Why do you hate Madame de Montrachet?
[Camille] You do not need to understand, Valmont,
you simply need to do as I ask you.
I'm to be a student at his school for orphans.
I will see you have some money for your school.
It will bind us together in venture.
So be it.
-You have a title! -I have nothing.
The Comte de Valmont wins!
That's why I need you to use your exemplary skills of deceit,
draw out the truth about how this false vicomtesse
made a puppet of my father to disinherit me.
From where may you have heard of Ariadne?
There's a private club. It's called the Labyrinth.
I know Jean's secret.
I know what Ariadne means.
[Majordome] The Marquis can do
whatever he wants without consequence.
[Camille] Where is he?
[Majordome] Gone to his engagement party.
[Christine] The games are over.
Change is coming here.
[Majordome] And he left instruction for me
to ensure that you left this house.
You can't win against that sort of power.
You don't know me, Majordome.
[Pascal] You cannot mean to descend upon
Jean's engagement party
when you could stay here with me.
[Camille] Hmm.
Perhaps we might even share this bed tonight.
You sleep in a chair beside the fire,
and now you bring me coffee.
I had no idea you were such a gentleman.
Oh, I'm not.
You don't seriously mean to go to Rambouillet?
They will serve you up alongside the boar.
-You've been there? -[Pascal] Often.
With a friend. A composer. The Sevignys were his patrons.
Yet you're not invited to the engagement party.
My stepmother poisoned that particular well.
She's never so happy as when she's dispelling the affection
that others hold me in.
Don't forget your promise to help me
get back what she stole from me.
Perhaps you should focus on completing your own task.
[Pascal] Well, love cannot be rushed.
You were cursed the day you made it your condition.
I won't.
[soft suggestive music playing]
♪ ♪
Tell me how to get to Rambouillet.
[spirited string music plays]
♪ ♪
I hope we're not so late we've missed all the fun.
We were not expecting further guests here, mademoiselle.
♪ ♪
I'm a surprise.
[dramatic string music plays]
♪ ♪
-[Jean] Ahh! -[guests laughing]
Yah!
♪ Beware, beware ♪
Chase, chase, chase, chase! [laughs]
[Maurice] Who have you caught, Marquis?
And if you take my advice,
be careful with your answer, lest you offend.
[laughter]
-Mmm! Tuberose... -[guests oohing]
...and ambergris.
A woman of great taste and beauty.
The Comtesse de Segur!
-[gasps] -[guests laughing]
-She's twice my age. -[cackles]
-How dare you? -[Jean] Oh!
[soft inquisitive music plays]
♪ ♪
[rhythmic clapping]
[indistinct chatter, laughter]
[party guest] Where's he going?
[Jean] Aha!
Such a delicate frame
and skin.
It can only be my future wife.
[whispering] Ariadne is here.
[tense music plays]
♪ ♪
Did you really think I would just disappear?
Yes.
[Camille chuckles]
[indistinct chatter, laughter]
Along with your willful misrepresentation
of my wife's letter to me.
A pity to travel so far
to be spectacle of your own humiliation.
Ariadne means nothing.
[Camille] I've been to the Labyrinth.
Ariadne means a great deal.
Though to be sure, shall I ask
your wife-to-be and all the guests?
[grunts]
[rhythmic clapping]
Because of grief, I have not treated you
with the tenderness you deserve.
You should not have borne my suffering.
[Camille] Or the dismissal of your wife's wishes for me.
[Jean] Remind me.
That I receive a generous settlement
so that I may live independently,
but under the protection of the Merteuil name.
[Camille chuckles]
[Theo] Ah. Christine!
[laughter]
I will have my lawyer come in the morning
with a contract and some monies.
Have him come tonight.
Oh, a contract and a large sum of money
are more than a day's work.
Besides, you are my guest here.
Do have fun.
Oh, Camille!
Oh, it's such a joy to have you here.
Jean said you'd returned to Carcassonne?
[laughing] I wouldn't miss this weekend.
Aw! [laughs]
Madame, find Camille a room.
[Christine] Put her in the north room.
Do not unpack.
It will save your maid time in the morning when you leave.
[playful string music plays]
♪ ♪
That went well.
Madame de Montrachet, it is good to see you.
