Didier Decoin

Occupation

Filmmaker

The Count Of Monte Cristo (1998) Review

By Keith Breese

Very Good

The often filmed Count of Monte Cristo is a filmmaker's dream come true. The plot is elegant, the characters beautiful. It would take a lot to screw up a film version of the story.While Kevin Reynolds' (Waterworld) recent adaptation was warmly received by both audiences and critics (myself included), his was a truncated version. It made up for graceless transitions with gorgeously shot action sequences and American melodrama. Reynolds focused on the story's conflict but lost all the subtlety of the inner narrative, the character growth, and the true turning of the worm. While not as breathtakingly visual, Josée Dayan's earlier television production is superior to Reynolds' film because it assumes that the audience is familiar not just with the story but the novel.

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