The Count of Monte Christo (1998)

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Movie
German title The earl of Monte Christo
Original title Le Comte de Monte-Cristo
Country of production France , Italy , Germany
original language French
Publishing year 1998
length 388 (95/101/101/91) minutes
Age rating FSK 12
Rod
Director Josée Dayan
script Didier Decoin
production Jean-Pierre Guerin
music Bruno Coulais
camera Willy Strassen
cut Marie-Josèphe Yoyotte
Dominique Roy
Pauline Caralis
occupation
synchronization

The Count of Monte Christo (original title: Le Comte de Monte Christo ) is a four-part adventure film for television from 1998. Alexandre Dumas ' novel of the same name from the 19th century served as a template .

action

Edmond Dantès, a young sailor, was arrested in Marseilles on the day of his engagement in 1815 to the Spanish woman Mercédès for allegedly being a Bonapartist . The lawyer Villefort takes care of him and learns that Dantès had received a letter from Napoleon, which he was supposed to deliver to Villefort's father. To protect his father, Villefort banished Dantès to the Château d'If . There he met the Abbé Faria, who formed him and told of an immeasurable treasure on the Italian island of Montecristo . After the Abbé's death, Dantès flees by taking the Abbé's place in his body bag and being thrown into the sea, where he can free himself from the bag. Together with the seaman Bertuccio he picks up the treasure and builds up an existence as Count of Monte Christo, with Bertuccio helping him as his servant.

The "Count" learns from his poor former neighbor, Caderousse, that his colleague Danglars and his rival for Mercedes, Fernand, have imprisoned him by means of an intrigue. Now he lets rumors spread about his identity and his life, economizes with his wealth and thus rises to the highest circles in Paris, with only one goal, namely to exercise God's justice and the now rich banker Danglars, the Comte de Morcerf, Fernand, and the senior judicial officer Villefort. He lets Villefort go mad by quietly participating in a family tragedy, he brings Danglars financial ruin and the Comte de Morcerf is publicly exposed for treason during his military service and commits suicide after learning of the Count's identity. Danglars is captured by a criminal king, but is released again after Dantès' intercession, when he decides to be more lenient - but not without being informed that his former victim is still alive.

Differences to the template

Overall, the film is pretty close to the novel. The monologues with which Edmond Dantès justifies his approach in the book are here replaced by his servant and friend Bertuccio. In the film, Dantès and Mercédès find each other again at the end, which is not the case in the original.

background

The Château d'If in front of Marseille, where the film was set

The shooting took place in Malta , Naples , Paris , Marseille , Senlis and Mongeroult , among others . The fortress Château d'If on a rocky island off the coast of Marseille served as the prison of Edmond Dantès in the film. Other locations were the Château de Champs-sur-Marne , the Chateau de Villette in Condécourt and the Notre-Dame-de-l'Assomption church in Le Plessis-Gassot .

In France, where Der Graf von Monte Christo was broadcast for the first time on September 7, 1998, the four-part series was the ratings hit of 1999 with up to 12.6 million viewers. In Germany, it was broadcast by Sat.1 on January 9, 1999 shown on TV.

criticism

The lexicon of international films described the Dumas adaptation as "only moderately exciting [en] equipment film", which reproduces the familiar material like in an extensive "picture book", "whereby it remains strangely sterile and, despite all the tendency towards the 'beautiful', remains disproportionately inatmospheric ". Even with the implementation of the major themes of the novel, the film is not convincing: "Neither the adventurousness of the fable nor the moral questions about loyalty, law and justice at the borders of vigilante justice come to fruition."

The television magazine Prisma found that the multi-part series benefited “from a special casting coup: the young Edmont Dantes is played by Gérard Depardieu's talented son Guillaume, the young Mercedes by Ornella Muti's daughter Naike Rivelli”. In the end, the result was “clean TV fare at a rather leisurely pace”. TV Spielfilm's verdict was: "Magnificently illustrated and furiously played."

synchronization

The German dubbed version was created by Johannisthal Synchron GmbH , Berlin, based on the dialogue book by Joachim Kunzendorf and Boris Tessmann , who also directed the dubbing at the same time.

role actor Voice actor
Edmond Dantès Gérard Depardieu Manfred Lehmann
Mercédès Herrera Ornella Muti Evelyn Marron
Fernand Mondego Comte de Morcerf Jean Rochefort Jürgen Thormann
Gérard de Villefort Pierre Arditi Gerhard Paul
Bertuccio Sergio Rubini Torsten Michaelis
Maximilien Morrel Christopher Thompson Boris Tessmann
Albert de Morcerf Stanislas Merhar Gerrit Schmidt-Foss
Valentine de Villefort Julie Depardieu Dascha Lehmann
Heloïse de Villefort Hélène Vincent Rita Engelmann
Baron Eugène Danglars Michel Aumont Gerd Holtenau
Hermione Danglars Constanze Engelbrecht Constanze Engelbrecht
Abbé Faria Georges Moustaki Hasso Zorn
Father Morrel Jean-Claude Brialy Joachim Kerzel
Haydée Inés Sastre Melanie Hinze
young Edmond Dantès Guillaume Depardieu Björn Schalla
Madame de Saint-Méran Micheline Presle Barbara Adolph

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ See locations on imdb.com
  2. ↑ a b See prisma.de
  3. ↑ The Count of Monte Christo. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed August 7, 2018 .Template: LdiF / Maintenance / Access used 
  4. ↑ See tvspielfilm.de
  5. ↑ The Count of Monte Christo. In: synchronkartei.de. German synchronous index , accessed on August 7, 2018 .