What if Anette was the one who had cruel intentions!

thats actually a cool theory! I'm diggin it!

I think Annette's article might be genuine, but I think it is a very intriguing thing to think of that maybe Katherine and Sebastian were set up themselves, or at least Annette caught wind of it early on and flip the tables.

Annette was very well informed of Sebastion before going to New York. Who's to say she wasn't informed of Katherine?

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Frankly, I think you're giving Annette too much credit. Besides, as Sebastian's girlfriend she could just ask to borrow the Jag whenever she wanted. Screw Kathryn.

Speaking of whom: in the 18th-century novel, the Marquise is afflicted with smallpox, which was almost a death sentence back then (vaccinations only having recently become available) and definitely a degradation in the days before plastic surgery. Perhaps it would have been more apropos - and more realistic in the context of the social behavior of quite a few American teenagers in the 1990s - if Cecile's mind had completely snapped due to her rape and she brought a gun to school and shot Kathryn in the face (although, come to think of it, she probably would have shot Sebastian instead, had he lived). Somehow, after all those dirty doings, seeing Kathryn in a hospital bed with her formerly beautiful face plastered up and living in terror that Cecile might somehow return to finish her off would have made for a more palatable closer.

If you read the original book that is the "cruel" twist. That she was more manipulative than both Sebastian and Kathryn but was less obvious in her manipulation. She flaunts her body to get him interested, says no, no no and keeps him at arms lengths. Just imagine a very bored, wealthy guy with all the time and money in the world who spends it trying to seduce women and ruin their reputations. A much bigger deal during the French Revolution. That's how he gets his jollies. He's looking for a challenge, a conquest. The books is about letters, letters between young people, friends, potential lovers, fremenies and revenge. About two friends, rivals (and ex-lovers) who use seduction as a weapon to humiliate and degrade others. It's where the phrase "Revenge is a dish that's best served cold." Before Sebastian dies, he gives Danceny (Ronald) the letters (his diary) proving Merteuil's own involvement. These letters are sufficient to ruin her reputation so she flees to the countryside, where she contracts smallpox. Her face is left permanently scarred and she is rendered blind in one eye, so she loses her greatest asset: her beauty.

I doubt it. At the end she is no longer the virginal goody-two-shoes she was at the start, and she has learned some coldness in her behaviour, like setting Katherine up the way Katherine has done to others, but there is no support for the idea Annette had this all planned from the beginning.

"Chicken soup - with a *beep* straw."

That actually would make complete sense...First, she arrives at the Valmont home with no valid explanation...She drives off, showing no grief or remorse after her boyfriend's death...Annette could be the real b*tch who would take down Katheryn.

I read this somewhere .....in the original ending Annette is driving away in the car, smiling. Test audiences suspected the same thing as the OP (that Annette had played everyone). However, this wasn't the filmmakers' intentions, so to speak. They then integrated the clips of Annette and Seb's romance into the driving scene to remind the audience that their love was real.

I had exactly the same thought while watching the end. It also contributes to the movie's theme of circles and karma.

However, I have no doubt that they both fell in love with each other. Both of them had cruel intentions but both of them at the end fell in love and cared. This is why I can't phathom the idea that she published this. Why did she do that ? She exposed both of them, not only Kathyrn.