Les misérables
Tags: romantic, murder, melodrama

Plot synopsis:
=== Volume I – Fantine ===
The story begins in 1815 in Digne, as the peasant Jean Valjean, just released from 19 years' imprisonment in the Bagne of Toulon—five for stealing bread for his starving sister and her family and fourteen more for numerous escape attempts—is turned away by innkeepers because his yellow passport marks him as a former convict. He sleeps on the street, angry and bitter.
Digne's benevolent Bishop Myriel gives him shelter. At night, Valjean runs off with Myriel's silverware. When the police capture Valjean, Myriel pretends that he has given the silverware to Valjean and presses him to take two silver candlesticks as well, as if he had forgotten to take them. The police accept his explanation and leave. Myriel tells Valjean that his life has been spared for God, and that he should use money from the silver candlesticks to make an honest man of himself.
Valjean broods over Myriel's words. When opportunity presents itself, purely out of habit, he steals a 40-sous coin from 12-year-old Petit Gervais and chases the boy away. He quickly repents and searches the city in panic for Gervais. At the same time, his theft is reported to the authorities. Valjean hides as they search for him, because if apprehended he will be returned to the galleys for life as a repeat offender.
Six years pass and Valjean, using the alias Monsieur Madeleine, has become a wealthy factory owner and is appointed mayor of a town identified only as M____-sur-M__ (i.e., Montreuil-sur-Mer). Walking down the street, he sees a man named Fauchelevent pinned under the wheels of a cart. When no one volunteers to lift the cart, even for pay, he decides to rescue Fauchelevent himself. He crawls underneath the cart, manages to lift it, and frees him. The town's police inspector, Inspector Javert, who was an adjutant guard at the Bagne of Toulon during Valjean's incarceration, becomes suspicious of the mayor after witnessing this remarkable feat of strength. He has known only one other man, a convict named Jean Valjean, who could accomplish it.
Years earlier in Paris, a grisette named Fantine was very much in love with Félix Tholomyès. His friends, Listolier, Fameuil, and Blachevelle were also paired with Fantine's friends Dahlia, Zéphine, and Favourite. The men abandon the women, treating their relationships as youthful amusements. Fantine must draw on her own resources to care for her and Tholomyès' daughter, Cosette. When Fantine arrives at Montfermeil, she leaves Cosette in the care of the Thénardiers, a corrupt innkeeper and his selfish, cruel wife.
Fantine is unaware that they are abusing her daughter and using her as forced labor for their inn, and continues to try to meet their growing, extortionate and fictitious demands. She is later fired from her job at Jean Valjean's factory, because of the discovery of her daughter, who was born out of wedlock. Meanwhile, the Thénardiers' monetary demands continue to grow. In desperation, Fantine sells her hair and two front teeth, and she resorts to prostitution to pay the Thénardiers. Fantine is slowly dying from an unspecified disease.
A dandy named Bamatabois harasses Fantine in the street, and she reacts by striking him. Javert arrests Fantine. She begs to be released so that she can provide for her daughter, but Javert sentences her to six months in prison. Valjean (Mayor Madeleine) intervenes and orders Javert to release her. Javert resists but Valjean prevails. Valjean, feeling responsible because his factory turned her away, promises Fantine that he will bring Cosette to her. He takes her to a hospital.
Javert comes to see Valjean again. Javert admits that after being forced to free Fantine, he reported him as Valjean to the French authorities. He tells Valjean he realizes he was wrong, because the authorities have identified someone else as the real Jean Valjean, have him in custody, and plan to try him the next day. Valjean is torn, but decides to reveal himself to save the innocent man, whose real name is Champmathieu. He travels to attend the trial and there reveals his true identity. Valjean returns to M____-sur-M__ to see Fantine, followed by Javert, who confronts him in her hospital room.
After Javert grabs Valjean, Valjean asks for three days to bring Cosette to Fantine, but Javert refuses. Fantine discovers that Cosette is not at the hospital and fretfully asks where she is. Javert orders her to be quiet, and then reveals to her Valjean's real identity. Weakened by the severity of her illness, she falls back in shock and dies. Valjean goes to Fantine, speaks to her in an inaudible whisper, kisses her hand, and then leaves with Javert. Later, Fantine's body is unceremoniously thrown into a public grave.
