Don’t hate me, but for all that I am a raging Francophile, I find 19th-century French literature totally depressing. So I have never read Alexandre Dumas’s classic novel; I watched the 2002 adaptation, but all I remember is extreme boredom. So it may come as a surprise when I say that I watched the recent French feature film adaptation of The Count of Monte-Cristo (2024) and I was entertained! And on a transatlantic flight to boot! (But I can’t tell you thing one about how close it stays to the source material, so buyer beware).
Set in the 1810s and 1830s, the story is about a poor young man (Edmond) who is falsely accused and imprisoned for over a decade. While in prison, he befriends another prisoner who tells him where a hidden treasure is. Edmond escapes, finds the treasure, and then enters Parisian society as the fictional “Count of Monte-Cristo” where he seeks revenge on those who betrayed him, including the woman he was supposed to marry.
Overall, the performances are strong, the pacing is good, and the costumes — designed by Thierry Delettre (Flashback, The Three Musketeers: d’Artagnan) — supported the plot and characters and were mostly true to the period (with some inevitable quibbles).
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Maybe the film was not as “boring” as the book because many aspects were very much simplified. Now Edmond Dantes is a great swimmer and doesn’t need any help to cross the sea. He is the best sailor in the world, which helped him to sail alone (!) a ship with two masts although you would normaly need a crew. ;-) We thought that the movie was entertaining and somehow strange but not as much as their version of The Three Musketiers.
Of course 19th century French literature is depressing – France had a fairly nasty Nineteenth century (Blame the Bonapartes: after all, ‘Perfidious Albion’ comes pre-blamed).
I look forward to finding this. Hope it is better than the horrible Jim Cavizell version that so truncated and altered the story. I actually read both The Count of Monte Cristo and Les Miserable in my younger years (don’t we all have those?) and enjoyed both. I understand for some they are a slog but I found them compelling. So I look forward to better renditions of both. Good watching to all.
I’m hoping that the miniseries with Sam Claflin comes out in the US soon. I thought this version was fine – some choices in the adaptation I liked, some I didn’t. Can’t stand the Gerard Depardieu version, though.
You forgot to add the Patreon tag.
The Count of Monte-Cristo is actually one of my favorite books (eventhough some parts about it have not aged well), so I recommend giving it a try, if you ever feel like it. I don’t find it that depressing and compared to Russian literature, it’s straight-up a light-hearted book. I have little experience with movie adaptations of The Count of Monte-Cristo, but I think that the easiest way to make the story boring is to neglect the intricate web that the different characters with their individual personalities and goals form. I’d even argue that Count of Monte-Cristo is not the most interesting part of The Count of Monte-Cristo, if that makes sense.