Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #54889 in DVD
• Rating: R (Restricted)
• Aspect ratio: 2.35:1
• Format: PAL
• Original language: French, German
• Running time: 175 minutes

Amazon.com
This brilliant film manages to reinterpret the story of Victor Hugo's classic novel, critique it, and investigate the nature of art and life on top of that--all in three hours that zip past, fueled by the dynamic performance of French icon Jean-Paul Belmondo (Breathless, Le Doulos). In 1900, Henri Fortin (Belmondo) is wrongfully imprisoned for murder; his loyal wife is forced into menial labor and prostitution; then in the beginning of World War II, Fortin's son (Belmondo again) helps a Jewish family elude the Nazis, setting in motion his own imprisonment, escape, and adventures as a criminal. Not only is that just the first half of the movie, there are also the story lines of the husband, wife, and daughter of the Jewish family, who each have their own struggles. The conclusion is joyous and heartbreaking. Director Claude Lelouch (A Man and a Woman) handles the entire movie with supreme skill, humor, and compassion. --Bret Fetzer

Customer Reviews

One of the greatest films ever made.
This is one of the greatest films ever made. Mark my words. History will bear me out. Acclaimed French filmmaker Claude Lelouch, whose classic examinations of intimate emotions include the Oscar-nominated "A Man and A Woman," paints a sweeping portrait of the human condition in his epic drama "Les Miserables," a twentieth-century tale inspired by the nineteenth-century masterpiece of French writer Victor Hugo. Lelouch's "Les Miserables" focuses on two French families who struggle, hope, suffer and ultimately find love and friendship in the face of nearly insurmountable odds.

The film stars international acting legend Jean-Paul Belmondo as Henri Fortin, a humble man whose life takes him through some of the most important events of contemporary times. As he alternately rises to heroism and sinks to criminal desperation, Fortin's existence mirrors the struggle between good and evil that illuminates Victor Hugo's character, Jean Valjean.

When Fortin meets and befriends the wealthy, intellectual Ziman family (Michel Boujenah, Alessandra Martines and Salome) who are fleeing French and German Nazi persecution of the Jews, he builds an unusual friendship with the brilliant but desperate trio. And for the first time, he learns the story of Jean Valjean and comes to see himself as a real-life extension of Hugo's protagonist.

The Zimans read Les Miserables to the illiterate Fortin as he smuggles them across the country, and by the time their momentous journey is finally complete, they have all come to realize their roles in the parallel epics of literature and life.

With a stellar cast that includes Annie Giradot, Philippe Leotard and Clementine Celarie, Claude Lelouch incorporates vignettes from Fortin's past, from the lives of Fortin's and Lelouch's own parents and from Hugo's novel into the saga, spanning generations and delineating his-and Fortin's-belief that, in the words of Willa Cather, "there are only two or three stories in the world and we must all live them over and over."

"Les Miserables," written, produced and directed by Claude Lelouch, and freely adapted from the novel by Victor Hugo, begins at the start of the twentieth century, with a glittering New Year's celebration that soon leads to a man's suicide. Before we know it, another man-the lowly Fortin-is convicted of murder and serving time in a cruel prison.

The prison scenes were filmed at Fort Joux, a real jail hundreds of years old. The forbidding setting brought a sense of gravity to all of the actors and an air of timelessness to the story of man's eternal suffering on Earth.

Meanwhile, Fortin's adoring wife and young son await his release and try their best to survive until they are re-united. However, it is not to be. Fortin suffers in jail and dies, and his wife is turned to prostitution by the venal innkeepers who employ her. The young Henri lives a miserable existence, swallowed by sorrow, until he is taught to box.

After Henri Fortin leaves the inn and becomes a young soldier, the viewer encounters him about to begin a boxing match in an open hospital courtyard. He is surrounded by hundreds of wounded World War I soldiers; the year is 1918 and snow is falling heavily, giving the scene a hallucinatory air. Before the fight can begin, the end of the war is announced, and the soldiers begin joyously chanting "Fortin, Fortin!"

Scene after scene of spectacle and personal revelation follow, spanning decades and moving from elegant drawing rooms to wartime prisons to expansive outdoor landscapes. As the Nazi occupation of France begins to cast its shadow over the country, town after town and peaceful countrysides as well are transformed into terrifying traps for the Zimans and the thousands of other French Jewish families. The Zimans travel by train, by truck and by car, hiding in small towns and under floorboards, far from their beautiful home and fearing death every minute.

As they flee one house, merely steps ahead of their pursuers, they find themselves in the hands of Henri Fortin, and at the beginning of a friendship that is as strong as it is unlikely. Throughout the enormous events that follow for all of them, the focus remains on the personal fortunes, emotions and actions of the people who so fascinated Lelouch and his creative predecessor, Victor Hugo.

Many years after his sad childhood, Fortin returns to the Guillaumes' inn as an adult, accompanied by three criminal accomplices, known as Addition, Blame and Bonnard (Ticky Holgado, Antoine Dulery and Jacques Bonnot). Fortin is pained by the memories of the treatment that sent his mother to her death, and determined to confront the brutal innkeepers who were responsible. But once he arrives he learns that the Guillaumes have died and their son and grandson, a much kinder duo, now run the inn.

After spending the night at the inn, Fortin's group awakes to discover Allied ships lining the horizon. Though they are thrilled by this development, their happiness quickly turns to terror as they find themselves the target of a vicious shelling. Fortin once again demonstrates heroism in, ironically, defending the inn.

