This colossal French novel that you must have read at least once in your life has been adapted numerous times for the screen. This version, however, changes a fundamental element.
There are works of French literature which, through their subject matter or their quality, span the ages and remain great classics, even hundreds of years after their publication. This is the case of this colossal novel, which due to its extremely strong subject matter, has been adapted numerous times for cinema and television. One of these versions can be seen this week on television.
Even if you haven’t read it (and we recommend it), there’s a good chance you’ve heard of Miserable and that the names of Jean Valjean, Javert, Cosette, Marius or Fantine mean something to you. A masterpiece by Victor Hugo published in 1862, this extremely rich novel tells the story of a convict imprisoned for stealing a piece of bread, and who spends his entire life repenting. Through his characters who experience the major historical events of the 19th century (the battle of Waterloo or the riots of June 1832), Victor Hugo describes the ravages of poverty and social violence, denounces injustices and defends the oppressed.
It is therefore not surprising that such a novel has given rise to several film adaptations. This week, viewers can (re)discover the very free version by Claude Lelouch released in 1995 and crowned with the Golden Globe for best foreign film the following year.
The French filmmaker, however, takes a very strong bias: that of placing his plot in the 20th century and especially during the Second World War, that is to say a hundred years after the plot of the novel. For the occasion, Jean Valjean becomes Henri Fortin (Jean-Paul Belmondo), a boxing champion who helps a Jewish family flee Nazi oppression.
In fact, big changes with the novel take place in the plot (the persecutions of Cosette by the Thénardiers are those inflicted by the alter-ego of Jean Valjean for example). Because, as Victor Hugo himself wrote in his preface, “as long as there is ignorance and poverty on earth, books of this nature may not be useless.”
By transposing the plot of the novel a hundred years later and making his words still very relevant, Claude Lelouch proved to what extent this quote was true. Wretchedwith Jean-Paul Belmondo, Annie Girardot, Philippe Léotard, Jean Marais, Clémentine Célarié and Michel Boujenahn is broadcast this Sunday June 2 on Arte, at 9 p.m.