Les Misérables (1995)
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79% of critics liked it
(19 reviews) -
83% of users liked it
(767 ratings)
Not a strict adaptation of the oft-filmed Victor Hugo classic, director Claude Lelouch's ambitious epic instead focuses on the story of two men, a father and a son, whose life stories bear striking similarities to Hugo's character Jean Valjean. The father is Henri Fortin (Jean-Paul… More Not a strict adaptation of the oft-filmed Victor Hugo classic, director Claude Lelouch's ambitious epic instead focuses on the story of two men, a father and a son, whose life stories bear striking similarities to Hugo's character Jean Valjean. The father is Henri Fortin (Jean-Paul Belmondo), a chauffeur (in 1900) wrongly accused of his employer's murder. Like Valjean, he is subjected to a harsh and unfair prison sentence. While Henri vainly attempts to escape his unjust fate, his family suffers, with his wife forced to raise their young son alone. The film jumps ahead several decades to show the adult life of this son (also Belmondo), a former boxer turned furniture mover who agrees to help smuggle a Jewish lawyer (Michel Boujenah) out of France during the Nazi occupation. Along the way, the lawyer reads to the younger Fortin from Les Misérables, and Fortin begins to imagine himself in the role of Jean Valjean, on the run from the obsessive Inspector Javert. ~ Judd Blaise, Rovi
- Directed By
- Claude Lelouch
- Genres
- Drama, Art House & International, Classics
R,
- In Theaters
- Nov 3, 1995 Wide
- Studio
- Warner Home Video
Critic Reviews
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Jonathan Rosenbaum, Chicago Reader
The family reads the Hugo novel aloud to him while they travel together, and apparently they all come to realize how much their lives are like great literature.
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Trevor Johnston, Time Out
It's part of the magic Lelouch has worked that his story-of-all-stories theme matches the catch-all inclusiveness of his old-fashioned celluloid showmanship.
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Kevin Thomas, Los Angeles Times
Aspectacular-looking film with those great settings and costumes that are a hallmark of French period films.
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Rita Kempley, Washington Post
If it were shorter, we wouldn't know what misery really feels like.
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, USA Today
Exasperatingly overstuffed, the movie finally proves disarming (to a point) on spectacle alone.
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Cast
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Jean-Paul Belmondo
as Henri Fortin, Jean Valjean, Roger Fortin
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Michel Boujenah
as Andre Ziman
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Alessandra Martines
as Mme Ziman
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Annie Girardot
as Farmer's Wife
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Philippe Leotard
as Farmer
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Clémentine Célarié
as Mme Fortin
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Micheline Presle
as Mother Superior
- Jacques Boudet
- Marie Bunel
- Cyrielle Claire
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Darry Cowl
as Bookseller
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Ticky Holgado
as Kind Hoodlum
- Sylvie Joly
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Philippe Khorsand
as Javert
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Jean Marais
as Mgr Myrie
- Maurice Mons
- Anne Marie Pisani
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Rufus
as Tenardier
- Isabelle Sadoyan
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Pierre Vernier
as Prison Boss
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Daniel Toscan du Plantier
as Le comte de Villeneuve
- Robert Hossein
- Jean-François Dérec
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Antoine Duléry
as Crazy Type
- Peter Semler
- Jacques Bonnot
- Nathalie Cerda
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Jacques Gamblin
as Verger
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Salome
as La fille Ziman
- Michaël Cohen
