When you run out of ideas, you just turn to Alexandre Dumas (the older one). That seems to be the motto in current French blockbuster cinema and there is actually little objection to it. Dumas’ stories of revenge, adventure and conspiracies are ideal for the cinema. The Three Musketeers were recently re-released in a lavish two-parter. Now comes The Count of Monte Cristo, complete with cloak and sword action, scarred faces and a few new features.
The adventure film tells of a decades-long plan for revenge
Alexandre de La Patellière and Matthieu Delaporte are directing. The two of them already have experience with Dumas when they wrote the screenplay for the most recent Musketeer films. However, they are probably better known as the creators of the play Le Prénom aka The First Name. The German film adaptation of this play is getting its second (!) sequel this year with The Nickname. This has no bearing on the review of their new, serious adventure film, but I just can’t keep such information to myself.
Check out the trailer for the new Monte Cristo movie:
The Count of Monte Cristo – Trailer (English Subs) HD
We have to do without an Adolf in this version of the Count of Monte Cristo, as not much has been modernized. The focus is on the young sailor Edmond Dantès (Pierre Niney), who falls victim to a conspiracy after the end of the Napoleonic era.
His friend Morcef (Bastien Bouillon) envies his relationship with Mercédès (Anaïs Demoustier). The demoted captain Danglars (Patrick Mille) blames Dantès for his professional decline and the prosecutor Villefort (Laurent Lafitte) is simply corrupt. Together they have Dantès imprisoned.
However, they do not reckon with the sloppy bricklaying work on the prison island of Château d’If, nor with the also imprisoned Abbé Faria (the great Pierfrancesco Favino in a supporting role). The abbe teaches the young cellmate everything he knows, including the hiding place of a Templar treasure. As it is written in Dumas, Edmond Dantès can escape. Instead of retiring on a South Sea island, Dantès uses his wealth for revenge. He wants to drive the trio to ruin with sophisticated plans.
A few changes, but old-fashioned entertainment in the new Monte Christo
We should not expect revolutionary changes to the Dumas material or its implementation, the directing duo concentrates too much on the lowest common denominator of the contemporary adventure film: lush Mediterranean landscapes, star faces and slight corrections, especially to the female characters of the 19th century novel.
Pathé
The conspirators in The Count of Monte Cristo
Although Dantès appears decades later as the Count of Monte Cristo in an outfit suitable for an audition for Matrix 5, he remains a classic Dumas hero. Deep down there is a good soul whose youth and freedom have been taken away until all that can be seen from the outside is calculating hatred. Pierre Niney (Frantz) often disappears under masks, but he doesn’t let us Conflict between his old and new identity forgotten. Is revenge really what he should do with his regained life? As soon as Mercédès, played heartbreakingly by Anaïs Demoustier, takes a look at the Count, he turns into a tragic figure.
The former slave Haydée (Anamaria Vartolomei) has been modernized, as she falls for the count in the book, but gets her own little arc in the film. Overall, there is a greater focus on the Fate of the next generation which is infected by Monte Cristo’s revenge plan, as if the mysterious Count were Patient Zero in the post-Napoleonic calm. The three conspirators suffer from this because, in contrast to the book, they hardly grow beyond their status as villains.
In contrast, The Count of Monte Cristo shines with an engaging Heist movie energywhen we get to watch the sinister count as he plans and stages his revenge. Sometimes this takes the form of a haunted house film, sometimes as a courtroom thriller. Despite all the tragedy, the count and thus also his latest film have plenty of entertainment potential.
The new film adaptation of The Count of Monte Cristo does not yet have a German release date. It is showing out of competition at the Cannes Film Festival.