here enough to get me killed a thousand times over.

My recklessness surprises you?

You see.

You've made a fool of me.

It was already the role you chose when you came to meet me.

Do you really see no difference between the one I was then

and the one I am now because of you?

What are you doing?

I'd like to warm your heart.

It's not too late.

You need to believe that I can change too.

Stay tonight.

Marry me.

Cécile?

Are you okay?

What happened between you and Valmont?

Are you going to tell me?

Please.

Don't lie to me, I want the truth.

How many times did you sleep with him?

How many times?

My dear Aunt...

The game comes to an end.

And I've won.

Tonight, Isabelle will come.

And tomorrow, she'll marry me.

She has no other choice.

Isabelle lost.

But that's what was needed so we could be happy.

In order to save her.

So that I could finally say

those simple words that I've held out for so long.

I love her.

I'll get the bad role again.

What are you talking about?

This letter...

Did you write it for her? Your aunt?

Or to me?

To better seal this wedding, which will also be...

above all else...

your most perfect triumph?

You knew...

I was coming.

You knew I needed you.

You prepared the final blow.

It's perfectly reasonable.

I turned you into a monster.

I'll leave you my friend.

I have to go to Versailles.

Dear Valmont...

My great Valmont...

My eternal one...

Until then, I had only seen Versailles

through a few pale engravings.

but I had to stop myself getting emotional.

You and your aunt had promised me the worst.

My situation was desperate.

My insolence made it even worse.

But I wasn't afraid.

Maybe I was enjoying my last steps as a free woman.

But I dared to look the greatest of kings in the eyes.

Your Majesty.

I was going to the scaffold

certain of my eternity.

And the man I had in front of me was only a man

no different than the others.

Your aunt was there

in a sinister role that didn't suit her at all.

She was the one who taught me to never open my heart.

Without her, I wouldn't be who I am.

At this great ball of impostors

I fitted in perfectly.

And I was putting on perhaps, for the last time

my costume as the Marquise de Merteuil

the enamored wife of a great warrior at the service of the kingdom

and its influence across the Atlantic.

Madame, I recognize in you

virtues particularly dear to my heart.

Courage.

Without which you would never have dared to come here...

in Versailles.

Passion.

That raw force

which, channeled at the service of a just and noble cause

vibrates...

to the point of inspiring and revealing the saddest souls.

And last...

but not least.

In you, I distinguish the most gracious of qualities.

Sincerity.

Thank you for coming to me

Madame the Marquise, Isabelle de Merteuil.

My love, I would like to write to you here that, at that moment

I knew I had become essential to the kingdom

that I had saved my title

by convincing the king to make me the equal of his ministers

the instrument of his will.

But what I saw in the eyes of this man...

king by the grace of God alone

appeared to me of a much more familiar nature.

Prince or slave...

All men are equal when it comes to desire.

The next day...

a steward came to explain to me with remarkable rigor and precision

the role that will become mine.

As His Majesty's first courtesan

I will have to learn everything about him.

His little habits as well as his great appetites.

The king would no longer be bored.

My love...

I think again and again of the night we spent together.

My love...

I'd also like to write to you about how much I miss you.

But I tell you and I tell you again

in these letters that you can't read anymore

I have taken a pledge of absolute sincerity.

And the truth is that your death fulfills me as much as it ravages me.

So you will never betray me.

My love...

I would have been the meaner of the two of us.

And that suits me.

Because it gives me the strength I need to survive.

Forever merciless.

And forever impenetrable.