"Fight. Dream. Hope. Love."
Directed by Tom Hooper
Produced by Tim Bevan, Eric Fellner, Debra Hayward, Cameron Mackintosh
Screenplay by William Nicholson, Alain Boublil, Claude-Michel Schönberg, Herbert Kretzmer
Based on "Les Misérables" by Victor Hugo
Starring: Hugh Jackman, Russell Crowe, Anne Hathaway, Amanda Seyfried
Music by Claude-Michel Schönberg
Cinematography: Danny Cohen
Edited by Melanie Ann Oliver, Chris Dickens
Production company: Relativity Media, Working Title Films, Cameron Mackintosh Ltd.
Distributed by Universal Pictures
Release date: 21 December 2012 (Japan)
Running time: 158 minutes
Country: United Kingdom
Budget: $61.000.000
Box office: $441.800.000
"Les Misérables" is a romantic musical drama film directed by Tom Hooper and based on the musical of the same name by Alain Boublil and Claude-Michel Schönberg which is in turn based on the 1862 French novel by Victor Hugo. It tells the story of Jean Valjean, an ex-convict, who decides to turn his life around. As time goes by he becomes mayor of a town in France and owner of a factory in that town. One of Valjean's factory workers, Fantine, blames him for her being cast into a life of prostitution. He helps her but she dies. Jean Valjean feels responsible and agrees to take care of her illegitimate daughter, Cosette. Later, when Cosette is grown, they are swept up in the political turmoil in Paris, which culminates in the Paris Uprising of 1832.
- Hugh Jackman as Jean Valjean
- Russell Crowe as Javert
- Anne Hathaway as Fantine
- Amanda Seyfried as Cosette
- Eddie Redmayne as Marius Pontmercy
- Aaron Tveit as Enjolras
- Samantha Barks as Éponine
- Isabelle Allen as Young Cosette
- Daniel Huttlestone as Gavroche
- Colm Wilkinson as Bishop Myriel
- Helena Bonham Carter as Madame Thénardier
- Sacha Baron Cohen as Thénardier
- Bertie Carvel as Bamatabois
- George Blagden as Grantaire
- Killian Donnelly as Combeferre
- Fra Fee as Courfeyrac
- Alistair Brammer as Jean Prouvaire
- Gabriel Vick as Feuilly
- Hugh Skinner as Joly
- Iwan Lewis as Bahorel
- Stuart Neal as Lesgles
- Hadley Fraser as National Guard Leader
- Heather Chasen as Madame Magloire
- Georgie Glen as Mademoiselle Baptistine
The cast is full of my favourite actors. Hugh Jackman. I was surprised with his performance, frankly speaking. Strong Jean Valjean with a determined character seemed so, so... amazing! I can't find the right words to describe this performance. Javert is an idealist who isn't able to accept the fall of his ideas. Russell Crowe was on the ball as always. As for Anne Hathaway, I believed each her Fantine's emotion and movement. Amanda Seyfried as Cosette correctly felt her character. Kind, a little naive and brave young girl was well performed by the actress. Helena Bonham Carter perfectly showed Madame Thénardier: strange, crazy and eccentric woman with not less insane husband that was played by Sacha Baron Cohen. Eddie Redmayne (Colin Clark from "My Week with Marilyn") demonstrated a real power of a young man who at the time of French Uprising of 1832.
I also want to say that all the actors coped well with their vocal parts. And I take into consideration that they aren't professional singers but that does not alter the particularity of the fact.
Advantages
- Hugh Jackman as Jean Valjean
- Russell Crowe as Javert
- Anne Hathaway as Fantine
- Amanda Seyfried as Cosette
- Eddie Redmayne as Marius Pontmercy
- Helena Bonham Carter as Madame Thénardier
- Sacha Baron Cohen as Thénardier
- Tom Hooper
- Musical
- Based on "Les Misérables" by Victor Hugo
Disadvantages
- Too little dialogues
"Strangenesses"
- It's more screen version of the musical, not of the Hugo's work
Clue Moments
- Death
- Childbirth
- Révolution française
According to Wikipedia, on June 5, 1832, young Victor Hugo was writing a play in the Tuileries Gardens when he heard the sound of gunfire from the direction of Les Halles. The Gardens were deserted and the park-keeper had to unlock the gates to let Hugo out, but instead of hurrying home, he followed the sounds through the empty streets, unaware that half of Paris had already fallen to the mob. All about Les Halles were barricades. Hugo headed north up the Rue Montmartre, then turned right onto the Passage du Saumon, and at last turning before the Rue du Bout du Monde (World’s End Street). Halfway down the alley, the grilles at either end were slammed shut. Hugo was surrounded by barricades and flung himself against a wall, as all the shops and stores had been closed for some time. He found shelter between some columns. For a quarter of an hour, bullets flew both ways.