You've taken on this boy.
Until we establish the orphanage.
Save the young, we save us all.
[Jacqueline] Come.
[child] Madame, you came!
[Jacqueline] Hello!
[groans]
Good to see you again, monsieur, madame.
I hope you do not mind. I brought a friend with me.
Monsieur Lucienne.
Any friend's welcome here, madame.
[Jacqueline] Oh, my little ones.
I've missed you. Jessamine, you've grown.
I'm sure of it. Is that another tooth gone?
I shall give you silver for it.
Monsieur Lucienne, would you bring my basket?
Monsieur Lucienne?
My basket?
Thank you.
[foreboding music plays]
♪ ♪
[young Pascal screaming]
♪ ♪
Forgive me. I cannot stay.
[Jacqueline] Excuse me.
[indistinct chatter]
Monsieur Lucienne? What on Earth has happened?
I suffered a memory of sorts.
I prefer not to think of it. It brings me great pain.
Come in.
Now, what happened?
Please tell me.
I've let my own pain consume me.
It has stopped me from doing my work.
The girl who threw the blood.
I haven't given alms since.
Until today.
A random act should not prevent such goodness.
[Jacqueline] It was not random.
Though my husband thinks she's a figment of my imagination.
[Pascal] He is wrong.
Five years ago, she was my servant.
[soft pensive music plays]
Though I treated her as a daughter.
A daughter would not behave in such a way.
The girl full of violent thought and jealousy could.
This girl repaid my trust and my affection
by attempting to take everything that mattered to me.
I do not understand.
She tried to take my husband.
She tried to destroy my marriage,
and when that failed, she cut her wrists before me.
Her name is Camille.
She's a scar upon me.
♪ ♪
[Henri] I make an incision on the anterior aspect
of the throat to locate the tumor.
[soft suspenseful music plays]
♪ ♪
As soon as ligation of the superior thyroid artery
is achieved...
...there is a whole new vista.
It could have easily been removed,
and he would have lived.
But some still do not trust the knowledge in medicine.
I hope rationality
will eventually banish fear and superstition.
You speak of rationality,
yet it is true you search for the soul?
It is a personal quest. Yes.
[Danceny] Why do you believe the soul resides in there,
Monsieur de Montrachet?
I am drawn by the heart's power.
Its undulations are, at once, violent and graceful.
The perfect description of us, do you not think?
And the perfect dwelling place for the soul.
Thank you.
[applause]
[indistinct chatter]
[Gabriel] Monsieur?
[Henri] My time is limited, I'm afraid.
I do not speak with the public.
[Gabriel] No, I-I'm an officer
with the Unit of Moral Discipline.
I'm here on business.
This was...
retrieved from a dead woman's throat.
Is it possible it could have caused her death?
It could cause asphyxiation.
Would such a death be painful?
[Henri] It would be slow,
but the patient would have no strength to struggle.
Hmm.
[soft inquisitive music plays]
I have seen this thread before.
In a corpse I used in an anatomy class.
-Who was she? -[Henri] Ariadne.
We name all our corpses.
Ariadne?
You don't know your Greek myths.
Ariadne gave Theseus a skein of red thread
so he could kill the monster in the maze
and find his way back to her.
I'm impressed, monsieur.
Few would go to such lengths to investigate,
especially with such an impediment... as that.
[soft tense music plays]
Do you experience sensation in it?
-I could remove it... -Um...[clears throat]
[Henri] With minimal risk and discomfort.
I'm working, sir.
Do you know who I am?
What I am offering you?
A limb such as this is of no use.
A burden, surely.
Actually, it is not.
Everything is harder.
Takes more time, more effort,
but that is why I detect things that others miss.
It is why I'm good at my job.
But the superstitious among us maintain
the left hand represents the devil.
My hand is not to be removed.
Thank you for your time, monsieur.
[light harpsichord music plays]
[Emilie singing in French]
♪ ♪
[vocalizing]
♪ L'amour♪
[applause]
-[guest] Bravo! -[Christine] My darling!
-[Emilie laughs] -[Christine] Oh, my darling!
Oh, this weekend is one of celebration,
and we are honored by the presence
of the Princesse de Lamballe,
who comes to us with blessings from our queen
for this noble match.