This is a film made by an artist at the zenith of his powers. The breadth and scope of this film reaches a level very rarely seen, and is usually accomplished by a director who has reached the age where his life's experiences, knowledge of the artistry of cinema and imaginative fortitude all mesh to create an act of pure magic. Think of Ingmar Bergman's Fanny & Alexander, Akira Kurasawa's Kagemusha, or Laurence Olivier's King Lear. The way every scene, character, episode, even the music is integrated is absolutely flawless. It is equal parts funny, despairing, poignant, courageous, thoroughly engrossing, beautifully photographed, supremely edited, perfectly paced. The casting of Jean-Paul Belmondo, with his hounddog face, as Jean Valjean is a stroke of genius because he is so genuinely able to show confusion, delight, joy, understanding, patience, anger, practically EVERY human emotion there is, which Hugo used and Lelouch utilizes, so brilliantly. And the beautiful French actress Alessandra Martines, who has not done as much acting in her life as she has dancing, gets the honor of embodying the film's climax, which is one of the most satisfying emotional conclusions I've ever seen.

A beautiful movie about hope
"After 34 films, I am dedicated to filming hope." -Claude Lelouch

This is neither a movie based on the book or the broadway musical; it is not merely a retelling of Hugo's novel in modern times- it is a beautiful masterpiece that follows a period of time filled with fear, ignorance, oppression, suffering, miserable ones, war, greed, and betrayal. We follow the story of Henri Fortin (Jean Paul Belmondo), whose father died while trying to escape from a prison that unjustly sentenced him based on appearances. Henri Sr. was the driver of a man who commited suicide, and the police assumed that Henri Sr. killed the man. His wife, much like Fantine in the book, does everything she can to raise money for a lawyer, making her son Leopold, who she now calls Henri, work to raise money. She is forced into prostitution. Henri Sr. dies on an attempt to escape, so the wife kills herself. Henri Jr. starts a boxing career, and World War I ends. However, peaceful times never come because soon comes World War II. The Jews are being betrayed by all their friends. Henri is called a Jean Valjean because many people feel that his life parallels that of Jean Valjean. He helps a family of Jews travel towards Switzerland and gets their daughter into the Academy of the Sacred Heart for safety. As they drive they read him Les Miserables since he cannot read or write. He is amazed at the story and feels that Les Miserables can be applied to any situation in life. He starts seeing parallels to Cosette and Valjean.

It is a beautiful story that will surely make you cry! It is in French and has subtitles. I don't speak French but I had no problem with it. I read quickly and I had to rewind a couple of times because the subtitles go by so quickly, but that was no problem for me! I highly recommend this video if you want to see how Les Miserables is so true in today's world and is still a masterpiece. It is a wonderful movie! There is lots of violence in it, so it's not necessarily for younger viewers. it is beautifully done. I only hope they come out with a DVD version in the future with commentary and extras! BRAVO!

Captures the Essence of Hugo
Carried on the winds of fate, injustice often settles upon the poor and downtrodden, whose only link to salvation may lie in the truth they carry in their hearts and the manifested courage of their convictions. And sometimes that quest for justice and truth must be mounted against all odds, as in this 1995 version of "Les Miserables," written for the screen and directed by Claude Lelouch. An imaginative retelling of the Hugo classic, Lelouch updates the story to the Twentieth Century, beginning with the stroke of midnight that ushers in the New Era. It's an inauspicious beginning of a new year for Henri Fortin (Jean-Paul Belmondo), however, as he becomes a victim of circumstance and is convicted of a crime he did not commit. As he goes off to prison, he leaves behind a wife and a young son (also named Henri), who must fend for themselves as best they can. It leads to a miserable existence for all concerned, but steels the young Henri for what is yet to come, and he quickly learns that when things seemingly cannot get any worse, they not only can, but do.

Ultimately, this becomes the story of the young Henri, whom we next encounter at the end of World War I. Now a boxer, he is soon to become a contender. By 1931, however (when we next meet him), that part of his life is behind him as well, and he has become a furniture mover; and with his own truck, he is able to at least make a passable living. But at this point, we are introduced to Andre Ziman (Michel Boujenah) who has just met the soon-to-be Mme Ziman (Alessandra Martines), who by the beginning of the Second World War are destined, along with their young daughter, Salome (Salome), to become an integral part of Henri's (also played by Jean-Paul Belmondo) life.

Henri, like his father, is illiterate; and when circumstances bring him together with the Ziman's, he is inadvertently introduced to Hugo's novel, and soon begins to realize how his own life parallels that of, initially, Cosette, and later-- and most significantly-- Jean Valjean. When they end up taking a journey together, Henri implores Ziman to read the story to him as they travel. And it's as if in the words of Hugo and the life of Jean Valjean, Henri discovers within himself all that is good and worthwhile.

Lelouch has crafted and delivered a poignant version of the familiar tale of injustice and perseverance that borders on the profound. By interspersing scenes of the Hugo story as they are being read to Henri (in which Belmondo is Jean Valjean), we see the parallels being drawn even as they become clear to Henri. The film is fraught with irony and succinctly captures the essence of Hugo's novel; it's as if Lelouch had been possessed of Hugo's spirit when he wrote the screenplay, as well as later when he brought his vision to fruition, the finished product of which has to rank among the best interpretations of the story ever.

The supporting cast includes Annie Girardot (Farmer's Wife), Philippe Leotard (Farmer), Clementine Celarie (Mme Fortin), Philippe Khorsand (Javert), Nicole Croisille (Thenardiere), Rufus (Thenardier), William Leymergie (Toureiffel) and Micheline Presle (Mother Superior). An emotionally engaging, riveting drama that will sweep you up and carry you away, "Les Miserables" is a tale of dignity and courage, and of what it takes to overcome betrayal and injustice. But even more than that, it's a study of morality; of right against wrong and of good that in the end must triumph over evil. A superior cinematic rendering of the classic story, this film-- especially for those to who love the novel-- is not to be missed.