In his later novel Les Misérables, first published in 1862, Hugo depicts the period leading up to the rebellion, and follows the lives and interactions of several characters over a twenty-year period. The novel begins in the year of Napoleon Bonaparte's final defeat and climaxes with the battles of the June Rebellion. An outspoken republican activist in the 19th century, Hugo unquestionably favored the revolutionaries.
Scenes of Parisian students and the poor, planning the rebellion upon the eve of the benevolent General Lamarque’s death, are portrayed in the novel through the activities of the fictional "Friends of the ABC" (a pun on the French term abaissé, or "oppressed"), led by the charismatic character Enjolras and portrayed as a sub-group of the Rights of Man Society. The erection of barricades throughout Paris's narrow streets is also described. The ABC organize the building of a barricade in the Rue de la Chanvrerie, a side-road running into the Rue Saint-Denis, near a wine shop which they use as their base of operations. During the climactic battle the main characters all come together and many of them are killed.
Although a fictional work, Les Misérables has given the relatively little-discussed rebellion widespread renown. The novel is one of the few works of literature that discusses the June Rebellion and the events leading up to it.
* * *
Jean Valjean: To love another person is to see the face of God.
* * *
Gavroche: This is the land I fought for liberty, now when we fight, we fight for bread... here is the thing about equality, everyone's equal when they're dead.
* * *
Fantine: I had a dream my life would be so different from this hell I'm living!
* * *
Javert: Now Prisoner 24601, your time is up and your parole's begun. You know what that means?Jean Valjean: Yes, it means I'm free.
Javert: No. Follow to the letter your itinerary, this badge of shame you wear until you die. It warns that you're a dangerous man.
Jean Valjean: I stole a loaf of bread. My sisters child was close to death, and we were starving...
Javert: And you will starve again unless you learn the meaning of the law!
Jean Valjean: I've learnt the meaning of those nineteen years; a slave of the law.
Javert: Five years for what you did. The rest because you tried to run, yes 24601...
Jean Valjean: My name is Jean Valjean!
Javert: And I'm Javert! Do not forget my name. Do not forget me, 24601.
* * *
Gavroche: Little people know, when little people fight, we may look easy pickings, but we've got some bite. So never kick a dog because it's just a pup! We'll fight like twenty armies, and we won't give up! So you better run for cover, when the pup grows...
* * *
Javert: My heart is stone, and still it trembles.
* * *
Enjolras: It is time for us all to decide who we are. Do we fight for the right to a night at the opera now? Have you asked of yourself what's the price you might pay? Is this simply a game for a rich young boy to play? The colors of the world are changing day by day! Red, the blood of angry men! Black, the dark of ages past! Red, a world about to dawn! Black, the night that ends at last!
* * *
Javert: I am reaching, but I fall. And the stars are black and cold... as I stare into the void, of a world that cannot hold. I'll escape no from that world, from the world of Jean Valjean... there is nowhere I can turn, there is no way... to go on!
* * *
Jean Valjean: You are wrong, and always have been wrong. I'm a man no worse than any man. You are free and there are no conditions. no bargains or petitions. There's nothing that I blame you for. You've done your duty, nothing more.
* * *
Cosette: You will live, Papa you're going to live. It's too soon too soon to say goodbye.Jean Valjean: Yes Cosette, forbid me now to die I'll obey. I'll try. On this page I write my last confession. Read it well when I at last am sleeping. It's the story of one who turned from hating - a man who only learned to love when you were in his keeping.
* * *
You may see the trailer here.
Plot: 8/10
Entertainment: 9/10
Acting: 9/10
Originality: 8/10
Music and Sound: 10/10
9/10
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