Les misérables

Robert Hossein offered the public a great version of Victor Hugo's novel. I read the book many times and I only regret that the movie (and even the TV version more complete) has to cut some of the action, or the film would have to be at least 6 hours long.

The actors are all well chosen. from the always perfect Michel Bouquet to Jean Carmet and Candice Patou, very moving, and Christine Jean, very beautiful. But most of all there is Lino Ventura. He is Jean Valjean, he doesn't only play the part. I guess in his real life, he was a kind of Valjean himself, having a difficult life in his youth. This movie has been made 20 years ago and it's now a classic. No one could tell it's already such an old movie, the message is still the same since Victor Hugo's time. The story is out of time and this movie version is too.

(Version seen of 3h in its 'theater' version) The movie in itself is a good adaptation of Hugo classic of the classics "Les misérables". Keeping true to the book story, Hossein shows that dark age quite well. It tries some artistic parts, I was not personnally driven by it, but I see that others were so why not. The only criticism I can make is that, by trying to stay as close of the book as possible, it is somehow losing a bit of epic, and a bit of the depiction of human condition of the unfortunates made by Hugo, that was a clear denouncement.

The cast regroups some of the French great actors of that time, with Lino Ventura, Michel Bouquet or Jean Carmet. I was quite surprised to see that Lino Ventura will play Jean Valjean but he puts a very solid performance. Feminine roles are only supporting characters.

The Robert Hossein's version of Les Miserables is undoubtedly the most faithful adaptation to Victor Hugo's novel. Lino Ventura is great as Jean Valjean as well as Michel Bouquet as Javert and Jean Carmet as Thernardier. All the actors are well characterized and the darkness of the film gives the story the right atmosphere of misery and sadness. The whole story is squeezed into the three hours film, so the events happened quickly, but remaining faithful to the original story. If the film had been two hours longer, it would have been perfect. Other adaptations that I consider good are the 1934 starring Harry Baur, the 1958 starring Jean Gabin and the 2000 version starring Gerard Depardieu.I consider regular the British adaptation starring Richard Jordan and Anthony Perkins. I consider as bad adaptations the 1998 version starring Liam Neeson and the 1935, starring Federich March.

Lino Ventura and Michel Bouquet are wonderful, some others among the supporting characters too, but Hossein's directing style is so terribly outdated and grandiloquent (and why on earth is it raining so much throughout the movie?). The use of the music is so tasteless, see the barricade scene.

A compelling version of the Victor Hugo novel that should be sought out and viewed by fans of other versions and the novel. This theatrical release is not as complete as the longer television version broadcast in 1985, but nonetheless gets you hooked. Hossein is as faithful to the novel as possible. Film features a wonderful and human portrayal by Ventura as Valjean and does not betray the ending of the novel the way American and British versions have.