=== Volume II – Cosette ===
Valjean escapes, is recaptured, and is sentenced to death. The king commutes his sentence to penal servitude for life. While imprisoned in the Bagne of Toulon, Valjean, at great personal risk, rescues a sailor caught in the ship's rigging. Spectators call for his release. Valjean fakes his own death by allowing himself to fall into the ocean. Authorities report him dead and his body lost.
Valjean arrives at Montfermeil on Christmas Eve. He finds Cosette fetching water in the woods alone and walks with her to the inn. He orders a meal and observes how the Thénardiers abuse her, while pampering their own daughters Éponine and Azelma, who mistreat Cosette for playing with their doll. Valjean leaves and returns to make Cosette a present of an expensive new doll which, after some hesitation, she happily accepts. Éponine and Azelma are envious. Madame Thénardier is furious with Valjean, while her husband makes light of Valjean's behaviour, caring only that he pay for his food and lodging.
The next morning, Valjean informs the Thénardiers that he wants to take Cosette with him. Madame Thénardier immediately accepts, while Thénardier pretends to love Cosette and be concerned for her welfare, reluctant to give her up. Valjean pays the Thénardiers 1,500 francs, and he and Cosette leave the inn. Thénardier, hoping to swindle more out of Valjean, runs after them, holding the 1,500 francs, and tells Valjean he wants Cosette back. He informs Valjean that he cannot release Cosette without a note from the child's mother. Valjean hands Thénardier Fantine's letter authorizing the bearer to take Cosette. Thénardier then demands that Valjean pay a thousand crowns, but Valjean and Cosette leave. Thénardier regrets that he did not bring his gun and turns back toward home.
Valjean and Cosette flee to Paris. Valjean rents new lodgings at Gorbeau House, where he and Cosette live happily. However, Javert discovers Valjean's lodgings there a few months later. Valjean takes Cosette and they try to escape from Javert. They soon find shelter in the Petit-Picpus convent with the help of Fauchelevent, the man whom Valjean once rescued from being crushed under a cart and who has become the convent's gardener. Valjean also becomes a gardener and Cosette becomes a student at the convent school.
=== Volume III – Marius ===
Eight years later, the Friends of the ABC, led by Enjolras, are preparing an act of anti-Orléanist civil unrest on the eve of the Paris uprising on 5–6 June 1832, following the death of General Lamarque, the only French leader who had sympathy towards the working class. Lamarque was a victim of a major cholera epidemic that had ravaged the city, particularly its poor neighborhoods, arousing suspicion that the government had been poisoning wells. The Friends of the ABC are joined by the poor of the Cour des miracles, including the Thénardiers' eldest son Gavroche, who is a street urchin.
One of the students, Marius Pontmercy, has become alienated from his family (especially his grandfather M. Gillenormand) because of his liberal views. After the death of his father Colonel Georges Pontmercy, Marius discovers a note from him instructing his son to provide help to a sergeant named Thénardier who saved Pontmercy's life at Waterloo—in reality Thénardier was looting corpses and only saved Pontmercy's life by accident; he had called himself a sergeant under Napoleon to avoid exposing himself as a robber.
At the Luxembourg Garden, Marius falls in love with the now grown and beautiful Cosette. The Thénardiers have also moved to Paris and now live in poverty after losing their inn. They live under the surname "Jondrette" at Gorbeau House (coincidentally, the same building Valjean and Cosette briefly lived in after leaving the Thénardiers' inn). Marius lives there as well, next door to the Thénardiers.
Éponine, now ragged and emaciated, visits Marius at his apartment to beg for money. To impress him, she tries to prove her literacy by reading aloud from a book and by writing "The Cops Are Here" on a sheet of paper. Marius pities her and gives her some money. After Éponine leaves, Marius observes the "Jondrettes" in their apartment through a crack in the wall. Éponine comes in and announces that a philanthropist and his daughter are arriving to visit them. In order to look poorer, Thénardier puts out the fire and breaks a chair. He also orders Azelma to punch out a window pane, which she does, resulting in cutting her hand (as Thénardier had hoped).
