O CONDE DE MONTE CRISTO, DE KEVIN REYNOLDS (2002): ADAPTANDO UM ROMANCE CLÁSSICO EM DUAS HORAS

Abstract

This article aims to contribute to Adaptation Studies and to Intermediality Studies, two academic fields that focus on issues of great relevance to the discussion on phenomena that take place in the transition between different media. Its scope covers the analysis of a film adaptation or media transposition of a novel and the challenge of the so called “fidelity criticism”, a point of view widely rejected among scholars in those areas. The material selected for analysis is the 1844 Alexandre Dumas novel The Count of Monte Cristo, in its Brazilian Portuguese translation by André Telles e Rodrigo Lacerda (2016), and its 2002 namesake film adaptation, directed by Kevin Reynolds. By analyzing and comparing the film to its source text, we were able to point out the flaws of “fidelity criticism”, that discredits the complex spectrum and unique merits of adaptations; to demonstrate the properties and differences between media, especially literature and literature-based films; and to propose a discussion on adaptation and medial transposition as a means of cultural propagation.