Talk about a dangerous liaison.

Lea de Lonval (Michelle Pfeiffer) is the most beautiful and celebrated courtesan of her time, and Fred Peloux (Rupert Friend), or Cheri as he is known, is the 19-year-old son of a one-time rival. It isn't the lust that threatens to do them in, but the unexpected love.

"Cheri," based on a pair of novels by French writer Colette who also penned "Gigi," charts a romp and romance that might be scandalous in any age, even the Belle Epoque in the years before World War I.

The love affair starts with a kiss -- "I'm not sure that was very intelligent, let's say no more about this, shall we?" Lea suggests -- and an innocent yet flirtatious invitation to repair to Normandy where there is nothing to do but eat, drink and sleep.

Cheri, unknown to his father, neglected by his mother and drifting into debauchery, joins her and, improbably, they stay together for six years until the subject of marriage comes up -- his to an 18-year-old girl (Felicity Jones) arranged by his scheming, gossip-loving mother (Kathy Bates).

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'Cheri'

3 stars = Good
Ratings explained

• Starring: Michelle Pfeiffer, Rupert Friend.
• Rating: R for some sexual content and brief drug use.
• Web site: www.cheri-movie.com/

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Lea tries to put on a brave face. "You're not the first young man I've said goodbye to. ... You can't expect me to curl up and die." But a little bit of her does, just as he attempts to bring to his marriage the wisdom and ways of Lea, who continues to haunt him.

"Cheri" reunites Pfeiffer with "Dangerous Liaisons" director Stephen Frears and writer Christopher Hampton, and they paint a portrait of a liberated and financially secure but isolated segment of women. The courtesans were forced to befriend each other because no one else would have them.

Losing their faces and figures was perilous to their profession. This was, after all, a time before Botox, liposuction and collagen injections, and Lea and Cheri make a handsome couple in a Demi-Ashton sort of way, but another older, coarser woman and her very young man appear freakish or downright disgusting.

In an introduction to a new paperback of "Cheri" and "The Last of Cheri," Colette biographer Judith Thurman writes that the characters were introduced in eight short stories about the Belle Epoque demimonde that Colette wrote before World War I. Colette later revisited the couple on the page before she began her own incestuous romance with her teenage stepson.

"Cheri" languishes in beauty, pleasure, appearances, a world yet unspoiled by war. It's the sort of movie that is elevated by the Alexandre Desplat score, the costumes and exquisite Impressionistic images, as when Lea walks alone on a beach or commands all eyes after strolling into a hotel lobby in an icy blue gown, black lacy gloves and oversize matching hat.

Pfeiffer, 51 in April, manages to acknowledge and defy age here in one of her best and most flattering roles in years. She holds the power and the cards, taking charge of travel arrangements at one point in a traditionally masculine way.

Friend, who was Mr. Wickham in 2005's "Pride & Prejudice," looks a bit like a delicate and dissolute Johnny Depp as the playboy schooled by an older lover and being married off against his wishes. He's the girl in this relationship, down to his attraction to pearls.

The polite, politic tone of the times means the movie cannot unleash the rivers of repressed emotions that flow beneath the surface or stage fiery confrontations. It leaves tragic turns at the end to the narrator to reveal in a way that is jarring and cruel and yet straight from Colette's piquant pen.