#I wouldn't bet on this but if the movie decides to do a sudden 180 twist ending where Haydee DOES end up joining him wherever

[fayevalcntine]

I don't mind at all, though I hope you won't mind me rambling in response:

I think you're right about Andrea, I couldn't completely guess whether he's presented as the Count's servant or his ward, but it would make sense for him to be presented as such if Edmond maybe wants to tear apart Danglars and Villefort's arranged marriage agreement for Eugenie and Albert from both sides: have Andrea be considered a more 'worthy' proposal than Albert for Danglars' daughter, and have Albert be 'seduced' by Haydée. As for the inclusion of Benedetto, I don't disagree! I think that including him in this film as another proponent of revenge isn't a bad idea in the slightest, in fact I kind of agree with his potential storyline more than Haydée's because it would offer a unique tragedy when it comes to how far members of the upper class would be willing to discard any obstacle in their way. As for the death, Pierre Niney, the actor who plays Edmond, shared some kind-of-spoiler-ish photos on set back when they first started filming and one of the photos had fake blood being applied to what looked like the floor of the court house, while the other showed a monitor where Haydée seems to be kneeling over Andrea's body (in the trailer it's actually Haydée screaming 'no!' in that setting). Now I'm not 100% sure if he's taking Edouard's place when it comes to a Villefort child dying or not, but if he isn't, and Edmond's machinations end up with both him, Edouard AND Heloise dead, I'm not sure how the movie will then try to justify us still rooting for him if all of this also happens before the ending? Mainly because the Fernand/Edmond duel has been repeatedly teased as 'the final duel'.

As for Noirtier and Villefort, I agree. I think his character (and by extension Valentine and the rest of the Villefort family) are in their own way very interesting and all very important within the context of Edmond's revenge plan.

I don't think Valentine has been listed at all within the casting on IMDB or any of the official cast lists for the film, and given how reviewers mention Eugenie but not Valentine, my bet is still on the movie making Albert/Haydée the new Valentine/Maximilien. Which.... I have a lot of thoughts on Haydée as a character and how a lot of script writers (and even some fans of the book) neglect to see that she is in her own right very important to Edmond but also within the larger scope of the story itself because there's a lot of similarities between their stories, particularly in them losing a beloved father, having their lives completely robbed from them, before some chance encounter with a stranger (Abbe Faria for Edmond, then Edmond for Haydée) leads them to gain freedom and the chance for revenge for what was stolen from them. I don't disagree with criticisms aimed towards the book about her feeling maybe one-note and there being so little of her, but there's a lot that any writer could use from the text in order to expand her role and make her a bigger accomplice for the Count while also possibly objecting to his obsession for revenge overtaking every family member connected to the three men in question, without her needing a weirdly inserted romantic subplot featuring Albert. Even in the book, Haydée struggled with the idea of avenging her father because of her religious beliefs, but she never went after Fernand's family because she had no issue with them, she wanted his crime of murdering her father to be known and heard. All this could easily be done in between highlighting her loyalty towards Edmond, and what she represents to him, but of course in order to do this, you'd have to then focus on more than one woman in Edmond's life being influential in his journey, which you can't if you want to sell this supposedly significant lifelong romance between him and Mercedes. One of the press releases that featured interviews with all the actors mentioned how Edmond's last scene with Mercedes had him telling her to "wait and hope" (his last lines to Maximilien in the book), in between talking about how Mercedes' love makes Edmond 'remember love', and I have the suspicion that this movie makes another significant CoMC adaptation mistake where, even if they attempted to center the women in the story more, they end up dismissing what their actual feelings were for the sake of swapping them out. Mercedes' actress was also quoted as saying that she "would've been prepared for a second chance with Edmond, but he gives her no choice in this", which.... Mercedes in the book was heartbroken way prior to their last scene because she realized he had agreed to a duel with her son, and what that meant to her. I'm not sure why the women in the film all sound like they're throwing aside everything for the sake of a man's love, but it's certainly a Choice from the scriptwriters' side.

As for Edmond's ending, I can only assume that Mercedes's love will be hinted at as one of the possible reasons he may go off on his own while 'hoping to be redeemed', but that defeats the purpose of a lot of elements of the original book's ending and even neglects the severity of his state. It ends up feeling like these script writers don't actually care enough for the character to show both the positive and negative sides to him once he escapes from Chateau d'if, and instead opted for "how far will this man go before he realizes it was Too Far".

