Claysaba
Excellent, Without a doubt!!
Ceticultsot
Beautiful, moving film.
Isbel
A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.
gavin6942
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". Many before this film, and many since. Some are musicals, some are narratives, and most (including this one) tend to run on the longer side. But this film may be more unlike any of the others than any of them are with each other.The idea of adapting the story to the 20th century is clever, and is even more clever by referencing a film within a film, so it is not just a straight update. But further still, the time period seems to be around 1950, maybe earlier... so it wasn't set in the 1990s. It is still a period piece. It is, to my recollection, the only period piece to use a film-within-a-film structure.
ladywarrior0505
I had seen the Broadway version of this story and was very thrilled since I really had never heard of this story before going to see it on the stage. When I heard that this film was being played at a local Art Theatre, I eagerly gathered my family to go see it. I was horrified at first, because the entire movie was in French with English subtitles. No where was to be heard the incredible lush musicals I had seen in the play. You see, I knew nothing of the story, other than getting the chance to see it in a live performance. So I had "tricked" my family into going to see what we all thought was going to be a musical.Foreign films with subtitles are the worst kind of torture to my family and the few friends I dragged with us. However, as the story unfolded, I could see not one of my family (scattered around the theatre) got up to leave. 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. The present day characters could see themselves in the plot in the book. All the characters made me long for their safety and survival and I was moved beyond words to be part of their lives (both the present day characters and the past characters). Sometimes it was frustrating to get caught up in one story line and then switch to the other story line. But soon, you were caught up again in that change in time and place and you didn't want to switch to the other story line. Every one of my teenage children came up to me at the conclusion and thanked me for making them see something they would never have chosen for themselves.
Charles P
The received wisdom is that the rate at which film masterpieces are made has slowed to a virtual standstill. 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. It is one of the most moving and powerful films of the past 50 years and yet at the same time it manages to be charming, uplifting and even funny at times. Arguably, it is also a film that only a Frenchman could have made because it is so brutally honest about the conduct of so many 'ordinary' French people under the Vichy government. The performances are heartbreakingly good, Belmondo has never been better and he is surrounded by a remarkable cast. Not least of these is the young Salome Lelouch (Claude's daughter) - effortless in her role as the 11-y-old separated from her parents as Hitler's stormtroopers sweep across France. I commend this film to everyone, it occupies vaguely similar territory to that of Schindler's List but is incomparably better - more real, curiously more human, more engaging, less artful. Breathtaking.
Goatbeyondhope
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. It can leave the viewer personally identifying one moment with Jean-Valjean, and yet in the next with Fantine or Cosette, and inevitably (disturbingly), with Javert. This is an exquisite exploration and contrast of our human capacities both to bring about almost unlimited destruction, and to build life and inextinguishable hope. Very special.
