Ugadi Pachadi

Eclipse Series 4 – Raymond Bernard (Wooden Crosses / Les Miserables [1934]) (Criterion Collection) It’s in French – Virginia Henkaline – Indiana
And so since I remember little of my French, I have not finished watching the dvd. Don’t know if it is published in English., but should have bought it in English if it is. It does have the wording at the bottom, but takes a little effort to then keep up.
My introduction to “Les Miserables” was in the form of a Classics Comic book when I was a kid. Naturally, the comic book did not cover the full scope of the novel. I later had the pleasure to watch a couple cinematic versions of the story including the Frederic March version from the 1930’s. It covered pretty much the same ground that the comic book did. Last week I watched Raymond Bernard’s French version of the French book and I saw a lot of the story that I had never seen before. I anticipated as much since this version was nearly 5 hours long.

What I assume I saw was a lot more of what I suspect Victor Hugo wanted to convey. The book is quite long and I never made a serious effort to read it although I may some day. I understood what the title of the movie meant and, I confess, I didn’t really catch how story I read and watched lived up to the title. I now know more of what Hugo probably meant for us to understand. I believe that the book was intended to show the victims of (French) society. Whether the characters in the story were saints or scoundrels, their fate had been predetermined and they were stuck with it. This film version allowed me to understand Hugo’s purpose as the familiar scenes blossomed into a story of epic scope. What was new all seemed to be about want, suffering and the desperation of hungry people. That hunger took many forms from lack of food to lack of love to lack of proper representation. In the midst of all this is a true hero, Jean Valjean whose is lacking the sense of security due to his youthful stealing of a loaf of bread. The persistence of Javert the policeman/detective in the pursuit of Valjean is the core of the story that we are accostomed to in the numerous abrdged versions. It is the tale of the hunted fugitive and the abridged version in every form I’ve seen makes it very interesting but, based on what I saw in Bernard’s version, the full story is more impressive.

I guess I should rate this movie with 5 Stars instead of the 4 I gave it. The direction is excellent, the acting good to excellent, the script, well, that speaks for itself. I guess there are times when the movie doesn’t sequence well and times when the power of its’ story is put into simplistic scenes. Five Stars or Four Stars, this is an excellent movie. Watch it if you’ve got the time. Image Entertainment: Studio: Image Entertainment Release Date: 07/17/2007
Eclipse Series 4 – Raymond Bernard (Wooden Crosses / Les Miserables [1934]) (Criterion Collection)

• Eclipse Series 5 – The First Films of Samuel Fuller (The Baron of Arizona / I Shot Jesse James / The Steel Helmet) (Criterion Collection)
• Roberto Rossellini’s War Trilogy (Rome Open City/Paisan/Germany Year Zero) (Criterion Collection)
• A Christmas Tale (The Criterion Collection)
• Larisa Shepitko: Eclipse Series 11 (Wings / The Ascent) – Criterion Collection
• Lola Montes