‘Being Maria’ Director Jessica Palud on Giving ‘Dangerous Liaisons’ a Youthful, Feminist Twist With ‘The Seduction;’ HBO Max Unveils New Stills (EXCLUSIVE)

After “Being Maria,” a film about the trailblazing artist Maria Schneider on the shoot of Bernardo Bertolucci’s “Last Tango in Paris,” French director Jessica Palud reunited with “Mickey 17” star Anamaria Vartolomei on “The Seduction” where the actor plays another strong-willed woman, the Marquise de Merteuil.

Also starring Diane Kruger (“Inglourious Basterds”), Vincent Lacoste (“A Private Life”) and Lucas Bravo (the hot chef of “Emily in Paris”), the anticipated HBO Original series is freely adapted from adapted from Pierre Choderlos de Laclos’s cult novel “Les Liaisons Dangereuses.” “The Seduction” is being teased at La Rochelle Festival in France ahead of its launch on the streamer starting Nov. 14. As with its other shows like “White Lotus” and “And Just Like That,” HBO Max will released one episode per week.

Shot on location in and around Paris, “The Seduction” was created and co-written by Jean-Baptiste Delafon, whose screenwriting credits include Xavier Giannoli’s Venice premiering “Of Money and Blood.” Palud, who directed the whole series and co-wrote episodes, also got involved in every aspect of the conception of the series, from the all-star cast, to the costume, music and set design.

In an interview with Variety, Palud discussed how she gave the cult novel a youthful and feminist spin to the iconic novel and expanded the storyline greatly to portray what could be described as the “origin story” of Merteuil, before she became a Marquise and Valmont’s partner in crime and ultimately, his adversary.

Palud said that while she was inspired by Stephen Frears’ 1988 film “Dangerous Liaisons” starring Glenn Close and John Malkovich, she took a departure from it to highlight the status of women in 18th-century Paris and fleshed out the character of Merteuil whose fierce determination and intelligence allowed her to access to the high society and taste sexual freedom. Palud also added another feminine dimension that isn’t in novel through the relationship between Merteuil and her mentor, Madame de Rosemonde, who is Valmont’s aunt and is played by Diane Kruger.

The cast, which is decades younger than in the novel, brings together established and rising actors, including Noée Abita, Julien de Saint-Jean, Fantine Harduin, Samuel Kircher and Sandrine Blancke.

The six-episode series was produced by Clément Birnbaum and Joachim Nahum at NABI Productions (UGC Group) and Marie Guillaumond at Felicita Films (TF1 Studios Group).  

Were you a big fan of “Dangerous Liaisons” and how did you approach the adaptation knowing that it’s far from being the first!

Yes, I read it when I was 17 and I’m a big fan of Stephen Frears’ 1988 film. There have been many adaptations, but it’s Frears’ version that really struck me. I think what stands out in the series is that it’s the sequel to Dangerous Liaisons. And ultimately, that’s what we never saw of Merteuil. That is to say, how she got there and how she became the Merteuil we know, the Merteuil of Stephen Frears and the Merteuil of the novel. She is an extremely intelligent woman who is effectively duped by Valmont, this libertine who is brilliant and manipulates women. Through her intelligence, she will surpass him and through a certain form of feminism, ahead of her time, telling herself that she will not let herself be taken in by men. Ultimately I wanted to have total freedom with the story, and that’s why we called a free adaptation.

There’s a real common thread between this series and “Being Maria,” in that it’s about female characters who are very modern and ahead of her time.

Yes, this is what I found fascinating with Merteuil’s story. In the book, we understand she experienced some trauma because she was taken advantage of by Valmont. In “The Seduction,” we made her much more feminist. You could say that the story of Merteuil is really the #MeToo of the 18th century. The relationship between Madame de Rosemonde (Valmont’s aunt, played by Diane Kruger) and Merteuil is also something we came up with. We created a relationship between two women, one who is evolving in this world and ultimately wanted to speak out, but at the same time who is part of the old world, who thinks it’s not possible to go too far and that we can’t surpass men, and who is still trapped in this patriarchal world. And Merteuil is the one who basically says screw everyone. Who says: I’m going to go beyond all that and I’m going to see it through to the end. And even if it means burning my wings, even if it means going too far, I’ll manage to show you that I’ll win.

How did you manage to get Anamaria back for this role after “Being Maria”?

When I met with the producers, I was editing “Maria” and I just told them that I had made a film with Anamaria who is the best. As much as I saw 80 people for the casting of “Being Maria,” and saw Anamaria three times for callbacks because she really wasn’t Maria Schneider and we had to build her character from scratch. But for Merteuil, I knew instantly that she would be perfect Anamaria is already a brilliant person and someone who has an extremely offbeat sense of humour, who is very quick-witted and can sometimes be cynical. She’s also a complex character and I think she could understand Merteuil. She has the brain for it and depth for it.

What about Diane Kruger, who plays Madame de Rosemonde?

In Frears’ movie, that character is an 80-year-old lady with grey hair who is in the background. So we went in a very different direction. We wanted to have a woman who was bit of an outsider in this group of young people but was still beautiful and looked young. We put some names on the table and Diane Kruger came up. What I liked about Diane is that she had an aura that was very restrained, even cold at times. She played a complex character who is withdrawn with coldness and at the same time has great emotion; there is a great fragility within her. And I think she and Anamaria have great chemistry. I think Diane could recognize herself in Anamaria. We sent Diane a first draft of the pilot. I sent her my first film, and then we zoomed in and she said yes. After that, we got the green light from HBO Max in the U.S.

What about Vincent Lacoste who plays Valmont? Big departure from John Malkovitch.

I love Malkovich so much that I said to myself: No one can play Malkovich. We shouldn’t go down that road. We shouldn’t try to do that. I also didn’t want the Valmont that everyone was expecting. I wanted Valmont to have great humour, to have panache and be capable of being as dark as he is funny. So I propose a Valmont of modernity. He’s the guy who keeps his cool. And Vincent Lacoste was just ideal is that role.

We’ve also never seen Lucas Bravo in such a dark role as Gercourt, Merteuil’s former lover and a libertine.

I had never seen “Emily in Paris,” so I didn’t know anything about Lucas Bravo. I didn’t know him. I saw him at the casting and I found him. I thought this guy had a fabulous evil look. He’s like Captain Hook! It’s a really dark role. He’s a character who has a lot of violence in him.

The series looks quite modern, even if it’s clearly period. How did you achieve that?

I wanted to try to do something that we hadn’t seen visually, whether it be period films. I had a film in mind, “Barry Lindon,” but you can’t do that in a series because in a series, you have to have laughter, you have to have music, and lots of modern elements. The pop aspect of Marie-Antoinette had already been done, and that’s not what I wanted to do at all. We worked a lot with Pascaline Chauvelle, the costume designer, Florian Sanson, the production designer, and other key crew members to create a unique visual identity. We worked with lots of paintings and also photos. I wanted something elegant. It’s a very dialogue-heavy series, so there was no point in having everyone jumping around all over the place. So we played a lot on the looks and tried to work on a cinematic elegance while keeping something that could still look colorful and attractive.

How did you find this first experience directing a series?

I loved it because the project was offered to me in the end, it’s completely my baby. I was there from the very beginning so I chose all the actors, all the costumes. In the end, it’s as if I had made a film.