Kathryn Merteuil
| Kathryn Merteuil | |
|---|---|
| Cruel Intentions character | |
 Kathryn Merteuil as portrayed by Sarah Michelle Gellar in Cruel Intentions | |
| First appearance | Cruel Intentions |
| Last appearance | Cruel Intentions 2 |
| Created by |
Character Pierre Choderlos de Laclos Developed for Film Roger Kumble |
| Portrayed by |
Sarah Michelle Gellar Amy Adams |
| Information | |
| Gender | Female |
| Occupation |
High school student (at Manchester Prep; departed) |
| Family |
Unnamed father (father; status unknown) Tiffany Merteuil (mother) Edward Valmont (stepfather) Sebastian Valmont (maternal stepbrother; deceased) |
| Significant other(s) |
Sebastian Valmont (stepbrother / attraction) Court Reynolds (ex-boyfriend) |
| Relatives |
Cassidy Merteuil (cousin) |
| Religion | Catholic |
| Residence |
Upper East Side Manhattan, New York |
Kathryn Merteuil is a fictional character who appears in Cruel Intentions and Cruel Intentions 2, portrayed by actresses Sarah Michelle Gellar and Amy Adams, respectively.[1] Based on the Marquise Isabelle de Merteuil in Pierre Choderlos de Laclos's Les Liaisons dangereuses, Kathryn serves as the primary antagonist of the series.
Storylines
Cruel Intentions
Kathryn is portrayed as a manipulative mastermind who uses and destroys people for her own amusement. Wealthy, beautiful and popular, Kathryn is part of the Upper East Side's social elite. She hides her true nature behind the facade of a deeply religious model student, fooling everyone she knows, except for her equally narcissistic stepbrother Sebastian Valmont. In the film, she makes a bet with Sebastian that he can't deflower a virtuous young girl named Annette. If she wins, she gets Sebastian's car; if he wins, she will have sex with him. She also manipulates a naive student named Cecile to do her bidding by sleeping with Sebastian and making Annette jealous. Sebastian eventually develops genuine feelings for Annette and tries to back out of the plan. In a jealous rage, Kathryn engineers his death by lying to Ronald in order to get him killed in a car accident. Annette finds Sebastian's journal detailing Kathryn's plan and gives it to the police, who arrest Kathryn.
Kathryn is also depicted as addicted to cocaine, which she hides in her rosary, and was exposed by Sebastian. This was supported with the help of Cecile and Annette making copies of his journal, which made the faculty and students resent her. When pressed for a motive for her scheming, Kathryn says she resents having to behave like "the Marcia fucking Brady of the Upper East Side" and wants somebody else to know what it is like to feel cheap and humiliated.
Occasionally, she shows signs of possessiveness towards Sebastian, and it is suggested that the two of them are in love with each other.[2] They share a complex relationship; as Kathryn puts it, they are "two of a kind".[2]
Cruel Intentions 2
The straight-to-video sequel to the original film, a prequel, centers around a younger Kathryn. As in the first film, she manipulates and controls everyone around her, and is shown molding Sebastian into a heartless womanizer. The film portrays their first meeting, and how they begin plotting to destroy and seduce each other. She is also portrayed seducing her school's headmaster, and then blackmailing him into letting her do whatever she wants,
Cruel Intentions 3
While Kathryn herself does not appear in the third film in the franchise, the main character in this film - Kathryn's equally manipulative cousin Cassidy Merteuil - reveals that she is currently a patient in a methadone clinic.
Characterization
Kathleen Sweeney sees Merteuil as one of "Hollywood's Bad Girls", a stock character that Sweeney regards as appearing first in Veronica Sawyer in the 1988 film Heathers. Sweeney suggests that 1999 "gave viewers two manipulative dark-haired Queen Bees": Kathryn Merteuil in Cruel Intentions and Courtney Alice Shayne in Jawbreaker. Sweeney notes that in both films, "the Queens of Mean are punished by their peers, but not before laying out the game plan for wielding power in high school as visual "how-to" manuals for aspiring Queen Bees everywhere." Merteuil, Sweeney suggests, "maintains a Straight-A Uber Girl persona of innocence until the very end."[3] Samantha Lindop classifies Merteuil as a fille fatale (a young femme fatale) and compares her to Adrian Forrester in The Crush.[4]
Richard Burt suggests that Merteuil is "punished for being beautiful and smart" in that she "can't keep guys from dumping her for stupider girls." Burt goes on to note that Merteuil is a "bitch" who is "incapable of love" and "ultimately humiliated for her destructive nastiness."[5]
Gellar's portrayal of Merteuil was parodied in the 2001 film Not Another Teen Movie, in which Mia Kirshner played Catherine Wyler, "The Cruelest Girl in School".
References
- ↑ http://www.metroactive.com/papers/metro/03.11.99/gifs/cruelintentions-9910.jpg
- 1 2 "Cruel Intentions Script". Retrieved 18 February 2013.
- ↑ Sweeney, Kathleen (2008). Maiden USA: Girl Icons Come of Age. Peter Lang. p. 113. Retrieved 3 March 2015.
- ↑ Lindop, Samantha (2015). Postfeminism and the Fatale Figure in Neo-Noir Cinema. Palgrave Macmillan. p. 102. Retrieved 15 September 2015.
- ↑ Burt, Richard (2002). "Teen Things I Hate about Girlene Shakesploitation Flicks in the Late 1990s or Not-So-Fast Times at Shakespeare High". Spectacular Shakespeare: Critical Theory and Popular Cinema. Fairleigh Dickinson Univ Press. p. 224. Retrieved 3 March 2015.
External links
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