The Count Of Monte
Cristo (Koch/Depardieu)
Picture: C+
Sound: B- Extras: D Episodes: B-
How many versions of The Count Of Monte Cristo will
we see? There have been so many
already; including the fun recent Disney feature film with Jim Caviezel, but
literary fans will always stick by the book and only like adaptations that want
to follow it. The problem is that what
goes well in print does not always translate as well to the screen. That is part of the problem with the 1998
French TV mini-series version of the story with Gerard Depardieu, which tends
to drag out more than it should, further pulled down by his very awkward
performance.
Yes, the format gives the producers and director more time
to tell the story and there is certainly the money on the screen to back up the
somewhat ambitious production, but there is an occurrent pretension to the
nearly seven hours of the sort that discourages the arts, reading and the kind
of stuffiness “quality television” cannot shake. On the other hand, there are good supporting performances and the
program still has its moments, so catch it with caution if you are interested.
The letterboxed 1.78 X 1/16 X 9 image should have been
anamorphically enhanced (like the menus are!) because it looks good and could
have looked better. The Dolby Digital
2.0 Stereo has palpable Pro Logic surrounds and that makes the playback
better. There are no extras except for
previews of other Koch releases.
- Nicholas Sheffo
