# Les Misérables (2012 film)

Les Misérables is a 2012 musical drama film, set in 19th-century France, in which Jean Valjean, who for decades has been hunted by the ruthless policeman Javert after he breaks parole, agrees to care for factory worker Fantine's daughter, Cosette. The fateful decision changes their lives forever.
    Directed by Tom Hooper. Written by William Nicholson, Alain Boublil, Claude-Michel Schönberg, and Herbert Kretzmer, based on the musical by Boublil and Schönberg, which in turn was based on the novel by Victor Hugo.

## Jean Valjean

* You know nothing to Javert. I was born inside a jail. I was.

## Fantine

* There was a time when men were kind. When their voices were soft, and their words inviting. There was a time when love was blind. And the world was a song, and the song was exciting. There was a time...Then it all went wrong. I dreamed a dream in times gone by, when hope was high and life worth living. I dreamed, that love would never die, I dreamed that God would be forgiving. Then I was young and unafraid, and dreams were made and used and wasted. There was no ransom to be paid, no song unsung, no wine untasted. But the tigers come at night with their voices soft as thunder. As they tear your hope apart as they turn your dream to shame. He slept a summer by my side, he filled my days with endless wonder. He took my childhood in his stride, but he was gone when autumn came. And still I dream he'll come to me that we will live the years together. But there are dreams that cannot be, and there are storms we cannot weather. I had a dream my life would be so different from this hell I'm living, so different now from what it seemed. Now life has killed the dream...I dreamed.

## Marius Pontmercy

* Do I care if I should die now she goes across the sea? Life without Cosette means nothing at all... Please don't weep, Cosette, should Marius fall. Will you weep, Cosette, for me?
* Oh, my friends! My friends, don't ask me what your sacrifice was for! Empty chairs at empty tables, where my friends shall sing no more.

## Thénardier

* You wait, my girl! You'll rue this night! I'll make you scream! You'll scream all right!

## Other

* Bishop: [to policemen] Monsieur, release him. This man has spoken true. I commend you for your duty, now God's blessing go with you. [to Valjean] But remember this, my brother. See in this some higher plan. You must use this precious silver to become an honest man. By the witness of the martyrs, by the passion and the blood, God has brought you out of darkness. I have saved your soul for God.
* Madam Thénardier: I used to dream that I would meet a prince. But God Almighty...have you seen what's happened since?
* Gavroche: Good evening, dear inspector. Lovely evening, my dear. I know this man, my friends, his name is Inspector Javert. So don't believe a word he says 'cause none of it's true. This only goes to show what little people can do!

## Dialogue

    Javert: Now Prisoner 24601, your time is up and your parole's begun. You know what that means?
    Jean Valjean: Yes, it means I'm free.
    Javert: No. [hands him a yellow paper] Follow to the letter your itinerary, this badge of shame you'll show until you die. It warns you're a dangerous man.
    Jean Valjean: I stole a loaf of bread. My sister's child was close to death, and we were starving...
    Javert: You will starve again unless you learn the meaning of the law!
    Jean Valjean: I know the meaning of those nineteen years; a slave of the law.
    Javert: Five years for what you did. The rest because you tried to run, yes 24601...
    Jean Valjean: My name is Jean Valjean!
    Javert: And I'm Javert! Do not forget my name. Do not forget me, 24601.
    Jean Valjean: How have you come to grief in a place such as this?
    Fantine: M'sieur, don't mock me now, I pray. It's hard enough I've lost my pride. You let your foreman send me away - yes, you were there, and turned aside. I never did no wrong
    Jean Valjean: Is it true, what I have done? To an innocent soul? Had I only known then...
    Fantine: My daughter's close to dying. If there's a God above... He'd let me die instead...
    Jean Valjean: In His name my task has just begun, I will see it done!
    Marius: [about Cosette] Éponine, find her for me!
    Éponine: What will you give me?
    Marius: Anything!
    Éponine: Got you all excited now, but God knows what you see in her! Aren't you all delighted now?
    [Marius offers her money]
    Éponine: No, I don't want your money, sir.
    Thénardier: Everybody raise a glass!
    Madame Thénardier: Raise it up the master's arse!
    Javert: Valjean, at last. We see each other plain. "Monsieur le Mayor". You'll wear a different chain.
    Jean Valjean: Before you say another word, Javert, before you chain me up like a slave again, listen to me! There is something I must do. This woman leaves behind a suffering child. There is none but me who can intercede. In mercy's name, three days are all I need. Then I'll return, I pledge my word. Then I'll return.
    Javert: You must think me mad! I've hunted you across the years. Men like you can never change. A man such as you!
    Madame Thénardier: Wait a bit! Know that face! Ain't the world a remarkable place!
    Thénardier: Men like me don't forget. You're the bastard that borrowed Colette!
    Madame Thenardier: Cosette!
    Thenardier: Whatever.
    Jean Valjean: What is this? Are you mad? No, Monsieur, you don't know what you say!
    Thénardier: You know me! I know you!
    Madame Thénardier: And you'll pay what I'm due.
    Thénardier: And you’d better dig deep!
    Madame Thénardier: ‘Cause she doesn’t come cheap!
    Thénardier: Babet, Brujon!
    Éponine: It's the police! Disappear! Run for it! It's Javert!
    Jean Valjean: Cosette!
    Cosette: Papa...
    Thénardier: Jean Valjean - the old con. You pay up and I'll say where he's gone.
    Marius: [handing Thénardier money] Not so loud! Here's for you. God forgive us the things that we do.
    Madame Thénardier: How's about some extra on a day so glad. Our little orphan girl, she hasn't done so bad. Raised in a convent, cash to spare - we want our share.
    Thénardier: [Marius hands over yet more money to Madame Thénardier] Quite the little nun, ain't she!
    Marius: [Marius punches Thénardier across the face. He falls through a door. Marius bends down to Thénardier who is almost unconscious] Where is he?
    Thénardier: The convent.
    Marius: Éponine, you're the friend that has brought me here. Thanks to you, I am with one with the Gods and heaven is near! And I soar through a world that is new, that is free.
    Éponine: [to herself] Every word that he says is a dagger in me. In my life, there has been no one like him anywhere. Anywhere where he is. If he asks, I'll be his.

## Cast

* Hugh Jackman - Jean Valjean
* Russell Crowe - Javert
* Anne Hathaway - Fantine
* Amanda Seyfried - Cosette
* Eddie Redmayne - Marius Pontmercy
* Helena Bonham Carter - Madame Thénardier
* Sacha Baron Cohen - Thénardier
* Samantha Barks - Éponine
* Daniel Huttlestone - Gavroche
* Aaron Tveit - Enjolras
* Isabelle Allen - Young Cosette
* Natalya Angel Wallace - Young Eponine

## External links

* Les Misérables quotes at the Internet Movie Database
* Les Misérables at Rotten Tomatoes
* Official website