These jewels are from Her Majesty's collection
and are a gift to you in recognition of her pleasure
at two families beloved by the court joining in union.
[applause]
[Maurice] Toast with me our cherished daughter,
the future marquise,
and her husband-to-be, the Marquis de Merteuil.
The loss of Geneviéve has been hard to bear,
but I know she blesses this union.
To love and marriage.
[all] To love and marriage.
[applause]
The title of marquise is wasted on that child.
Far better it sit with me.
You cannot hope to make a match with Jean.
Help me, and I'll help you.
Help you how?
I've seen an enmity between you and Christine.
There will be no welcome for you at Saint-Honoré
when her daughter's marquise.
But with me at Jean's side, you will be championed
and treasured like a daughter.
-Because you are so maternal. -My son is my god.
And your stepson Pascal?
I heard something about a feud between you.
He is a story for another night and a bottle of brandy.
[Camille chuckles]
It's not my choice.
Please believe me.
Mama has arranged all of it.
I cannot bear life without you.
[Christine] Danceny?
Perhaps you would like to concentrate
on your harpsichord?
Do not forget your marquis, my love.
And how is Her Royal Highness, our queen?
Sad she cannot join you
but glad I am the envoy of her love.
She kissed my hand so that you might kiss it
and receive the kiss she has left for you.
Send this kiss back to dear Marietta.
[whispering] With my love.
[glasses clinking]
Tonight, let us dance the dance loved by our queen
and all of us of noble birth.
The contra dance allemande!
[applause]
-[Theo] Mademoiselle. -I do not dance, monsieur.
CannotI would imagine is more accurate.
Do as I do, mademoiselle, hmm?
[soft tense note plays]
[stately string music plays]
♪ ♪
[Christine] Inviting that fraud to stay is hardly the behavior
of a man who wants her gone.
[Jean] This is your house, madame.
I've already thrown her out of mine.
When one buys the gun,
one surely need not fire it too.
[Christine] I hope you show more backbone
in marriage to my daughter.
[Jean] Let's not pretend this marriage
has anything to do with my backbone.
♪ ♪
[applause]
[indistinct chatter]
[Theo] Your beauty is the one thing he does not exaggerate.
[soft string music playing]
Valmont.
I'm to be a friend, should you need one, hmm?
He waits for you in the summer house.
Don't wait up for me. I need to get some fresh air.
[Victoire] Camille--
Hors d'oeuvres are for the guests.
For your mistress.
An inventory of everything in your rooms.
Be sure it is all there when you depart,
first thing tomorrow.
I like your chevalier.
I like you better.
I missed you.
I love you.
I said I love you!
I have my carriage.
Come with me.
I cannot. Let's stay here.
Why will you not come?
Because I have succeeded with Jean.
[Pascal] Your blackmail.
[Camille] He will be my guardian.
I will have his name,
and there will be money too.
I'll buy a great house for us.
Only I must stay another day to do so.
[soft tense music plays]
You're good at getting what you want.
Getting what I'm due.
Valmont!
Valmont, what's wrong?
♪ ♪
You asked me to seduce this woman,
yet you give me no proof of her wrong,
despite the bloody evidence of what you're capable of.
What I'm capable of?
[Pascal] So it's true.
You are the proof... of her suffering.
You make a fool of me.
-[Camille] No. -Tell me the truth.
What has she said to you?
Tell me, or I will go no further.
What has she told you?
She doesn't matter.
I want the truth from you.
I have given it.
She took everything that mattered from me.
Oh, I see it with my own eyes, Camille.
The scars of what you did
because you could not get what you wanted.
And me.
The willing fool who ruins her so you may finally be with him
because you want him still.
My God, Camille.
All of this, so you can take her husband.
You know nothing, Valmont.
Hmm.
Nothing!
♪ ♪
[Pascal] I don't want to know any more.
[Camille] Valmont!
Don't walk away from me.
♪ ♪
[breathing shakily]
[sobbing]
[somber music plays]
♪ ♪
[knock at door]
You want to help me after all.
No, Vicomtesse.
I want to get very, very drunk with you.
Your stepson.
What did he do to make an enemy of you?
He told lies about me to his father.
I hate him.
For you.
For his disloyalty.