The philanthropist and his daughter enter—actually Valjean and Cosette. Marius immediately recognizes Cosette. After seeing them, Valjean promises them he will return with rent money for them. After he and Cosette leave, Marius asks Éponine to retrieve her address for him. Éponine, who is in love with Marius herself, reluctantly agrees to do so. The Thénardiers have also recognized Valjean and Cosette, and vow their revenge. Thénardier enlists the aid of the Patron-Minette, a well-known and feared gang of murderers and robbers.
Marius overhears Thénardier's plan and goes to Javert to report the crime. Javert gives Marius two pistols and instructs him to fire one into the air if things get dangerous. Marius returns home and waits for Javert and the police to arrive. Thénardier sends Éponine and Azelma outside to look out for the police. When Valjean returns with rent money, Thénardier, with Patron-Minette, ambushes him and he reveals his real identity to Valjean. Marius recognizes Thénardier as the man who "saved" his father's life at Waterloo and is caught in a dilemma.
He tries to find a way to save Valjean while not betraying Thénardier. Valjean denies knowing Thénardier and tells him that they have never met. Valjean tries to escape through a window but is subdued and tied up. Thénardier orders Valjean to pay him 200,000 francs. He also orders Valjean to write a letter to Cosette to return to the apartment, and they would keep her with them until he delivers the money. After Valjean writes the letter and informs Thénardier of his address, Thénardier sends out Mme. Thénardier to get Cosette. Mme. Thénardier comes back alone, and announces the address is a fake.
It is during this time that Valjean manages to free himself. Thénardier decides to kill Valjean. While he and Patron-Minette are about to do so, Marius remembers the scrap of paper that Éponine wrote on earlier. He throws it into the Thénardiers' apartment through the wall crack. Thénardier reads it and thinks Éponine threw it inside. He, Mme. Thénardier and Patron-Minette try to escape, only to be stopped by Javert.
He arrests all the Thénardiers and Patron-Minette (except Claquesous, who escapes during his transportation to prison; Montparnasse, who stops to run off with Éponine instead of joining in on the robbery; and Gavroche, who was not present and rarely participates in his family's crimes, a notable exception being his part in breaking his father out of prison). Valjean manages to escape the scene before Javert sees him.
=== Volume IV – The Idyll in the Rue Plumet and the Epic in the Rue St. Denis ===
After Éponine's release from prison, she finds Marius at "The Field of the Lark" and sadly tells him that she found Cosette's address. She leads him to Valjean's and Cosette's house on Rue Plumet, and Marius watches the house for a few days. He and Cosette then finally meet and declare their love for one another. Thénardier, Patron-Minette and Brujon manage to escape from prison with the aid of Gavroche. One night, during one of Marius's visits with Cosette, the six men attempt to raid Valjean's and Cosette's house. However, Éponine, who has been sitting by the gates of the house, threatens to scream and awaken the whole neighbourhood if the thieves do not leave. Hearing this, they reluctantly retire. Meanwhile, Cosette informs Marius that she and Valjean will be leaving for England in a week's time, which greatly troubles the pair.
The next day, Valjean is sitting in the Champ de Mars. He is feeling troubled about seeing Thénardier in the neighbourhood several times. Unexpectedly, a note lands in his lap, which says "Move Out." He sees a figure running away in the dim light. He goes back to his house, tells Cosette they will be staying at their other house on Rue de l'Homme Arme, and reconfirms to her that they will be moving to England. Marius tries to get permission from M. Gillenormand to marry Cosette. His grandfather seems stern and angry, but has been longing for Marius's return. When tempers flare, he refuses his assent to the marriage, telling Marius to make Cosette his mistress instead. Insulted, Marius leaves.
