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Join Telegram ChannelWhile their film has just passed the 9 million admissions milestone, Matthieu Delaporte and Alexandre de la Patellière return for Première to a success that has continued since its release last June.
PREMIERE: Last weekend, The Count of Monte Cristo reached the milestone of 9 million admissions and still attracts more than 100,000 spectators every week four months after its release? How do you experience this success?
Matthieu Delaporte: Like something quite unreal…
Alexandre de la Patellière : We have had successes and failures. But what is beautiful here is that we have been carried for a year by the same movement. In October 2023, we were still in the middle of filming. And everything came together. The recording of the music in London, the editing, the presentation in Cannes, the release advanced by several months… We couldn't have dreamed of anything better at each stage. And that gives us crazy energy to continue.
MD : Even if we secretly dreamed, this success remains mysterious. Because we knew that for several years, such a score had become truly inaccessible for films that are not pure comedies. We feared a glass ceiling. In our wildest dreams, we hoped to be familiar with the 4.5 million entries of the Cyrano de Bergerac by Jean-Paul Rappeneau. Today, we are double! It is difficult to measure what is happening. And we know today that for the rest of our lives, we will all think about Monte Cristo with emotion. And we will never forget the risks that Dimitri Rassam and Pathé took for this film.
Including the decision to bring forward its release to the end of June to a date which, because of the Euro football and Olympics sequence, scared a lot of distributors…
MD: And I must admit that when Emmanuel Macron announced the dissolution with elections on the weekend of our exit, we were not doing well! But Dimitri was right.
ADLP : However, deep down, all this remains inexplicable, a mixture of luck and pre-science where everyone makes the right decisions at the right time. It reminds us that each film is a prototype and its theatrical adventure cannot be duplicated. This is why this success will not change the way we work: making films that we want to see.
MD : Initially, we were supposed to go out at this very moment, either facing or almost facing Love phew and we thought it would hurt both films, that they would cannibalize each other. And we had the intuition, given the duration of Monte Cristothat it was going to take time to settle down and be a word-of-mouth film. The summer, which was less packed with outings, allowed it. And the presentation at Cannes was the best launching pad.
The youngest people immediately took to it, some going to see it again and again…
MD : Here again it was not won. Because on The Three Musketeerswhile the youngest really liked the film in the test screening, unfortunately they were not really there in theaters. Although again, we cannot know exactly why. In the feedback we can get, we can clearly see that the public of Monte Cristo extends from 7 to 77 years old.
ADLP : We are also in a period where between the cardboard ofA little something extra and the canon start of Love phew we have the feeling that there is a desire among spectators for films which, each in their own field, are not like the others. And I think that gives hope to everyone in the business.
MD: We have also received a lot of feedback from actors, directors and producers who tell us that we have opened a breach into which they will be able to rush.
ADLP: We really felt a lot of goodwill around the success of this film. And this coming from all the chapels of cinema. Like us, we don't belong to any one, this added to our happiness.
MD : Preparing the film was very, very hard. It really felt like we were chewing rocks for a year with Alex. Because we had to cut twenty or thirty pages, find savings because you never have enough money… And then from the moment the filming started when we had a crazy time with the weather, everything smiled until today.
This success also confirms Pierre Niney's immense popularity with the public, right?
MD : Clearly! But that too, beyond his immense talent, you don't really know it before. Because Pierre had never achieved success at this level. And because today a priori, no actor brings people to theaters…
ADLP : With the exception perhaps now of Pierre!
MD : In any case, he was the driving force behind this success. An incredible fighting partner. He helped us take this team. He was incredibly generous every step of the way. Before the film came out, we didn't know if we had made a great film but we knew we had a great cast!
ADLP : Pierre was also able to support and defend the film everywhere and for all audiences. Which has become an important part of the profession. And as such, I am also very proud of Pathé's marketing. The trailers, the posters, everything made you want it!
MD : And this success was a relief. Because with Alexandre, seeing how we had managed to overcome all the obstacles one by one until the exit, we said to ourselves: if it doesn't work, we don't know what to do!
The Count of Monte Cristo comes out in the United States in December. Are you going to defend him there?
ADLP: We're leaving this Monday for at least a whole week and we may return depending on events…
MD: We are keen to present the film around the world. We have been to Türkiye, England, we are going to Brazil. The foreign press is very good everywhere. There too, we couldn't have dreamed of better.
Have you already gotten back to work?
MD: Yes, but we can't really talk about it in detail yet.
ADLP : We can just tell you that we are working on a feature film and a series at the same time…
THE COUNT OF MONTE-CRISTO: PIERRE NINEY IMPERIAL AS ANGEL OF VENGEANCE [CRITIQUE]