For the stories he told.
For the damage he's done.
He's caused much damage.
The Comtesse de Sevigny and I were once close
until I discovered the liaisons between the two of them.
Christine is old enough to be his mother.
That's why I'm invited to everything.
Keep your friends close and your enemies closer.
Then I'm glad you make him suffer.
[soft tense music plays]
♪ ♪
[Pascal] Azolan.
Who am I?
Pardon?
Am I Valmont pretending to be Lucienne...
...or am I Lucienne pretending to be Valmont?
Well, who do you want to be?
A good man.
I don't want to hurt someone...
...who should not be hurt.
Tell Madame de Montrachet the truth about your mother.
You can't get more honest than that.
[Pascal] There's pain in sharing that truth, Azolan.
I'm not sure I'm brave enough.
Yesterday, when we gave alms,
and I left you,
it's because I heard a scream.
Bloodcurdling.
A child's scream.
[Jacqueline] No, Lucienne. I would have heard.
[Pascal] You could not have,
for it was in my head.
It was my scream
from when I was a child.
A kindness.
The act of giving alms.
It reminded me of the day my mother died.
[soft sentimental music plays]
A lunatic slit her throat while she was giving alms.
I saw it happen.
All her blood emptied out like wine into the snow.
I was too small to get out of the carriage.
I used to wake up...
-screaming for her. -[young Pascal screaming]
[Young Pascal] No!Maman! Maman!
I don't talk about this pain inside me.
I want you to know me.
♪ ♪
Jacqueline, please. I don't want you to go.
I cannot possibly stay.
Not now.
[Emilie] Of course, losing Gustav was such agony.
Do you care for dogs, Jean?
No.
[Camille] It seems I am to join the hunt, Emilie.
Oh, Camille.
May I confide in you?
Yes. Yes, of course.
He thinks I do not notice,
but every time I speak, Jean seems to wince.
If he winces, he's a fool.
But if you love someone else, you should tell your mother.
Your secret's safe with me, Emilie.
Follow your heart.
[dogs barking, people shouting]
[gunfire]
[suspenseful music plays]
♪ ♪
He is a fine shot.
Coming from you, Musket, that is a compliment.
Ma, might I speak with you for a moment?
Oh, yes.
Though I say the marquis has a long pistol, that's all.
That is often enough, Chevalier.
I favor technique.
It amounts to the same thing. The loss of beautiful birds.
♪ ♪
[person] From the right, sir!
[Christine and Emilie whispering indistinctly]
[Camille] Where is your lawyer, Jean?
[Jean] He'll be here soon.
I do hope you stay around to meet him.
[Camille] What do you mean, Jean?
Camille, let me teach you how to shoot.
A parting gift.
Very well, a skill to protect
against assassins may prove invaluable.
That depends how many assassins there are.
With a gun like this, you have but one shot.
If you are hunting something dangerous,
be sure to finish it off, or much like a wounded enemy,
it will do you more damage. Do you understand?
-That you seek to threaten me. -Oh, it's not a threat.
♪ ♪
[Camille groans]
You want to know why they call me Musket?
Because I never miss.
I will not tolerate you in my house
or your attempts to unsettle my daughter a moment longer.
If she is unsettled, perhaps you should ask yourself why.
I have done nothing but listen to her.
Little more, and you'll curse the day you ever came here.
You have no idea what a mother will do for her child.
I am here by the marquis' invitation.
Invitation withdrawn.
From the marquis via his messenger, me.
Leave my house, or the next shot is you.
♪ ♪
[Camille] There has to be a letter from Christine here.
I must have missed it.
These people mean to do you harm.
It scares me that you can't see that.
[Camille] I see it.
I mean to make them pay.
[soft inquisitive music plays]
♪ ♪
"What an explosion that night between us
"when we both went off with such a bang.
"How exquisitely you pulled the trigger.
Your M."
The alphabet has changed.
Christine begins with M.
[Camille] Musket begins with M.
She wrote the inventory. Now, let's see.
♪ ♪
It is the same hand. Look. The M.
"Your technique was a new one to me.
"One I tried later with my darling Marietta.
"Thank you, dear V, for your tricks.
She cannot be without me."
Marietta is the name
I heard Christine whisper to the chevalier.