The following day, the students revolt and erect barricades in the narrow streets of Paris. Gavroche spots Javert and informs Enjolras that Javert is a spy. When Enjolras confronts him about this, he admits his identity and his orders to spy on the students. Enjolras and the other students tie him up to a pole in the Corinth restaurant. Later that evening, Marius goes back to Valjean's and Cosette's house on Rue Plumet, but finds the house no longer occupied. He then hears a voice telling him that his friends are waiting for him at the barricade. Distraught to find Cosette gone, he heeds the voice and goes.
When Marius arrives at the barricade, the "revolution" has already started. When he stoops down to pick up a powder keg, a soldier comes up to shoot Marius. However, a man covers the muzzle of the soldier's gun with his hand. The soldier fires, fatally wounding the man, while missing Marius. Meanwhile, the soldiers are closing in. Marius climbs to the top of the barricade, holding a torch in one hand, a powder keg in the other, and threatens to the soldiers that he will blow up the barricade. After confirming this, the soldiers retreat from the barricade.
Marius decides to go to the smaller barricade, which he finds empty. As he turns back, the man who took the fatal shot for Marius earlier calls Marius by his name. Marius discovers this man is Éponine, dressed in men's clothes. As she lies dying on his knees, she confesses that she was the one who told him to go to the barricade, hoping they would die together. She also confesses to saving his life because she wanted to die before he did.
The author also states to the reader that Éponine anonymously threw the note to Valjean. Éponine then tells Marius that she has a letter for him. She also confesses to have obtained the letter the day before, originally not planning to give it to him, but decides to do so in fear he would be angry at her about it in the afterlife. After Marius takes the letter, Éponine then asks him to kiss her on the forehead when she is dead, which he promises to do. With her last breath, she confesses that she was "a little bit in love" with him, and dies.
Marius fulfills her request and goes into a tavern to read the letter. It is written by Cosette. He learns Cosette's whereabouts and he writes a farewell letter to her. He sends Gavroche to deliver it to her, but Gavroche leaves it with Valjean. Valjean, learning that Cosette's lover is fighting, is at first relieved, but an hour later, he puts on a National Guard uniform, arms himself with a gun and ammunition, and leaves his home.
=== Volume V – Jean Valjean ===
Valjean arrives at the barricade and immediately saves a man's life. He is still not certain if he wants to protect Marius or kill him. Marius recognizes Valjean at first sight. Enjolras announces that they are almost out of cartridges. When Gavroche goes outside the barricade to collect more ammunition from the dead National Guardsmen, he is shot by the troops.
Valjean volunteers to execute Javert himself, and Enjolras grants permission. Valjean takes Javert out of sight, and then shoots into the air while letting him go. Marius mistakenly believes that Valjean has killed Javert. As the barricade falls, Valjean carries off the injured and unconscious Marius. All the other students are killed. Valjean escapes through the sewers, carrying Marius's body. He evades a police patrol, and reaches an exit gate but finds it locked. Thénardier emerges from the darkness. Valjean recognizes him, but his filthy appearance prevents Thénardier from recognizing him. Thinking Valjean a murderer lugging his victim's corpse, Thénardier offers to open the gate for money. As he searches Valjean and Marius's pockets, he surreptitiously tears off a piece of Marius's coat so he can later find out his identity. Thénardier takes the thirty francs he finds, opens the gate, and allows Valjean to leave, expecting Valjean's emergence from the sewer will distract the police who have been pursuing him.
Upon exiting, Valjean encounters Javert and requests time to return Marius to his family before surrendering to him. Javert agrees, assuming that Marius will be dead within minutes. After leaving Marius at his grandfather's house, Valjean asks to be allowed a brief visit to his own home, and Javert agrees. There, Javert tells Valjean he will wait for him in the street, but when Valjean scans the street from the landing window he finds Javert has gone. Javert walks down the street, realizing that he is caught between his strict belief in the law and the mercy Valjean has shown him. He feels he can no longer give Valjean up to the authorities but also cannot ignore his duty to the law. Unable to cope with this dilemma, Javert commits suicide by throwing himself into the Seine.
