Der Graf von Monte Christo

One could say I am an old coot, geezer, at the age of 71. This wonderful series, starring the great Gerard Depardieu, pulled me back to my childhood at about eight years old. The two librarians in my little home town in Louisiana always pushed me to read books that were at least two grades ahead. At the end of the school year we were given the usual Summer Reading List. Presenting mine to the local librarians, they suggested a novel by Alexander Dumas, The Count of Monte Cristo. I had never actually read a "novel" of that size. I was a bit over- come, but began to read this book right then and there, sitting in a bay window overlooking the little river that flowed past the library's huge windows. That experience changed my life from a casual reader to a dedicated and life-long lover of books. I learned that Dumas was French and had written many other books. I read them all that summer. Then on to Victor Hugo, Balzac, George Sand, and others, all recommended by those lovely ladies in the local library. I have seen almost every film adaptation of The Count, going back to the 1934 version with Robert Donat to the last one with Guy Pierce. THIS one, with Depardieu,is my favorite. Although many liberties are taken, as usual with movie producers and directors, it still is an exciting and involving tale. Dumas' story is so sturdy that any injury visited upon it would be only superficial. I found myself an eight year old all over again. Unlike some adaptations of Dumas' novels, this one had very little swash and even less buckle, being more character driven and fueled by last minute escapes and near fatal outcomes. The ending, as several other comments express, is a bit too up-beat, but so what? Life is full of wonderful and unexpected joys. Watching this made-for-television series was one of them. AND I found it on DVD so I can watch it over and over.

Le Comte de Monte Cristo is well done. Actors are made for their roles. Gerard Depardieu is fabulous in the role of count and Sergio Rubini makes the servant Bertuccio alive. In the novel Bertuccio was in a much smaller role. In the TV-version other characters have got bigger roles. It's a good thing that not only the count of Monte-Cristo is showing. I really recommend this beautifully done TV-film for everyone. After seeing this I started to appreciate the French in the film world in a very different way.

One of the most powerful films of any venue ever made. This beautiful production in French with English subtitles faithfully follows the original Alexander Dumas novel with Gerard Depardieu absolutely sensational as the vengeful Count of Monte Cristo. All of the main and secondary roles are played to perfection. In addition, the beautiful photography and the exceptional acting is more than enhanced by the haunting, melodic musical scoring. This version is the best of any of the other more than 30 filmed adaptations of the famous Dumas novel. Furthermore, it is far better than the admittedly entertaining current 2002 production starring James Caviezel, which takes so many liberties with the story as to deserve to be titled, "inspired by" rather than "adapted from." This movie is truly riveting. Once you get into it, you will not be able to turn the television off. **** - Four

I like Gerard Depardieu, and I liked much of this movie. I am huge of the book, which provides amazing insight in human suffering, redemption, and revenge. The butchery of the script was benign relative to the recent Hollywood remake (a complete disaster - "It was a nice film about something, but it was not the Count of Monte Cristo."), but apparently the writer(s) could not resist temptation to alter the ending - which was particularly galling given the mostly faithful recreation of the book up to the point of the conclusion. I personally was bitter - you can't take a story of revenge and remake it into Harlequin romance novel. If you know the story, you know what they should have done, and you know what they probably did. Given the time investment in this movie to watch the whole thing, I literally could not believe it as it became apparent that the sell-out was going to happen. They were so close, and that just made the experience that much more sour.

Eight hours allows for a greater presentation of the many subplots and complexities of the storyline. Depardieu (once you get past his size) is excellent as the Count, a man who, as the reviewer from Amazon says, exchanges one prison for another, a prison of his own hatred. The cast is general is very good and convincing, with Ornella Muti certainly the definitive Mercedes. Set design and production values are excellent.

I have only two criticisms. The first and more minor one is that even this long adaptation doesn't have everything. They couldn't, of course, portray everything -- the book itself is well over 1,000 pages and in truth has padded sections -- but some worthwhile aspects of the story were cut, most notably early sequences with the Abbe Faria (who teaches Dante how to read and write) a very famous part that's usually included in dramatizations of the story. The ending, too, is happier than Dumas's. (I should add that some sequences were very sensibly cut).

A more serious criticism is that Dantes's character is too soft. Depardieu is a fine actor but his portrayal allows Dantes to come off far more sympathetic than I think Dumas intended. The coldness and bloodthirstiness of the Count is not emphasized as much as it might (one sequence at an execution has a very different spin from the way it's presented in the book, for example), nor is the extent of his hatred. This is a real flaw, partly because it makes light of the theme of the story, the effect of revenge on the revenger, and partly because the climax is not as effective if we're already on Dantes side. The flaw here is not with Depardieu, who does his job admirably, but rather with the screenwriter and director.

As such, I can't call this the definitive version -- a little more courage on the screenwriter and director's part would've done wonders. Still, it's probably the best we're going to get. It's hard to imagine anybody else lavishing this kind of care and attention on the story.