The Count of Monte Cristo

The Count of Monte-Cristo (2024) goes back to Dumas. Edmond Dantès is denounced by his friends, locked in the Château d'If, escapes fourteen years later, finds a fortune and re enters the lives of the men who put him there under a new name. The novel is about how revenge spreads across time, and the film tries to shorten that without flattening it. Matthieu Delaporte and Alexandre de La Patellière directed. Pierre Niney plays Edmond. It cost 42.9 million euros, the most expensive French production of 2024. It sold over nine million tickets in France, finished as the second highest grossing French film of the year, and took 100 million dollars worldwide. It received fourteen nominations at the 50th César Awards. The argument about any adaptation always starts in the same place: the novel is enormous and full of subplots. Screen International summed this version up well, saying it is true to the spirit of the source if not entirely to the original story. It runs 178 minutes. Good for: adaptations of classic novels, revenge narratives, and costume drama. Less good for: it is close to three hours and the second half runs several intrigues at once. Characters from the book are merged, which readers will feel, and the prison section moves too fast.