Marius slowly recovers from his injuries. As he and Cosette make wedding preparations, Valjean endows them with a fortune of nearly 600,000 francs. As their wedding party winds through Paris during Mardi Gras festivities, Valjean is spotted by Thénardier, who then orders Azelma to follow him. After the wedding, Valjean confesses to Marius that he is an ex-convict. Marius is horrified, assumes the worst about Valjean's moral character, and contrives to limit Valjean's time with Cosette. Valjean accedes to Marius' judgment and his separation from Cosette. Valjean loses the will to live and retires to his bed.
Thénardier approaches Marius in disguise, but Marius recognizes him. Thénardier attempts to blackmail Marius with what he knows of Valjean, but in doing so, he inadvertently corrects Marius's misconceptions about Valjean and reveals all of the good he has done. He tries to convince Marius that Valjean is actually a murderer, and presents the piece of coat he tore off as evidence. Stunned, Marius recognizes the fabric as part of his own coat and realizes that it was Valjean who rescued him from the barricade. Marius pulls out a fistful of notes and flings it at Thénardier's face. He then confronts Thénardier with his crimes and offers him an immense sum to depart and never return. Thénardier accepts the offer, and he and Azelma travel to America where he becomes a slave trader.
As they rush to Valjean's house, Marius tells Cosette that Valjean saved his life at the barricade. They arrive to find Valjean near death and are reconciled with him. Valjean tells Cosette her mother's story and name. He dies content and is buried beneath a blank slab in Père Lachaise Cemetery.

Review: And sometimes that quest for justice and truth must be mounted against all odds, as in this 1995 version of `Les Miserables,' written for the screen and directed by Claude Lelouch.
An imaginative retelling of the Hugo classic, Lelouch updates the story to the Twentieth Century, beginning with the stroke of midnight that ushers in the New Era.
It's an inauspicious beginning of a new year for Henri Fortin (Jean-Paul Belmondo), however, as he becomes a victim of circumstance and is convicted of a crime he did not commit.
Ultimately, this becomes the story of the young Henri, whom we next encounter at the end of World War I.
But at this point, we are introduced to Andre Ziman (Michel Boujenah) who has just met the soon-to-be Mme Ziman (Alessandra Martines), who by the beginning of the Second World War are destined, along with their young daughter, Salome (Salome), to become an integral part of Henri's (also played by Jean-Paul Belmondo) life.
Henri, like his father, is illiterate; and when circumstances bring him together with the Ziman's, he is inadvertently introduced to Hugo's novel, and soon begins to realize how his own life parallels that of, initially, Cosette, and later-- and most significantly-- Jean Valjean.
When they end up taking a journey together, Henri implores Ziman to read the story to him as they travel.
And it's as if in the words of Hugo and the life of Jean Valjean, Henri discovers within himself all that is good and worthwhile.
By interspersing scenes of the Hugo story as they are being read to Henri (in which Belmondo is Jean Valjean), we see the parallels being drawn even as they become clear to Henri.
The film is fraught with irony and succinctly captures the essence of Hugo's novel; it's as if Lelouch had been possessed of Hugo's spirit when he wrote the screenplay, as well as later when he brought his vision to fruition, the finished product of which has to rank among the best interpretations of the story ever.
A superior cinematic rendering of the classic story, this film-- especially for those to who love the novel-- is not to be missed.
one of the greatest French films of the last few decades yet, sadly, a film almost entirely overlooked by most critics...including the Lelouch-bashers of the contemporary French film industry.make no mistake: most of those who have seen it--certainly everyone I know who has seen it--tend to regard it as a genuine classic of world cinema and the finest film of the year of its release.powerful, skillful and impassioned, I can recommend it without reservation.a triumph for all concerned..
It requires concentration because of the different story strands (and the fact that Jean-Paul Belmondo plays different characters in different stories) but the reward is great.
Entertaining, haunting and enchanting film which intertwines the Victor Hugo novel with twentieth century events.
It's an old struggle, true...yet rarely done so well.The protagonist (Jean Paul Belmondo was born to play this role)Henri Fortin, struggles from his impoverished childhood to his adulthood where the struggle for criminality and nobleness compete heavily.
