After many adaptations, the famous novel by Alexandre Dumas is once again on the big screen. Pierre Niney takes on the role of Edmond Dantès formerly played by Jean Marais, Gérard Depardieu, Jacques Weber and Louis Jourdan with panache. A success, classic and without downtime.
We take the same and start again. Last year, producer Dimitri Rassam, helped by Matthieu Delaporte and Alexandre de La Patellière on the screenplay, transposed “The Three Musketeers” onto the big screen for the umpteenth time. Luxury casting. Massive budget. Magnitude of form and story. Success in theaters. Enough to approach with a certain confidence this other adaptation of Alexandre Dumas, this time produced by the aforementioned duo of screenwriters.
With a budget of more than 40 million euros, this “Count of Monte Cristo” immediately pulls out all the stops in terms of spectacle and recounts, over nearly three hours without downtime, the revenge of Edmond Dantès, spread out between 1815 and 1838.
We recall the basics of the famous novel. Arrested on his wedding day and wrongly accused of being a Bonapartist, Edmond Dantès spent fourteen years in a jail at the Château d’If. He manages to escape, finds a hidden treasure and, extremely wealthy, returns under the identity of the Count of Monte Cristo, fomenting a Machiavellian revenge targeting the three men who betrayed him.
>> See the Vertigo cinema debate with excerpts from the film:
A beautiful popular work
Carried by a perfectly chosen ensemble of actors and actresses, including Laurent Lafitte, Anaïs Demoustier and Pierre Niney, brilliant in the role of this complex, cruel, even monstrous hero in some respects, “The Count of Monte Cristo” finds an ideal balance between adventure film, paranoid thriller, love story and tragedy.
This protean aspect ideally resonates with a story where the characters appear more or less double, hiding secrets that are not always admittable. And too bad if the barely disguised face of Edmond Dantès struggles to convince us that none of his former comrades recognize him. After all, Clark Kent only wore a pair of glasses to distinguish him (seriously?) from Superman. Anyway next!
Highlighting how love is crushed by corruption, jealousy, the lure of gain and the thirst for power, the adaptation remains certainly very classic and a little too applied. Old-fashioned cinema brought up to date for an audience of teenagers and young adults. However, it is difficult to turn up your nose at this beautiful popular work that never forgets to respect its viewers.
Rafael Wolf/ld
“The Count of Monte Cristo” by Matthieu Delaporte and Alexandre de La Patellière, with Pierre Niney, Laurent Lafitte, Anaïs Demoustier, Bastien Bouillon. To be seen in French-speaking cinemas since June 28, 2024.
