I’ll never forget the time when a dude came up to me while I was having my morning espresso in the gorgeous piazza in Ravello and asked me what I was listening to on my CD player. It was July 2003 and I would only get my first iPod the next summer. When I told him I was listening to the Cruel Intentions soundtrack he looked into my eyes and began to sing: “I am colourrrrrblind”. I quickly chimed in, “coffee black and egg white”. We sang in unison; he smiled. I laughed and thought to myself how strange it was that here, in the tiny little town of Ravello, I would share an unforgettable moment with a complete stranger over THE CRUEL INTENTIONS SOUNDTRACK!

In order to appreciate the currency of my story you must remember this was way before you could even send text messages to the people back home with your larger than life italian cell phone. And internet? Are you serious? One person in the whole town had a dial-up modem. A testament to the movie’s quiet dissemination; we didn’t need Conan’s “YouTwitFace” to be forever changed by a Ryan Phillippe movie.

And wasn’t Sebastian Valmont just so dreamy? He’s quite possibly the only man to ever make a turtleneck look sexy. Boys, don’t try this at home.

What always strikes me most about this film is its adult quality – both in its explicit sexual content as a “teen movie” (I dunno, the A,B,C scene always sticks out in my mind) as well as in the characters’ demeanour and dress. What 16 year old girl wears silk and organza lingerie around the house, drinking champagne in her 19 year old brother’s library/office, complete with glass table, cigar smoke and persian rug?

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