The people and the situations he encounters, all involve themselves in a montage of life and experiences.LES MISERABLES is a unique, beautiful and complex story about a simple man.
So how do you make a movie that truly captures the essence of what Victor Hugo's vision?
The Liam Neeson movie falls incredibly short, but this film captures the true essence and spirit of Jean Valjean!
It creatively tells you Hugo's story while telling you about another character's journey similiar to that of Valjean's!
This is a truly beautiful film, remarkable for it's simple elegance in unraveling the story of it's principal characters which belies the many complex layers that lie underneath, as Hugo's original characters make their increasing presence felt as the story progresses.
It would be highly advantageous to have a good grasp of the characters and plot/line of Hugo's "Les Miserables" in advance of watching the film in order to fully appreciate the universality and agelessness of the human situations which are re-encountered in this particular World War II setting.
Both Hugo's novel and the film fully empathize with our universal human experience, and what are still the central concerns of our lives: pleasure & pain, the love and hate present in our relationships, and at the most fundamental level, simple survival.
This French movie is a 20th century version of Hugo's classic.
The story itself is entirely different, with a new Jean Valjean who identifies with the original hero shown in flashback throughout the film.The story is mostly about this new Jean Valjean and his life during the Nazi occupation of France and his relationship with a Jewish family that he attempts to save from the Holocaust.
The story is beautifully told with a superb cast led by Jean-Paul Belmondo in three roles.
Superb in all aspects of film-making.Hats off to Claude Lelouche (writer-director) and everyone else associated with the making of this fabulous epic..
The movie is actually set during World War II, with a new plot, but one that echoes and follows the book constantly in surprising ways.
Claude Lelouche is an ideal Valjean--with the natural, powerful goodness Victor Hugo intended and none of the cloying or artificially heroic goodness Valjeans in movies often have.
Whether you've read the novel or not, this is a wonderful, emotionally wrenching movie, worth watching..
Beautifully filmed, edited and acted story for the ages.
This movie looks at the whole range of human behavior through the window of Victor Hugo's Les Miserable, transferred to two generations of people in the 20th century French setting.
The visual images of war, passion and humanity remain with you long after the movie ends, and its long playing time is well worth it!.
The "les Miserables" story has been told many times, but never with the emotional impact of this film.
Jean-Paul Belmondo plays multiple roles in this movie within a movie, and is outstanding in each.
Masterfully crafted and told, it leaves you with a warm feeling inside.One of only two movies I've been moved to stand and applaud at the end of.
Claude LeLouche does a brilliant job at incorporating Victor Hugo's novel into 20th Century WWII.
Jean Paul Belmondo plays a dual role that should have garnered him awards for his performance as both Valjean and as Henri Fortin who takes in a Jewish girl during World War II.
The girl reads to Henri from Victor Hugo's classic novel, Les Miserables, since I believe Henri himself can't read.
The film is dually impressive relating the past to the present day life of France during the French Revolution and World War II during the German occupation of France.
The great essence of Hugo's master work is perfectly represented and by moving it forward in time it somehow enters directly into our lives...
we saw it with french subtitles and for those who don't find subtitles annoying, i feel like this is a movie worth watching.
before seeing the movie, people probably should know that this was an adaptation of the original les miserables book by Victor Hugo.
the book was set during the french revolution but the director adapted the story to WWII.
the story is really powerful, it shows the aspects of human life and how on this earth, there are people who are truly evil and there are people who are just purely good.
in the beginning, there's a lot of confusion and it starts out weird but once you get interested in it, it's great.i recommend just going to sparknotes.com and reading the plot summary of Les Miserables.
Lelouch's version of Les Miserables really isn't a retelling of the oft told story.
Instead, the Hugo story is part of the background, while we see it applied to more current times -- in this case, 20th Century France, including the German occupation.
Les Miserables keeps playing itself out in the lives of everyday people.
That is part of what makes Hugo's story so powerful, that we are there -- or perhaps it's more accurate to say Valjean, Javert, Colette, and even the Bishop are in us..
