Friday, January 4, 2019
563 - Les Miserables, Part 1, France, 1934. Dir. Raymond Bernard.
So long as poverty and misery still exist on earth, works such as this may not be in vain. - Victor Hugo.
TEMPEST IN A SKULL
Harry-Baur - Jean Valjean / M. Madeleine / Champmathieu
Charles Vanel - Javert
Jean Valjean, convict.
Released September 8, 1815.
Profession: tree trimmer.
Sentenced at the age of 25 to five years' hard labor on March 2, 1796, for breaking and entering and theft.
Additional sentences of 14 years for four escape attempts.
"This man is very dangerous."
Jean Valjean is large and strong. He helps to hold up the heavy statue at the town square long enough for the men to get a beam back under it and support it again. Because of his heroic service to the town, he is released a few months before his scheduled parole date.
The prison staff and civic leaders are satisfied with his behavior while in prison and appreciative for his contribution to the town. They would be happy for him to lead a quiet and peaceable life and for them never to see him again.
Inspector Javert, on the other hand, marks him.
Javert wants Jean Valjean like Captain Ahab wants Moby Dick.
It will become his lifelong quest to capture him.
A man and woman give Valjean a place to stay for the night. After he has settled in with them, he realizes that the man is a priest; indeed, a bishop. He eats a great meal and sleeps in a bed for the first time in nearly twenty years. Early the next morning he absconds with the silver.
When the police capture him and return him to the bishop, the bishop has the power to send Valjean to jail for good. But he does not. Instead, he tells the officials that he gave Valjean the silver, and that in fact he also gave him two candlesticks which Valjean forgot to take with him. So he adds the candlesticks to Valjean's possession.
The bishop forgives Jean Valjean. He sets him free. He simply whispers in his ear to become a good man and to dedicate his life to mercy and truth.
It is one of the great moments in literary history. Millions of people have read it, or seen it, for years since the year of its first publication.
Javert decides to walk north. He wants to get as far away as possible. He walks because he has no other means of transportation. And after being in jail for nineteen years, walking is good.
On one of his rest stops a boy drops a 40-sous coin, which Valjean steps on without seeing. Valjean does not understand the boy's protests, so he runs him off. When he discovers that he did indeed have the boy's coin, he tries to call him back, but the boy is gone. So Valjean holds on to the coin for life.
Jean Valjean eventually becomes the mayor of a town, M. Madeleine of Montreuil. He meets Fantine, who falls into a life of working the streets in order to provide from a distance for the love of her life, her daughter Cosette. The Thenardiers, innkeepers, are keeping Cosette and taking Fantine's money and keeping her in her situation.
Eventually, a man is captured who looks like Jean Valjean. M. Madeleine, the real Valjean, hears about it and resolves to defend the man even at the cost of his own freedom. He also promises Fantine that he will take Cosette and take care of her.
Fantine dies.
Jean Valjean rushes to the trial of the innocent man, Champmathieu, and after watching the prosecution lay out a damning case, he declares before the court that he is the real Jean Valjean. The court lets both men go free--Champmathieu, because M. Madeleine has vouched for his innocence, and Valjean, because Madeleine is an upstanding citizen in the community, and they do not fully believe he is really Valjean.
He returns in time to be with Fantine as she dies, and he promises that he is on his way to get Cosette.
But before Valjean can go, Javert enters and arrests him. Now he knows his true identity, and he will always get his man.
You may already know the plot of Les Miserables. Many people do. But you might not. This is a quick overview of the first of three sections of this four hour, forty-nine minute adaptation of the novel. The one many believe to be the most complete of the fifteen or more feature film adaptations that have been made around the world.
Raymond Bernard is a strong movie director. And we are grateful to have the opportunity to watch him, to listen to him, and to see him at work.
The cinematography is crisp and in focus.
The lighting is soft and beautiful. With hair lights and trim lights on everyone.
If you love Les Miserables, then you will love this film version--presuming you are willing to dispense with the songs from the musical, which came out nearly half a century later.
It is a wonderful telling of the story.
And we are happy that we will be watching more of it over the course of the next couple days.
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Victor Hugo published Les Miserables in 1862.
There have been at least 15 feature film versions of it, two television mini-series, a radio series made by Orson Welles, a television version in Japanese anime, three comic books, a couple of manga adaptations, etc.
53 adaptations
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So it never ends? After the chains comes the passport.
Yours is not to count. The state counts for you, and it is never wrong.
How do you know I'm not a criminal?
That's the Lord's concern.
He is not a thief. I gave it to him, along with two silver candlesticks.
I know you will use this silver to become an honest man. I'm convinced of it.
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