The Count of Monte Cristo discussion

Why can't anyone make a good movie version of this book? There have been over a dozen attempts, and none that I have found has even come close: they all only present the imprisonment and the revenge. I think the wonderful things he does with his money are just as important, and just as exciting - the whole sub-plot with Valentine and Maximilien, for instance.

Has anyone out there seen a good one that I haven't found yet?

i agree! this is in my top ten favorite books of all time.

although i like the most recent movie version of count of monte cristo, i liked the movie for what it was NOT for it's take on the book.

i thinks there is so much more to this book then the revenge. i have a thread about how i believe it more that the count was not using revenge to get back at the ones who had wronged him but that he went out and found the karmic revenge. i love this book and would so much love to see someone take on the book for it's full substance. to see when he was dantes and in love and young and full of hope to the darkness he survived in prison to his reign as the count to his softening and falling in love again.

Folks, check out the Dumas Pere group for an ongoing discussion of this and similar, including our wish list of who would star in it.

Making a movie on this epic story would not be easy or cheap. Those who would fund a project like this (studios) will not allow a movie without the common-denominators to capture weekend movie-goers as well as the book fans.
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We will never see a good movie for this until the people's attention span increases (in other words, we will never see a good movie for this).

As Barbarossa said, we have a great thread about this topic in the Dumas Pere group. We have set about casting the ultimate movie version. I'm rooting for Robert Downey Jr as the Count.

As for the problems with filming it comes down to the difficulty of what to cut from a novel in which everything is so entwained to the plot. Unlike Les Mes there are not many sidepaths that can be ignored. Still, I don't see why there can't be one film version in which the Count could end up with Haydee and not Mercedes.

The only way I think you can do The Count is the same way The Three Musketeers (Richard Lester) was done in two movies. The major problem with a lot of film versions is they try to do too short a movie. Depardieu version was awful not only for the miscasting - great actor but the wrong look but, also for constantly adding to the plot so they had no time to actually do the plot of the book.

An HBO/BBC series is the only answer. Look at Rome, Deadwood, The Sopranos. Sprawling plots and epic casts...and award winning.
(Any TV producers reading this: you have your focus group here ready and waiting.)

If only it was that simple. A series would give you enough time. Though I think a fair three - four hour version could be made. A fair amount of the Count is retold again in flashback so you could save time by starting in prison and tell the backdrop in flashback. Like the crazy cartoon version did that I mentioned in Dumas Pere Group.

A series is the only answer. There is an anime series that goes a lot more into the subplots, and it develops the characters more than any movie I have seen. I just finished watching the anime series, and I am in the middle of reading the book, so I can't really make a fair comparison just yet, but I did enjoy the series.

Aye, but they seem to be mad for Jane Austen and Dickens at the minute.
What was War And Peace like? Love the book. Can't see Tony Hopkins as Pierre though, Brian Blessed maybe...

i agree with HBO taking the project on. that would be a great mini series like john adams and band of brothers. that would be the only way that i feel they meaning "hollywood" could truelly capture the literary and story telling aspect of the book.

Antoine - Thanks for the recommendations. I looked up the versions you mentioned on imdb.com, but unfortunately I can't find copies at my local library, at any of our (woefully understocked with anything made before 2000) video stores around, or even on amazon.com (in English). Where did you see them? Maybe I'll just have to learn French... :)

And I agree that a well-done miniseries would be fantastic!

One classic is the French version, staring Jean Marais from the 1954. So hard to get a hold of in the U.S., but very well done.

I've never seen that has done a good version of the Count of Monte Cristo, but really good. Although I have only seen the version of Robert Donat and Jim Caviezel. The latter I liked, but in itself, it's difficult to place in a two-hour film all the details that appear on the novel by Dumas and talked about 1300 pages (depending on the edition that is published, which I have I have such number of pages). And what bothers me the adapted versions, they are always placed Edmond stays with Mercedes and Albert is his son, when it's not. Albert is not his son and he doesn't stay together with Mercedes. And I never see Haydeé, the Greek princess slave, who really keeps love Edmond. Is so unfair, because she's one of my favorite characters.

Miranda wrote: "A series is the only answer. There is an anime series that goes a lot more into the subplots, and it develops the characters more than any movie I have seen. I just finished watching the anime se..."

That series, Gankutsuou,is quite possibly the most faithful adaptation of the story I have seen-- and this with Monte Cristo being a blue space vampire.

He's a Wraith in one version?

Well don't forget that the Count is constantly referred to even in the novel as "Lord Ruthven," IE The Vampyre: A Tale

so it's not that big of a stretch

In my opinion the 1975 film was the best representation of the story. Although there were some glaring omissions, which of course is inevitable in a two-hour film, it at least sort of captures the fact that the Count is not, in fact, a man who is well, shows how his obsession with revenge is just that, an obsession, and even has Mercedes leave him in the end. I wanted to throw something at the screen in the 2002 version when she confessed the thing.

Most film versions don't even try to imply there could be some moral ambiguity behind his actions, or that he was truly and incontrovertibly changed by his experiences. They basically endorse "eye-for-an-eye" as an admirable mindset, which, when compared to the original story, seems a bit unhealthy.

I have just finished the amazing Count of Monte Cristo on DVD. What a great writer and a great book, but I absolutely have not found a great movie. Too bad. I agree with the other emailers. Love the book, hate the movies. And there are over 20 movies based on this book. Unfortunately the screenwriters and directors feel they can do a better job on a classic that stands alone.

A 1934 version is being shown on TCM saturday Oct. 24 at 8am. I recommend reading the book first but you will have to read fast.

The Prisoner of Château d'If (Узник замка Иф / Uznik zamka If) is my favorite adaptation. She gives a lot of prominence to the count and his relationship with haydee, both are together in the end.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nxEg_...

Life imitating art

The director of the film became a lover of actress Nadira Mirzayeva who played haydee, the new love of count. The age difference between them was over 30 years and the two were married and had a daughter.The wife helps her husband to overcome depression and addiction to drinking.

Angela wrote: "Why can't anyone make a good movie version of this book? There have been over a dozen attempts, and none that I have found has even come close: they all only present the imprisonment and the reveng..."

It's funny how 17 years have passed, several other adaptations have been made and not yet ONE is correct, why do they delete IMPORTANT PARTS to ADD random things that don't exist??