Even if you haven't read the novel, or are familiar with it, this film is excellent in every way.
This movie tells the story of some of these people of each persuasion, as they interact in different ways with the forces around them.
One of them, himself the son of a wrongly convicted man and the woman who sold herself to keep her son alive, sees himself through the pen of Victor Hugo and, in living up to his conception of Jean Valjean, transcends all the ugliness about him.
Running parallel to the famous Victor Hugo classic, this movie introduces us to very complex characters in our recent past, the Twentieth Century.
You should see it, but make sure it is Les Miserables of the Twentieth Century, and that it was filmed in French in 1995..
This film is not as good as many would have you believe.The mixing of Henri Fortin's interest in the Victor Hugo novel is often corny.The ending is unnecessarily violent and confusing.
The main reason for this is that I hadn't read the book and had no idea of the storyline of Les Miserables.The second time I watched the movie, I understood it very well.
It is well done and one of my favorite movies of all time.Alessandra Martines is stunningly beautiful and Salomé Lelouch is fantastic also.Anyone who knows a little of the Les Miserables story should enjoy this movie.
Four people - mother, father, daughter, plus lorry driver who-is-helping-this-Jewish-family-escape-to-Switzerland-in-WW11 COULD get separated and survive ENDLESS hardships and meet up again after the war, and the Father COULD be the lawyer who defends the lorry-driver and saves him from the guillotine, and the lorry driver COULD be an illiterate who gets it into his head that he is the human incarnation of a fictional character (Jean Valjean)and that his life will follow the same pattern and he COULD become mayor of the town.
But this film, a relatively recent work (1995) by the great French director Claude Lelouch, contradicts that.
It is a brilliant reworking of Hugo's classic tale, set against the turmoil of occupied France and manages to be both epic and intimate.
In the original novel, Valjean is a man imprisoned for 19 years for stealing a loaf of bread and then attempting several times to escape.
I was confused and frustrated throughout the whole movie, trying to see how it was in any way connected to Victor Hugo's epic novel..
A variation on Victor Hugo's classic novel by means of the story of a man whose life is affected by and somewhat duplicated by the Hugo story of the beleaguered Jean Valjean.There have been many, many film incarnations of "Les Miserables".
Despite the title, this film is not a straight-up adaptation of the classic novel but a loose updating to the 20th century but with events and characters mirroring those of the book(with Henri really identifying with Jean Valjean himself).
The story never feels rushed or stodgy even with the length instead it is ceaselessly compelling, you identify completely with every character and their increasingly intense and harrowing situation(especially with Henri's task and struggles to keep the Jewish family out of the Nazis' clutches.
In support, Annie Giradot is particularly heart-breaking but it is Jean-Paul Belmondo's outstanding lead performance that people will remember most.
Many French people would tell you that Victor Hugo's "Les Misérables" is the greatest novel ever written.
To take such an esteemed book and adapt the story for one of the darkest periods in French history showed enormous courage by both the director and producer.Their courage was worth it.
Hugo's story is interwoven with the fictional life of Henri Fortin (Jean-Paul Belmondo) who both portrays the character of Jean Valjean and has Hugo's original story read to him during the film.
Fortin's life mirrors that of Valjean, but set in a later period.The film shows that Hugo's story is timeless.
The film remains true to the spirit and sequence of the original story although the setting is quite different.
This is not Victor Hugo's "Les Miserables", its a modernized story.
But the original title of this remarkable 1995 version is "Les Misérables du vingtième siècle"(the miserable ones of the twentieth century.) The film title credits read "Les Miserables of Victor Hugo" but then adds "freely adapted" by Claude Lelouch." Lelouch was also the director and producer.I saw the film on television in the 4:3 format.
I would have preferred letterbox so I could have enlarged it to fit in my wide screen plasma TV, but the film is in French and the subtitles in letterbox format would have been hard for people viewing it on older sets to read.
