Name: Retro Film Review: Les Misérables (1995)
Item: Les Misérables
Rating: 70
Author: @drax

(source: tmdb.org)

Few works of literature had left such a great impact on world film makers as Victor Hugo's novel Les Misérables did. The 1862 French classic, these days best known as the basis for successful theatre musical, was adapted to screen countless times in many countries. So, any film maker who wants to tackle this material must do it in a new and original way. Famous French director Claude Lelouch did just that in his spectacular 1995 version.

Lelouch's film is not the strictest possible adaptation of the novel, originally set in France during the first half of 19th Century. The plot of the film is set a century later and begins in 1900, when people are celebrating new century, blissfully unaware of horrors to come. The century starts badly for Roger Fortin (played by Jean-Paul Belmondo), driver who gets wrongly convicted for murder, while his wife ends up like prostitute. Four decades later his son Henri (also played by Belmondo) is a former boxing champion, now forced to earn the living as a truck driver. When Nazis occupy France, his path is going to be crossed with Andre Ziman (played by Michel Boujenah), rich Jewish lawyer who wants to get his family to Switzerland. Henri Fortin agrees to drive his family to safety, but in exchange he wants Ziman to read him Hugo's Les Misérables; Fortin is illiterate, but he once saw the film adaptation and remained infatuated with the novel ever since. Soon after that the events and situations that Fortin, Zimans and other people around them encounter are going to resemble events and situations from Hugo's novel.

Les Misérables represent the strange combination of the old tradition and new trends in French cinema. On one hand, the film has all the hallmarks of traditional French spectacle - being based on classic novel, having large budget, three hours of length and lush period costumes. On the other hand, Claude Lelouch has turned the classic film making techniques upside downs just like revolutionary film makers of 1960s - in Les Misérables same actors are playing different characters and the scenes that feature 1940s characters are intertwined with the scenes that follow the novel more faithfully and take place in 1800s. Some literary purists might not like it, but the spirit of Hugo's novel is maintained and the film has the same emotional impact. Good thing for Lelouch was the timing of the production - 1995 was the year in which France celebrated two important anniversaries - 100 years since the invention of cinema and 50 years since the end of WW2. Those two events are very prominently featured in the film, but Lelouch doesn't seem to be awed by their significance. The film is more concentrated on the destinies of individuals, and even the most terrible thing like Holocaust can provide backdrop for some dark humour (like in the case of peasant couple who hide Ziman and keep him in the dark about the end of war, so they could milk his Swiss account). However, in some aspects the film is tries to be too hip for its own good and the audience would have to be familiar with Hugo's novel in order to catch the proper meaning of some scenes. Thankfully, the acting in the film is top notch, with Jean-Paul Belmondo in complicated triple role giving one of the best performances in his long and prolific career. Les Misérables, despite its flaws, shows that some truths are equally universal on the big screen and on the pages of good literature.

RATING: 7/10 (+++)

(Note: The text in its original form was posted in Usenet newsgroup rec.arts.movies.reviews on January 28th 2003)