The Count of Monte Cristo: dir Matthieu Delaporte and Alexandre de La Patellière (2024)

This new screen adaptation of the Dumas novel premiered at last year’s Festival de Cannes. The critics liked it: The New York Times called it “stirringly acted and gorgeously filmed” and said “this swashbuckler leaves previous versions of Dumas’s famous revenge saga in the dust”. The Guardian rated it 4/5, noting it was “directed with verve and acted with gusto”. It certainly rocks along: the original novel is a sprawling episodic adventure, and somehow this version manages to make it feel pacy and engaging. The story in brief:  Edmond Dantès, a young sailor betrayed and falsely imprisoned on the day of his wedding, is jailed for years in the Château d’If where a fellow prisoner reveals the truth behind his downfall. He learns of a fortune that he can access, escapes from the island fortress in a classically unlikely fashion, establishes a new identity, and proceeds to tack down those who destroyed his life in a powerful story of justice, transformation, and revenge …

In French with English subtitles. Screens in the Louvre Abu Dhabi Auditorium as part of Cannes Film Nights, a curated programme of acclaimed films shown at Cannes and presented in collaboration with the Institut Français.