Count of Monte-Cristo (12A) |Close-Up Film Review
178 mins, in French/Romanian/Italian with subtitles
Cast: Pierre Niney, Anaïs Demoustier, Laurent Lafitte, Bastien Bouillon
Review by Carol Allen
French film makers tend to do this sort of complex costume drama par excellence and directors de La Patellière and Delaporte are no exception. It looks great, it’s a very well constructed script clarifying a complex story which moves at a good pace and the acting is terrific. The only problem for an English audience might be sorting out the names of the characters, when other characters are referring to them.
The count of the title is Edmond Dantès (Pierre Niney), a sailor who at the age of 19 is arrested at his own wedding to his sweetheart Mercedes (Anaïs Demoustier ) on a false charge of being a Bonapartiste spy. He is incarcerated in the notorious Château d’If prison, where by fluke he meets a scholarly priest Abbé Faria (Pierfrancesco Favino), who tutors him in the gentlemanly arts and tells him about a hidden treasure on the island of Monte Cristo. Now in his thirties Dantès makes a daring escape from the island prison, finds the treasure and returns to Marseilles in his new role as the Count of Monte Cristo to wreak his revenge on those who have wronged him – the villainous and corrupt prosecutor Villefort (really strong performance from Laurent Lafitte) and Fernand de Morcef (Bastien Bouillon), the friend who betrayed him and who has since married Mercedes.
There are times when we glimpse life outside the world of the wealthy when the story in style reminds you of a Dickens novel, other times of Victor Hugo, as when Angèle (Adèle Simphal), whom Edmond as a young man rescues from drowning, reveals to him on her death bed Lafitte’s villainous secret – shades of Fantine in Les Miserables.
One of the many complications in the story is that in his persona as the Count, Dantès is a master of disguised who wears a mask to conceal his identity. We see it when he prepares to go out and about, but when wearing it, he doesn’t look masked at all in a Phantom of Opera style, more as though he’s wearing one of those facial prosthetics from the Mission Impossible films. Damned clever 19th century mask maker he must have. But his eyes are the same. No surprise then that his lost lover Mercedes recognises him, even though no-one else does. I note in the closing credits there’s one for “Maquillage special”, which must have something to do with it. Dantès also at one point impersonates a fictional English nobleman in one of the story’s many complications. That miracle mask maker again!
The revenge plot in particular is very complex, also involving a long lost baby and a young woman rescued from slavery – stay awake! There’s lots of swashbuckling and derring do in the action, loads of passion but no explicit sex, and a very well staged climactic duel between hero and villain. Overall this is a jolly good gripping tale, very well told and certainly worth your attention.
