As of last night, the New River Pucketts finished the six-hour French miniseries "Le Comte de Monte Cristo", starring Gérard Depardieu - who is, without a doubt, the only living human being who has a cleft in his chin AND in his nose:


               
(Ethel says that it looks like somebody tried to part his face - right down the middle - with a sword).

Every time I say "Gérard Depardieu", I can't help but think of Genius in France, by Weird Al - it's a Frank Zappa style parody that I've always thought was aimed at Jerry Lewis (and it seems that there are others who agree) but the amazing thing about the song is that it could, very well, have been written by Zappa - Weird Al can pretty much be anybody that he wants to be, I suppose.

Anyway, we really enjoyed LCdMC, and we watched it over four nights (it has four 90 minute episodes). In fact, I think I might have enjoyed it as much as I enjoy watching the 2002 Count of Monte Cristo, which is one of my favorite movies - but CoMC can be watched of an evening, while LCdMC takes a week's worth of commitment (and a willingness to go four nights without any Buffys¹, which is just about the limit of my endurance : )

The 2002 CoMC is very much a late-model, Americanized version of the tale - for one thing, our hero not only is wealthy and handsome and brilliant, but he can best anyone else in any sort of combat, armed or unarmed; the French version is much truer to the spirit of the book, in that the Count never even so much as slaps anybody; it's all about revenge, plot and intrigue.

It's funny listening to the three of us watching a movie; the comments being made tell you something about the personalities of the observers, as much as they tell you about the movie itself:

Silas: Did you notice how they just replayed that same portion of the theme music, but they did so in a minor key, at a lower octave? Did you see how that altered the mood of the scene?
Ethel: I also noticed that that one riff from that scene was exactly the same as the scene in the 2002 movie version, when the Count is landing his balloon at the estate to begin the festivities - obviously that score was derivative.
Jim: I like the music. It's nice.


Silas: That laboratory room where he's preparing those potions is really creepy.
<pause>
Silas: Didja notice how creepy that room is? I don't like that room - it's creepy.
<pause>
Silas: Every time he comes into that room, the music gets creepy. That's a
Jim: DON'T SAY CREEPY AGAIN! DON'T SAY IT!

I noticed a funny thing about the movie; while we're certainly all in agreement that the Count should forgive these folks, and that his motives for his actions are base and vile - we still like it when Fernand, Danglar and Villefort get what's coming to them :) It's sort of like the movie Payback, where Mel Gibson plays the bad guy, but this bad guy is the good guy, because he's so much better than the other bad guys that you hope that he wins :)

At any rate - if you have an attention span and like movies where the hero gets the girl, even though his face has been bifurcated, rent Le Comte de Monte Cristo - the New RIver Pucketts give it Three Thumbs Up (and Maia adds a paw).


¹I'm not sure if this plural should be Buffys or Buffies, since I'm not referring to the proper name, but rather the television show. I'm sure some Gentle Reader will instruct me in the proper grammar here : )