(Forgot to mention this in the original post but another thing that's been bothering me is the idea itself of Haydée either thinking she can only get back at Fernand by 'seducing' his son, or Edmond pushing the idea onto her. If her character's backstory remains her being sold into slavery where she was 'raised' to be a docile one for a man of higher status, it just makes Edmond look insanely weird to even think "ah yes, she can seduce Albert" as a plot.... it twists even the most basic aspect of their relationship in the book where Edmond allowed her to do whatever she pleased. At most he would be intentionally vague about what Haydée was to him in the audience of other people (daughter, ward or 'slave'), but he never made her behavior reflect this.)

Anyway I've been kind of following the press releases for The Count of Monte Cristo (2024) (French) movie and some potential spoilers that I kind of want to air out:

The film seems to be marketed as "much darker" in terms of focusing on the revenge aspect, which I don't mind, but some other stuff give me pause as to how they're gonna handle The Count as a character because the way the actors talk about him, he almost sounds weirdly irredeemable, or rather just completely incapable of still loving and caring about people? Which is the exact opposite of how he behaves in the book..... he wants to be cold and completely detached but fails each time because he a) forms close connections with people like Haydée and Maximilien, even comes to deeply respect Albert despite trying to talk himself into not caring about the boy and b) is meant to question his own revenge plot because it inadvertently causes the death of an innocent child

Apparently Haydée is 'torn between her loyalty for the Count and the love of her life' with said love of her life being.....guess who? Albert de Morcerf. There's no mention of a court scene so far where she accuses Fernand of being a traitorous officer and murdering her father, instead Edmond apparently gets her to seduce Albert but then Haydée falls in love with him for real? I once wrote a post complaining about this type of idea I've seen others mention as a "potential fix" for the plot but taking aside my issue with Albert/Haydée as a pairing in any sense, in this context it's almost doubly bizarre and I feel like the writers took so many different elements from the book, namely Albert's blind trust and admiration towards the Count and the forbidden love story between Maximilien and Valentine, and decided to go for a much more digestible change for the story, I guess? The actress who plays Haydée also mentions that she wants to "break free from the Count's psychological grip", which..... you can say a lot of stuff about Edmond/Haydée as an overall dynamic, particularly in him inserting her in his plan for revenge, but the big thing noted in the book is that Haydée makes the decision herself to testify against Fernand, and even thinks that the Count will disapprove of her for this. He also does genuinely care for her and wanted her to inherit everything he owns should he die.... the whole point of him taking her in is that he wanted her to have the life she was entitled to before Fernand's actions stripped it away from her.

The film also seems to have merged several different characters related to Villefort into one, namely Benedetto/Andrea and Bertuccio, since Andrea (in the film) is also under the Count's wing and seems to accompany him as a possible servant in some scenes. This isn't a bad idea in theory, though I'm pretty sure that he ends up dying when he goes after Villefort at the court house, so I presume he's also supposed to represent Edouard's death? My main question is when this scene even happens in the film because apparently, there's a final sword fight (likely the one between Fernand and Edmond), so the death that makes Edmond question his entire plot isn't even at the end of his plan?

This brings me to my next point which is why are Fernand and Edmond even doing a sword duel in the first place.... apparently the film has Fernand come from a rich family already, and he's known and been friends with Edmond prior to his imprisonment, so w/e, classic trope of CoMC adaptations at this point. But the duel and Haydée's 'seduction' plot just makes me think that for all the apparent attempts at centering her as a character more, these writers took out a significant scene related to her character that means a lot FOR her, namely the court scene, and instead centered Edmond's feelings of betrayal towards Fernand. I know that this is likely to also focus a lot on Edmond's lost life with Mercedes, but Fernand isn't even such a significant focus of Edmond's ire in the book as much as the other two men are.

The movie doesn't seem to end with Mercedes and Edmond getting back together, which I at least appreciate if this Edmond is "much darker" than even in the book, but if he isn't with her or isn't dead by the end, what exactly is the point of him going off alone? I presume this is the ending if Haydée/Albert are supposed to represent Maximilien/Valentine and the Count "gives them support" for being together, but Edmond was pretty much contemplating suicide until Haydée stopped him in the book. The point is that his focus on avenging the past was his only assumed reason for living, but there's a chance for him to simply live on with those who genuinely care about him as he is now. Without him trying to make amends through Maximilien and Valentine and Haydée indicating she will only live if he lives, I can't really see the film making a good argument for why Edmond wouldn't contemplate suicide instead of living on.

Apparently Villefort has a Bonapartist sister (I presume this character is meant to replace his father in the film) whom I also think Edmond saves from a shipwreck that has been shown in the trailers. I've zero clue how this movie is going to fit a new character in this while doing all of this to the other more significant characters, but that seems to be a general trend with this scriptwriter duo.

Only minor positive thing so far is that Eugenie IS included for once, and they didn't omit her being a lesbian.