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There “Monte-Cristo Mania” is far from over. While the latest film adaptation of Alexandre Dumas' novel, directed by Matthieu Delaporte and Alexandre de la Patellière, has been a huge success since its release, recording more than eight million admissions in France, and becoming one of the favorites to represent France at the 2025 Oscars, The Count of Monte Cristo will soon be making its return to television – where it all began. However, it will be done in a totally original and unique way… The Count of Monte CristoEdmond Dantès, prototype of the masked avenger played by Pierre Niney, gives way to The Countess of Monte Cristoand to Audrey Fleurot.
The leading actress of the series HPI, whose season 4 begins this Thursday evening, revealed to Parisian her next project: a female version of this literary fresco in a series for TF1. Filming will begin in September 2025, and the actress will serve as producer, but also actress:
“When the channel commissioned it, I wondered if it wasn't a poisoned chalice to feminize the character most suited to cinema. But this novel is the one that fascinated me the most and the series with Jacques Weber, before the one with Gérard Depardieu, was my first shock on TV. It was a shame to refuse. We had to find the right idea to justify yet another version.”
She found this justification by diving back into reading and finding new episodes that had been overlooked in previous adaptations. In six volumes with a total of almost 2000 pages, The Count of Monte Cristo can be understood as a novel with many twists and turns and stories that fit together. Also, each representation on screen chooses to keep or not certain events.
Concerning The Countess of Monte Cristoif it is a rewriting of the novel by Alexandre Dumas, it is nevertheless interesting to note that it is not the first time that the hero is feminized. In the 19th century, Jean Charles du Boys pastiche The Count of Monte Cristo. Edmond Dantès becomes Hélène de Rancogne and the story is quite similar. The young woman is the victim of a plot orchestrated by three men who end up killing her husband. When the widow refuses to marry one of the three men, she is accused of murdering her husband and thrown in prison. With the help of a servant, she stages her own death, discovers a treasure and takes revenge on those who have wronged her.
However, the creation of the Countess of Monte Cristo and the feminization of the character can lead us to question the phenomenon. While in cinema, Jenna Ortega opposed the rewriting of male franchises for heroines – for example by taking a female James Bond – and argued instead for the creation of original films for women – why focus on feminizing Alexandre Dumas' novel, when it is just as possible to stage novels with female main characters?
Although in the century of Alexandre Dumas, female authors may have been erased from the collective memory, they existed and today projects are helping to rehabilitate and rediscover them. Could the adaptation of their works thus contribute to the influence of 19th century female creation in France?
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