This letter is about her.
Who?
The queen.
Then we must burn it.
Camille, it's a death warrant.
Not only for Christine.
For us, if we are found with it.
It is my salvation.
♪ ♪
Do you still want Jean?
Do I want to marry a noble of the sword,
France's highest honor, and gain the title of marquise?
Do I want power, wealth, status,
and a man with very little sexual appetite,
if his lack of heirs is anything to go by?
Yes, Camille.
I still want all of that.
You did not realize what a catch your guardian is.
[Camille] And if I could make him available to you...
...what would you give me?
What do you want?
[Camille] Enough for a fine house,
your backing in Paris,
and access to all that power you'll have.
Can you make him available?
I have information in my possession
that will destroy the Sevigny name.
Gossip. Not enough.
A letter...
...that incriminates the writer.
[soft conspiratorial music plays]
Show me it.
We will have to trust one another.
♪ ♪
That is a deal...
ifhe becomes mine.
[Camille] I cannot make a match,
but I can destroy the one he has.
The rest is down to you.
That innocent heart of yours
is corrupting, Camille.
I'm glad.
There's no power in innocence.
♪ ♪
I wish to speak to you in private.
[Christine laughs]
You and I have nothing to say to each other
except goodbye.
-The princesse on his right. -Break the engagement.
[laughs] Oh, dear.
Have you--have you lost your mind?
[Camille] Your daughter doesn't love the marquis,
and he does not love her.
Leave us.
[tense music plays]
♪ ♪
Marriage is not about love.
It's an alliance.
One that will ensure my daughter
has everything she deserves.
You've made it your business to humiliate me.
Now I will return the favor.
I knew you wanted him.
Get out of my house.
I want to talk about the queen.
You are not fit to speak her name.
Marietta.
Though that is the name that you save for her alone
when you make love...
...with the secrets you learned from Valmont.
I have the letter you wrote him, Comtesse.
If you want it back...
break the engagement.
Then you will have your letter,
and you can pretend to be a good wife and mother...
while you fuck our queen.
♪ ♪
[knocking on door]
[Pascal] Jacqueline?
[Jacqueline] You are, as I hoped,
a man without vanity.
[Pascal] You will take coffee?
[Jacqueline] I will take wine.
[Pascal] Good.
So will I.
[Jacqueline] Why did you ask me to come?
[Pascal] When I'm with you...
...I feel like I am the man I want to be.
A good man.
But you are a good man.
No one has seen that in me.
Not since my mother.
[Jacqueline] I-I brought you a book.
It's my husband's early work.
Tell me you did not come here to talk about your husband.
He searches for the soul, and his work...
...has made me understand this p--
peculiar feeling that I have.
The fluttering in my chest.
The tightness of the breath.
[soft pensive music plays]
It is my soul.
And if it is the soul, then it is of God.
And it cannot be a sin.
♪ ♪
I want to be known.
Truly known within my very soul, monsieur.
I have been alone for so long.
As have I.
Let us pray.
[Pascal] For what?
[Jacqueline] For the thoughts I have about you
and upon which we can never act, can we?
♪ ♪
Are you lost, madame?
[Ondine] Absolutely.
I've stumbled into the wrong room.
[Victoire] I will let my mistress know you visited
and fell in her trunk.
You need not trouble her with my silly mistake.
I'll see a pretty dress and some trinkets, too,
are sent out to you.
We may make something of you yet.
Camille. How lovely.
[Victoire] I found her searching through your trunk.
It seems we cannot trust one another, after all.
Another lesson in the etiquette of Paris.
[Victoire] You're surprised she wants
the letters for herself?
She took everything from Valmont.
I never thought I'd pity him.
Stop this, Camille. You'll destroy both of us.
[Camille] I am doing this for both of us.
[Christine] Camille, wait.
Camille, I am sorry for our-our playful sparring in the past.
It was childish of me, and I--
You tore me apart.
I do not recall it being playful.
You cannot expect me to go to the marquis.
What possible reason would we have to turn him away?
Saving yourself.
Do you not recall what you wrote about the queen?
[scoffs] I will deny it.
It is in your hand.
If it is a lie, then it is sedition.
If it is true, then you make a cuckold of the king.
