Le comte de Monte-Cristo

Denys de la Patelière is not one of those French directors who strike a knowing cord but his body of work reflects a steady hand and a capacity to extract good performances from his actors. Those qualities are certainly present in this miniseries, to my mind the closest to the spirit and the actual story written by Alexandre Dumas.

Jacques Weber, an actor I knew nothing about until I saw this miniseries, posts an exemplary piece of restrained acting very much in keeping with the dictum that revenge is a dish best served cold.

That said, LE COMTE DE MONTE CRISTO is not just a story of revenge. It is, in fact, a story of personal redemption. Edmond Dantés (a man who suffers the closest thing to Dante's Inferno as a result of the cowardice, greed, and callousness of people to whom he had done no harm) could easily have followed the road of pure and simple vengeance, and he would have had good reason to do it - but he is a God-fearing man who knows that it is not in his power to save or punish others.

I read the book a long time ago and found it rather rambling. This filmed version enlightened me and I stand corrected: it is a must-read book just as this is a must-see series.

I caught this mini-series from downloads of episodes on e-Mule, which themselves were recordings of a broadcast on a channel called "Festival".

Weber absorbed himself into the Action Man Dantes, the superbly "Eton-French" Wilmore, the creaky, learned Busoni, but most of all, the pallid and languid Monte Cristo. Although the dialogue is in French with no sub-titles, even the limited French speaker will receive enough from the diction to understand a lot of what goes on (although reading the novel will also help greatly).

Is Roger Dumas, the actor playing Danglars, any relation to the author of the novel?

The six-part mini-series follows the novel painstakingly, and therefore suffers from the problems of some of the coincidental events that make the novel's secondary plot lines a little tenuous - for example: engaging Haydee as his companion before he knew of her connection with Morcerf; his servant Bertuccio happening to be the witness of De Villefort's burial of the "stillborn" Benedetto.

Nevertheless the acting excels: to my mind, the test is how your visualisation of the novel matches what is played out on the screen. To my mind, it did.

In comparison, the Depardieu effort twenty years later is somewhat contrived; attempts to improve the plot lines do not convince, and the ultimate betrayal is in the Hollywood-style cop-out of Dantes carrying off Mercedes at the end.

This is by far far the very best adaptation of The count of Monte Cristo, very true to the book, with superb Edmond Dantes - Jacques Weber, a jewel, unlike the 1998 minis with Gerard Obelix Depardieu(worst adaptatio never). Have seen this mini series in 1985 and trying to get a copy,with zero results (there is a German DVD, with German language only..maybe at the end I'll end up with it). Can't believe such masterpiece lays in dust with no possibility to see it again. Dantes is slim, dark hair as described in the novel, when you see it, all the characters appears the way you imagined them when reading the book..A must see (if you have the chance to..)

This six-part mini-series is absolutely close at Dumas' Book on the storyline. The scenery and costumes are quite perfect, not exaggerated. Jaques Weber did an excellent job as Comte, he gave him the perfect mixture of the coolness of the Comte and the Pain of Dantés, and though he is playing the character a little theatrical sometimes, he gave him the depth he is needing. Above all, the way he changes personality when he plays the Abbé Busoni or Lord Wilmore is really great. He uses just a few little things like changing the way to speak, glasses or wigs, but he seems to be a completely different person. And the other cast is filled with big european names also, they all were great! No comparison with this new version with Gérard Depardieu which was so highly praised and presented such a wrong story with bad actors!

This version of the Count of Monte Cristo will indeed remind of the book. It is both true to the descriptions of all the characters and includes all of the sub plots of the book with the ACTUAL ending of the book and not a made up one for the pleasure of the writers and directors (as has been the case on other versions). Jacques Weber is outstanding as the young Dantes who matures into the dark, cold and mysterious Monte Cristo. It is the ideal version and image of the count and the excellence of his acting in all of the various disguises as well as his overall command of the character , he dominates each scene he is in. Excellent cast overall and excellent production values. See it if you can!!