I watched the 2024 movie, Le Comte de Monte-Cristo, in French, with English subtitles on the indie channel. I enjoyed the drama and action. I have the novel, but I haven’t read it yet. I need to read the novel, although I am sure it will likely be dark. This movie also appears to be political about that era. Directed and written by Mattieu Delaporte and Alexandre de La Patelliere as well as produced by Dimitri Rassam, Le Comte de Monte-Cristo movie was based on the novel, The Count of Monte Cristo, by Alexandre Dumas. This movie starred Pierre Niney, Bastien Bouillon, Anais Demoustier, Anamarie Vartolomei, and Laurent Lafitte, as well as Pierfrancesco Favino, Patrick Mille, Vassile Schneider, Julien de Saint Jean, Julie de Bona, Adele Simphal, Marie Narbonne, and Bernard Blancan. Filmed in France, the film has a combination of French, Italian and English languages.
This movie takes place in 1815, and it starts out with a storm at sea, where a sailor, Edmond Dantes, ends up rescuing a drowning woman, Angele de Villefort. She has a letter from Napoleon that Captain Danglars eventually takes from her. Morrel promotes Edmont Dantes into Danglars’ position while firing Danglars for not doing his job properly. Edmond had run into Angele in the streets, they introduced themselves, and she had thanked him for saving her life from drowning.
Edmond Dante tells his fiancée, Mercedes Herrera, about his job promotion as they prepare for their wedding. But Mercedes’ cousin, Fernand de Morcerf, has a crush on his cousin, even though Fernand is Edmond’s best friend as well as his best man at his wedding. Edmond and Mercedes’ wedding is crashed by authorities, arresting Edmond for being a part of the Bonapartist. Edmond pleads for his innocence, but Marseille’s deputy prosecutor, Gerard de Villefort, continues to detain Edmond in the dungeon-like prison because Edmond mentioned he knows Angele’s identity. Villefort continues interrogating Danglars and Fernand. All three men conspire to keep Edmond imprisoned. Angele, Villefort’s sister, goes to her brother, demanding him to release Edmond, by threatening her brother that she will expose his affair with Danglars’s wife. Gerard de Villefort decides to silence her, and Danglars sells Angele to a pimp for prostitution.
While imprisoned in the dungeon-like prison, Chateau d’If, he befriends an older inmate, Abbe Faria, who teaches Edmond to transform into an educated and cultured man by teaching him many languages, as well as culture and science, during their eight years of imprisonment together. They also planned their escape together, telling Edmond about a hidden treasure that they plan to share 50-50 with Edmond. When working on their escape plan, a tunnel collapses on Abbe, and he dies. Edmond thinks fast, and he decides to switch bodies with Abbe, who was placed inside a bag before the guard dumps his corpse into the ocean. When the guards dump the body bag into the sea, Edmond struggles out of it and swims toward Marseilles.
He learns that his father had become depressed about his imprisonment and eventually died, and his fiancée Mercedes is now married to Fernand de Morcerf, and she has her own family in Paris. Edmond goes to Monte Cristo to get the hidden treasure. After one year, he has changed his identity into the Count of Monte Cristo, seeking revenge on the three corrupt men who conspired against him and placed him inside the dungeon. He finds Angele, learns about her tortured life as a prostitute, and now she is dying. She wanted to expose her brother’s crimes, including his attempt to bury his illegitimate son, Andre, alive. But she rescued the baby before it died and placed him in an orphanage. Edmond promises her that he will take care of Andre.
Now a count, Edmond goes to the orphanage and adopts Andre and gives him a new identity, Prince Andrea Cavalcanti, to recruit him as a part of his group who will help him get revenge. He puts together various plans to thwart his enemies. One plan involves pretending to rescue Fernand’s son, Albert, so that Albert will respect and trust him as his guardian. He makes Albert his spy to gain information involving Danglars and Villefort. He also runs into his fiancée, Mercedes, who still recognizes him, but she tells him that she had waited for him for too long, thinking that he must have died, and she moved on with her life. Edmond tells Andrea to flirt with Eugenie Danglars. But when Andrea and Eugenie fall in love, Andrea tells her that he cannot marry her because they have the same mother. Edmont tells Haydee, a young woman who lives with him for protection, to flirt with Albert.
His plans work, as Danglars’s business goes downhill, until Danglars sues the newspaper for defamation. In the trial, Andrea suddenly reveals that he is Villefort’s illegitimate son to expose Villefort’s past crimes. Andre now wants revenge against his real father because he tried to kill him as a baby, and he assassinates Gerard de Villefort. But Andre is killed while trying to flee the scene. Haydee is saddened to hear about Andre’s death because he was similar to her brother. She fights with the Count, telling him that he is responsible for Andre’s death. Meanwhile, Haydee has fallen in love with Albert, and she wants to leave with him so that they can get married. But before she leaves, the Count tells Haydee to reveal the truth about how Albert’s father had betrayed her father, Ali Pasha of Janina. This news irks Albert, and he challenges the Count to a gun duel. Mercedes pleads with Edmond, telling him not to kill him in the duel.
And, since Edmond still loves his fiancée, he shoots at a background target to prevent the bullet from hitting Albert. He later encourages Albert and Haydee to be together, get married, and live happily ever after together. Meanwhile, Mercedes leaves her husband Fernand, while Fernand confronts Edmond and they duel. Although Edmond wins the duel, he refuses to kill Fernand, who was once his best friend and best man. Instead, Emond lets Fernand suffer with his own disgrace and losses. Meanwhile, Edmond Dantes decides to leave his Monte Cristo estate, boarding a ship and embarking on traveling the world. He writes his final letter to his fiancée, Mercedes, telling her, ‘All human wisdom is contained in these two words: ‘Wait and Hope.’
I think that Edmond Dantes was used as a scapegoat by three corrupt men in order to silence him by placing him into a dungeon. But his inmate friend helped Edmond work on an escape plan, which enabled Edmond to pursue his revenge on these three corrupt men. He used his new identity and the two young people who he befriended to help him expose the corrupt men. One was killed, one lost his wife and son, and the third man’s life was also destroyed.
This movie also reminded me of the 1996 movie, Sleepers, about four young boys’ prank in 1960s NYC that goes bad when a hot dog vendor’s business is destroyed and another man is in critical condition. Although no one died, the four boys were sent to a detention center in New York, where they were physically and sexually abused. While going to school at this detention center, the youngest boy loved to read, and he especially became intrigued by the novel The Count of Monte Cristo, which inspired him to remain strong, to wait and hope for his ultimate revenge against the four guards who abused them at this detention center.
The four boys were eventually released. During the 80s, all four boys have grown up but are still messed up from their abuse at the detention center—two become street thugs, one becomes a lawyer, and the fourth got married. They decided to plot their revenge against the four guards, similar to Edmond Dantès’ revenge schemes as the Count of Monte Cristo. One by one, they got them killed, mafia style, sometimes involving others for help in the murder. They celebrate at the end, although the two street thugs die young, and the lawyer moves to England, living a solitary life as a carpenter. The fourth man writes the book Sleepers, describing their abuse, torture, and experience at that detention center in New York, who denied everything. This movie is also a good movie.