The main characters in the film are Henri Fortin (Jean-Paul Belmondo), the father and his son by the same name, who earns the nickname of Jean Valjean (Victor Hugo's protagonist) because of events in his life that correspond to those of Hugo's Valjean.
When the novel is read to Henri Fortin to help him understand why the nickname, the story telling dissolves into an enactment of the novel.
In those sequences we see Fortin playing the part of Valjean.I had a little difficulty following the start of the movie, which opens with a wretchedly sad Henri Fortin as Jean Valjean regretting something he did and calling after "the little chimney sweep." (I am not familiar with that part of Hugo's novel.
This section of the film deals with Henri senior's life as a convict, his wife's and young son's lives during that time, and his escape attempt.Things advance from there to his son, now grown and a prize fighter, at the end of World War I.
The film then moves forward about 20 years and an older Henri junior is now a retired French champion driving a moving van as German rule begins to sweep Europe near the start of World War II (a couple of years before Pearl Harbor caused the US to enter that war.) I think that the more you know of the Victor Hugo book the more you will like this film, but I think that even without any knowledge of the original you will still get a lot out of watching it.From then on there is no dull moment as the protagonists move through lives of anguish and deceptions.Although the film is full of tragedy, it leaves you filling good at the end..
Absolute most intriguing version of Victor Hugo's novel!.
At the conclusion, we were all extremely moved, and I realized the incredible nature of this story by Victor Hugo.
I have since seen other versions of this timeless story, but I have to say, this one is the most moving and my favorite.It was so incredible to see the cross stories, of the WWII present and the Victor Hugo past.
This film tells the story of a man whose life parallels that of Jean Valjean.
The movie cuts back and forth between Nazi Germany and scenes from the original Hugo masterpiece.The film is towering, powerful and beautifully filmed.
It is wonderful to see Claude Lelouch's personal essay on Victor Hugo's themes.
He gives character to the normally colorless Cosette and he and Belmondo manage to communicate the sweet, un-educated simplicity of Valjean/*Fortin in scenes like the one in which he rides a truck across France and asks passengers to read the book to him and explain passages for him.
Amazing film, very true to the book..
This movie was, in every way, based around Victor Hugo's novel.
I'm in the middle of reading the book (unabridged version) and saw the movie a little while ago.
As I read I come across little things that make me think, "Wow, that movie was true to the book!" Perhaps not directly, but if one has the ability to read between the lines you will notice that this movie IS Les Miserables.
In the novel, Jean Valjean (the prisoner) jumps off a boat and swims to his freedom, but he must (obviously) hold his breath long enough to swim away without being noticed/having to go to the surface for air.This movie is excellent, dramatic, moving, and intriguing--never a boring moment.
I don't think this is too much of a spoiler to say the end of the film has Henri Fortin dancing a waltz.
I can't speak accurately for Mr Wallis, but I don't think most (any) of the rest of us think dancing a waltz is violent.I think Ms Huntress had unrealistic expectations for this film, It is NOT -- I repeat, NOT -- Victor Hugo's Les Miserables!
Henri Fortin has been told by people on many occasions that his life is like that of Jean Valjean.
Based upon Victor Hugo's classic nineteenth century novel is this lavish epic about humanity's many levels of compassion, selfishness, brutality and love.
In short, the good and evil of mankind.One can immediately appreciate writer/director Claude Lelouch's passion and sincere admiration for Hugo's story, as he lovingly relates to us the story of Henri Fontin, a man whose miserable beginnings yet big heart parallel those of the famed Jean Valjean.Lead actor Jean-Paul Belmondo is thoroughly enjoyable as the generous spirited Fontin, also playing on occasion the heroic Jean Valjean in flashback.
Helene de Luze provides the editing.Monday, March 24, 1997 - Hoyts CroydonClaude Lelouch lovingly tells this war time variation on Victor Hugo's novel.
Purists and fans of the musical may not get a great deal from this translation, but lovers of quality, epic cinema will.All credit must go to Lelouch for the way he nurtures this film, delivering excellence in all areas throughout the entire running time.
The music came from several sources.By far the best French film I have ever seen.Monday, November 27, 1997 - Video