MovieChat Forums > Les misérables (1936) Discussion > The best Les Miserables ever?

The best Les Miserables ever?


The reviewer quoted above is right. This is a magisterial film. BBC showed the films over three days one Christmas about 8 or 9 years ago (?) so I was able to tape them and I guard those videos as rare treaures. It is bizarre that the film is not better known - though the fact that it is really a trilogy must have something to do with it.

Harry Baur is an awesome presence - a huge hulking man. Honneger's music is quirky and evocative. The scenes of Paris often look like genuine 19th Century photgraphs magically brought to life. The barricade scenes get the sense of history and immediacy (hand held camera) in perfect balance. Brilliant.

As an aside, it's interesting how all the American films radically filleted the book, highlighting the enmity of Valjean and Javert. They cast a youngish more romantic lead as Valjean (Fredric March, Michael Rennie, Richard Jordan, Liam Neeson - well, he's on the cusp) and a character actor in the Javert Role (Charles Laughton, Robert Newton, Anthony Perkins, Geoffrey Rush). The French, however, took a quite differnt approach. Perhaps from reverence, they embraced the epic nature of the novel, and they also made Valjean himself an essentially big "character" part (Harry Baur, Jean Gabin, Lino Ventura) with a somewhat less prominent Javert (Charles Vanel, Bernard Blier, Michel Bouquet). The international 2000 TV mini-series (I've not seen it) looks like a bit of a cross-breed, with Gerard Depardieu (the Jean Gabin de nos jours), against John Malkovich (a strong character actor).

reply

Looking for a copy of this film is like searching for Moby Dick or the Holy Grail. Do you have any suggestions?

cinefreak

reply

I presume you mean the Harry Baur version.

Sorry. I haven't a clue. But I'll investigate and get back to you.

reply

Yeah, it's the Baur version I'm talking about. I work in a library and I still can't manage to find it. Thank you very much for all efforts in this matter. They're greatly appreciated.

cinefreak

reply

No luck, nateba. It's impossible to find, even on French sites. Ho hum.

I've heard good things about the recent European TV version with Gerard Depardieu as Jean Valjean. But even here you have to be careful. The English version, at some 3 hours, is half the length of the full French version, and is apparently totally mangled. (And it's not just a re-editing job. I understand that there are quite different takes: the English version has the mostly French actors speaking heavily accented English, whereas in the French version they are performing in their native tongue). In fact, all the significant French versions are more or less full adaptations, whereas all the Hollywood versions fillet the book savagely. It seems clear that the French treasure the book as a classic, know it inside out, and won't tolerate anyone messing about with it too much, while English-speakers are assumed to be less familiar with, and less reverent towards it, allowing producers to condense and rearrange it as they wish.

reply

Well, thank you very much for all your efforts, Austendw! I just don't understand why such a highly regarded film should be so hard to locate. Maybe it's copyright or something. I really can't thing of any other reason. I'm an old movie nut and I've found some pretty obscure stuff, but this just continues to stymie me! Oh well...back to the hunt!

cinefreak

reply

The best place to look for a copy is on a French second hand specialist site - www.priceminister.com . I've seen it there several times, and as I write there are three copies for sale on VHS. It comes on three tapes, recorded in SECAM and with no subtitles. It's also quite expensive, but then I'm a mean Scot! It was also available through www.alapage.com, but it seems to have been deleted now - might be worth enquiring, though.

Hope that's of some help.

SF

reply

Criterion/Eclipse - paired with Wooden Crosses - superb film, superb deal. Get it NOW!!!

Darren Skuja
"Film Is The Ultimate Artform"

reply

It is.

reply

I downloaded the whole movie from Rapidshare!

reply

You can also watch it on Hulu Plus.

"She's, like, a biscuit older than me..."

reply

Hugh Jackman is going to own this thread soon. And Oscar for Les Miserables...

reply

The best is the 1934 with Harry Baur. But much too long for most audiences today. And worst of all: you must READ stuff for over 4 hours. Almost 5 hours. It could give you a headache unless you really like great flix. Or speak le francais.

I'm glad TCM has included it tonight in their threesome.

reply

I can hardly believe that it's nearly eight years since I opened this thread! Much has changed since then and Les Misérables is included in the Criterion Raymond Bernard boxed set. I can dump those old VHS tapes at last.


Call me Ishmael...

reply