#french drama film

[kingsofjiiron]

sauvage (2018) dir. Camille Vidal-Naquet

the men come and go, and he stays right here — longing for love.

9/10

[inthedarktrees]

Simone Simon in Olivia (1951) dir. Jacqueline Audry

[wh0-is-lily]

Kirsten Dunst behind the scenes of Marie Antoinette (2006)

[escapismthroughfilm]

⋆˚｡Portrait of a Lady on Fire (2019) dir. Céline Sciamma⋆˚｡

[franklinn97]

Kingdom of Heaven (2005)

Eva Green as Sibylla of Jerusalem

[hellish-cruelty]

Spiral Staircase in Films

A Very Long Engagement (2004), The French Dispatch (2021), Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (2004), Mission: Impossible (1996), The Sixth Sense (1999) (×2), Split (2016), Colette (2018), Home Alone (1990), Besieged (1998)

[theorphicallure]

Nymphomaniac (2013)

[ratuszarsenal]

very funny to me that every polish person who watched 1670 on here is writing posts begging non-polish people to watch it. including me.

[miamaimania]

➤ Entangled in a vortex of time: 'Irréversible' (2002) by [Artist's Name]

[allwhiterain]

Margaret Qualley in The Substance (2024) directed by Coralie Fargeat

[peonies-and-dreams]

Without his Josephine, without the assurance of her love, what is left him upon earth? 

[cleopatragirlie]

𝐒𝐨𝐧𝐢𝐚 𝐏𝐞𝐭𝐫𝐨𝐯𝐧𝐚 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐀𝐥𝐚𝐢𝐧 𝐃𝐞𝐥𝐨𝐧 𝐢𝐧 '𝐈𝐧𝐝𝐢𝐚𝐧 𝐒𝐮𝐦𝐦𝐞𝐫' (𝟏𝟗𝟕𝟐) 𝐝𝐢𝐫. 𝐕𝐚𝐥𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐨 𝐙𝐮𝐫𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐢

[inthedarktrees]

Simone Simon in Olivia (1951) dir. Jacqueline Audry

[la-cocotte-de-paris]

#undertones

MAM'ZELLE BONAPARTE (1942), dir. Maurice Tourneur

[agentnico]

The Count of Monte-Cristo (2024) review

Je suis Batman!!

Plot: Edmond Dantes becomes the target of a sinister plot and is arrested on his wedding day for a crime he did not commit. After 14 years in the island prison of Château d'If, he manages a daring escape. Now rich beyond his dreams, he assumes the identity of the Count of Monte-Cristo and exacts his revenge on the three men who betrayed him.

I’ve been really enjoying this recent wave of French blockbuster cinema creating these lavish big-budget adaptions of their nation’s classic literature, with the recent highly enjoyable duology romp of The Three Musketeers (D’Artagnan and Milady respectively) and now taking on The Count of Monte-Cristo. I was a major admirer of Alexander Dumas’ novels when I was a kid, and by admirer I mean my father used to force me to read those books which at the time I hated him for, as I much rather would have spent hours on end on my GameCube, but now am forever grateful that I have the knowledge of storytelling which I gained from reading those pieces of literature. So I’m eagerly hoping that now with these expensive modern movie takes we will also get some of Dumas’ other great works get the contemporary cinematic treatment, such as La Dame de Monsoreau and The Black Tulip (though the latter may be difficult as there is already an older film version starring Alain Delon, and would be hard to recast Delon, let’s not kid ourselves!). As for Monte-Cristo, I’m not even going to sugar-coat it - this is a fantastic modern adaptation of a classic!

The sets are great and really invoke the post-Napoleon era of France; the costumes are gorgeous; the music score is grandiose and epic, really engrossing you in this decade spanning saga of revenge; the classic story is reinterpreted so well with the themes and the emotion, and the acting across the board is superb. Oh and the cinematography is to die for - wonderful long shot landscape sequences, great use of lighting, gorgeous shots of interior palaces - you can tell this film has been given all the money in the world, only unlike Amazon’s Rings of Power TV series that looks expensive but lacks any narrative depth, this film is both great to look at but also has a great story with awesome performance. Look, I really really liked this movie, let me rave about it!! Of course if you’re not French, you have to deal with subtitles, however don’t let that sway you, as this move manages to tell so much using its visuals and powerful music score that at times you don’t even need to read the subtitles to understand the emotion the characters on screen are going through.

Pierre Niney is honestly superb as the titular Count. From how he showcases him in his younger years as the excited young sailor wanting to prove himself to years later being this highly intelligent and driven yet calm presence, as well as taking on the various alter-ego’s of the Count using his different masks (very reminiscent of Fantomas) such as the dastardly Lord Halifax - Niney does such a stellar job here. What I also loved is how this adaptation takes the “superhero origin” approach to Dumas’ classic, with the Count being showcased as this cool dark vigilante like Batman/Bruce Wayne or Zorro, and even his dark menacing suit (which is dapper as f*** by the way!!) emphasising that. All the props to Niney, he adds so many layers and nuance to his performance, that even when he is super reserved as the Count, you can tell in his eyes the disdain and pure hatred he has for the ones that wronged him, but at the same time being able to showcase his guard dropping slightly when he is in the presence of his beloved lost love Mercédès (played gracefully by Anaïs Demoustier).

As for negatives, as even though I absolutely adored this movie, the inner critic within me still can’t help himself. This is a 3-hour long movie, and granted that is a result of the weight of the original book, however you do feel the length of this thing, but at the same time certain parts feel a tad rushed (due to the writers attempting to cram so much story and character development into the 3-hour frame) that certain side-plots and narrative build ups aren’t given their proper space to breath. One does wonder if this would have worked better as a mini-series, however on the other hand they probably would not have had the budget to make this thing look as good as it does. Secondly, certain details/plot-holes frustrated me which I won’t spoil, but one example is when Edmond and Abbé Faria are digging the escape hole from their prison chambers all those years, where the hell did they keep getting all those candles from to light their workspace?? I highly doubt in mid-1800s France prisons had little kiosk shops to offer inmates various groceries and household items. Happy to be corrected here, but honestly seeing those candles reminded me of Deadpool proclaiming “that’s just lazy writing”. And final complaint (before we can get back to raving about how awesome this movie is) is the ageing, or lack of it more. The tale of Monte-Cristo spans from 1815 and ends in 1844, yet the movie makes zero effort in making the actors look older the further down the timeline we go. The Count does look aged but that is due to the mask he wears, so when that’s off he looks like his younger 20-something self again. One of the main baddies Prosecutor de Villefort (played in true dick-fashion by Laurent Lafitte) looks exactly the same at the beginning of the movie and then right to the end. You’re telling me the make-up artists and hairstylists couldn’t give him a single grey hair or a wrinkle?

Again though, that was me with my critical thinking hat on. With that off, I want to reiterate how I truly enjoyed this new version of a classic tale that has been done so many times before, however this one may be one of my favourites. Truly engaging and epic in scale, with a ridiculously cool Pierre Niney in the titular role. He is… the French Batman!

Overall score: 8/10

[illustratus]

Alain Delon as Prince Tancredi Falconeri in The Leopard (Il Gattopardo) 1963