Cruel Intentions

I really love the end to the film Cruel Intentions (itself a rather beautiful modern retelling of Les Liaisons dangereuses).

The soundtrack is exhilaratingly appropriate.



I wonder how an even newer retelling would work? How could one circulate such material if it existed in a digital medium, for example, digital video footage? Hand out DVDs? DVDs are pretty old school now, and one would have to wait until everyone was at a TV with a DVD, and besides one would lose the public humiliation aspect. Circulating online misses that out too. I suppose the only option would be to set up a projector at the Church (in this case), but that's hardly ultra-modern and a little too obvious. I reckon once everyone has iPhones/iPod Touches, you could simply stream the stuff from a server, and send a mass e-mail at the right moment with the link. It's food for thought.

Then of course, you have to consider the venue, which would indirectly effect the choice of distribution, if only for practical reasons. Perhaps the Church would be somewhat outdated in a more modern retelling (and a retelling might want not include a funeral). Maybe it could be a family gathering, with everyone in front of a TV, but that would limit the numbers. I suppose keeping the scholastic theme of the original, it could be a lecture theatre, with a projector, but that somewhat avoids the element of dissociated revelation, given that everyone would observe at the same time (unlike the original wherein the information spreads rampantly until all know). A Friday night party, perhaps?

I suppose what's significant here in a retelling of Cruel Intentions is whether or not you have cause to remake it. Does it actually matter? I mean the story as is doesn't actually need to be retold, but perhaps a similar story exists that could finish with the same ending? It probably comes down to whether or not another story of a self-satisfied, two-faced, lying, sly bitch existed. If it did, I say tell the story, and for the sake of a twist, secretly circulate the material online before a Friday night party. It would be fresh, while staying faithful enough to the original to be considered an adaptation.

It would be highly entertaining, although somewhat without a needed purpose or aim. It becomes even less relevant if the person to be revealed was to simply go away fully by behaving morally: refrain from lying, spreading rumour, gossiping, negatively interfering in another person's life without right or justification, and forcing their opinion down other's throats (much like a crazed religious nutcase from the US). Quite simply and succinctly: keep out of it fully.

Then - if only in the interest of being rational and fair - would a remake of the film be entirely pointless, and frankly hostile. Until then, however, the market demands that the film be made for its telling of natural justice.