Tell Jean you will not let him marry Emilie
because you suspect that he drove his first wife
to take her own life.
[tense music plays]
That is why you are breaking the engagement.
And then tell your guests the same.
♪ ♪
[Henri] You have a glow about you.
It is good to see.
And you're reading my book.
Well, are you enjoying it?
It is as if I'm learning what it is to be human.
Perhaps Versailles,
will be a chance for us to start again.
Versailles?
It is not yet announced, but I am about
to become the most powerful surgeon in France.
Physician to the king.
So we will leave Paris,
and all the nightmares you've had here...
...and start again together.
When will we leave?
When the king commands me.
[Christine] I cannot risk her reputation--
[Jean] It is a vicious lie!
[Christine] There's nothing more to say, Jean.
[Jean] Get out!
I said I want to be alone.
It is not good to be alone when you are suffering.
Humiliated.
I know what the comtesse has done to you.
How could you know that?
[Camille] Perhaps you underestimate
all women, Marquis.
Through the Labyrinth you have spun a web
to draw out the secrets of men,
but men never have as much to lose
-as a woman with a secret. -[chuckles]
They are not burdened by the same shame
that drives a woman to do anything to save herself.
You've been looking in the wrong place for your power.
The lies and the secrets of women.
So let us come to new terms, and I will save you.
The country heir has a balance due.
I don't need saving.
[Camille] Your guests are gathering downstairs.
The comtesse is about to humiliate you further.
She's going to tell them she called off the engagement
because you drove the marquise to her death.
How do I know this?
Because it is by my instruction.
You do not have the power to instruct!
[tense music plays]
I am the most powerful person in this house.
Ha!
I have the comtesse's secrets written in this letter.
Secrets so dangerous she will do whatever I tell her to do
to have it back.
This letter, in your hands, could also save you...
...if I were to give it to you.
♪ ♪
I show you what is possible by a union between us.
Everything.
Emilie is a child.
You should marry your equal.
You should marry me.
♪ ♪
[Maurice] Christine, the princesse is waiting.
[Christine] I know.
[inaudible speaking]
I've never doubted you for one moment, my love.
All that matters is our family.
I heard the comtesse say that Jean de Merteuil
is unfit for marriage.
That he drove Geneviéve to her death.
♪ ♪
-[Danceny] Come with me. -[Emilie] What? What is it?
Leave this to me.
-Come. We're leaving now. -And miss this?
The marquis is going to get what he deserves.
Victoire, let us go.
There is gossip circulating about the marquis.
If it is true, you must put a stop to this marriage
before your own good name is torn into disrepute.
♪ ♪
[glass clinking]
[Maurice] Ladies and gentlemen, our honored guests, please.
I'm so dreadfully sorry,
but we have received information
which means the marriage of our daughter
to the Marquis de Merteuil cannot take place.
[guests gasping]
It would be disrespectful to discuss it further.
[Danceny] Disrespectful?
It is disrespectful to Emilie
that a man who drove his first wife to her death
should dare to take a second as innocent as her.
[guests murmuring]
[Jean] Though I enjoy a good story as much as the next man,
I'm compelled to speak the truth.
A truth which may be at odds with what you've heard.
Forgive me, Madame de la Princesse,
but a letter written by the comtesse
has come into my possession.
Be silent, sir! You are in my house.
I am in your wife's house, sir,
and it appears that you are only a guest here too.
In the faithless poison of her ink,
Musket makes a fool of you and libels
the very heart of this monarchy with her immorality.
That is not true! It is not true!
My wife knows only faith, devotion, and-and motherhood.
[Jean laughs]
This marriage will not take place
because I will not join my house to a corrupted one.
The proof, if it's needed.
[Victoire] What have you done, Camille?
[Camille] I made us safe.
♪ ♪
You fall by your own hand.
♪ ♪
[Emilie sobs]
Not true.
Marquis, let us take some air.
Walk together.
I will save you the trouble of pursuing me, Widow Valmont.
I knew your late husband, and I assure you,
death was a comfort to him.
[spirited string music plays]
♪ ♪
I promised you an equal.
Here I am.
If I am equal to the carnage you have wrought,
the world should be afraid of us both.
♪ ♪
[conspiratorial string music plays]
♪ ♪