Of the movie adaptations I have seen, and I have not seen the 1934 French version, I must admit that this is the best one yet. I thankfully watched the six hour original French miniseries and loved it, despite not being able to understand more than three words every ten minutes. Pity they have yet to subtitle it.
Gerard Depardieu is near perfect for Valjean in stature and voice, albeit I wanted to smack the script writer for deciding he was obsessively in love with Cosette. Christian Clavier was a perfect Thenardier; he was slimy, cruel, and self-serving. My only bone to pick concerning him is the way he was attempting to kill people right and left (Valjean and Marius to be precise) in moments where he wasn't supposed to if we're going by the book. Veronica Ferres was of the perfect build for his wife, but she was just a little too pretty, and attempted to make out with her husband on at least three occasions. Charlotte Gainsbourg was a nice change of pace for Fantine. She was generally very mousy and truthful to the novel, except that despite going to a denture and wig maker, she only sold her hair, not her front incisors like she is supposed to. I must also say that Asia Argento was the spitting image of Eponine, save for that dress of hers, which appeared far too expensive for a dirt poor family, whether or not it was torn in places.
I personally was not happy with John Malkovich's portrayal of Javert. The way he annunciated very slowly and monotonously EVERY SINGLE WORD, made the movie and the dialog drag. Being that I also did not understand exactly what he was saying, it was twice as boring. Enrico Lo Verso was also horribly miscast. He was far too old, and had a rather frightening smile, to say the least. Someone really needed to do something concerning his hair as well.
I also have to comment on Steffen Wink as Enjolras. Though the successive movies seem to move alternately closer and further from the novel's depiction of him. This was perhaps the closest yet, though it still was not truly the character. Wink smiled and laughed way too much, and did not seem totally engaged in and serious about the insurrection. But at least he was blond and believably young-looking this time.
The actual plot of the movie stayed closer to the novel than any of the other movie adaptations I have seen. I was particularly fond of Eponine's death scene. It is definitely worth the $20 you pay on Amazon to get the French version, if only to watch Asia Argento die. It's very dramatic and heart wrenching, and was the only scene in the entire six hours that made me cry. Even in barely being able to understand what she said, I could hear in her (apparently dubbed) voice and see through her expressions that she regretted a great deal of the bad things that she had done. The theme of redemption permeated the scene. The blood effects actually seemed realistic as well.
There were some senseless alterations, however. For one, why was Gavroche living with Marius? And did anyone notice that Gavroche was the same age when Valjean brought little Cosette to Paris as when she was seven or eight years older? And why did we have to change the bead factory to a fabric factory? It's such a USELESS alteration. And why was Fauchelevent fighting with the National Guard when he's supposed to be dead? And why doesn't Mme. Thenardier die in jail like she's supposed to? And why, to be my nit picky purist self, did they build the barricade outside of the Cafe Musain instead of Corinthe? And why, even in a six hour long miniseries with added scenes not in the book, could the screenwriter not find time to put in the end of the barricade scene, Enjolras' death in particular? His character and his death are symbolic and support one of Hugo's major themes in several of his novels: the idea that someday perfection and progress will come, but they cannot happen with the world in its current state. And yet, somehow, in all of the movies, his character plays a very small role. The closest was in the 1958 French version that kept his death scene identical, even if it barely developed his character the rest of the time.
In regards to technical issues, the only one that stood out to me concerned Asia Argento. At first I thought I was imagining it, but the closer I looked, the more I noticed her lips did not sync up with the audio. I suppose she must have been speaking English or Italian and was dubbed in French, but the fact that it was noticeable was very disappointing. As much as I loved her appearance and her acting, perhaps it would have just been better to have a French actress in the role. However, despite the sloppy dubbing job, her dubbed voice was particularly well chosen.
Overall, despite my aforementioned list of annoyances, I thoroughly enjoyed this movie and I recommend it to anyone who has a thorough knowledge of the story and can deal with not understanding all of the dialog. Otherwise, you might end up very, VERY confused. I know nothing about the English version, but at half the running time, I find it hard to believe it would be nearly as good.
Gerard Depardieu is near perfect for Valjean in stature and voice, albeit I wanted to smack the script writer for deciding he was obsessively in love with Cosette. Christian Clavier was a perfect Thenardier; he was slimy, cruel, and self-serving. My only bone to pick concerning him is the way he was attempting to kill people right and left (Valjean and Marius to be precise) in moments where he wasn't supposed to if we're going by the book. Veronica Ferres was of the perfect build for his wife, but she was just a little too pretty, and attempted to make out with her husband on at least three occasions. Charlotte Gainsbourg was a nice change of pace for Fantine. She was generally very mousy and truthful to the novel, except that despite going to a denture and wig maker, she only sold her hair, not her front incisors like she is supposed to. I must also say that Asia Argento was the spitting image of Eponine, save for that dress of hers, which appeared far too expensive for a dirt poor family, whether or not it was torn in places.
I personally was not happy with John Malkovich's portrayal of Javert. The way he annunciated very slowly and monotonously EVERY SINGLE WORD, made the movie and the dialog drag. Being that I also did not understand exactly what he was saying, it was twice as boring. Enrico Lo Verso was also horribly miscast. He was far too old, and had a rather frightening smile, to say the least. Someone really needed to do something concerning his hair as well.
I also have to comment on Steffen Wink as Enjolras. Though the successive movies seem to move alternately closer and further from the novel's depiction of him. This was perhaps the closest yet, though it still was not truly the character. Wink smiled and laughed way too much, and did not seem totally engaged in and serious about the insurrection. But at least he was blond and believably young-looking this time.
The actual plot of the movie stayed closer to the novel than any of the other movie adaptations I have seen. I was particularly fond of Eponine's death scene. It is definitely worth the $20 you pay on Amazon to get the French version, if only to watch Asia Argento die. It's very dramatic and heart wrenching, and was the only scene in the entire six hours that made me cry. Even in barely being able to understand what she said, I could hear in her (apparently dubbed) voice and see through her expressions that she regretted a great deal of the bad things that she had done. The theme of redemption permeated the scene. The blood effects actually seemed realistic as well.
There were some senseless alterations, however. For one, why was Gavroche living with Marius? And did anyone notice that Gavroche was the same age when Valjean brought little Cosette to Paris as when she was seven or eight years older? And why did we have to change the bead factory to a fabric factory? It's such a USELESS alteration. And why was Fauchelevent fighting with the National Guard when he's supposed to be dead? And why doesn't Mme. Thenardier die in jail like she's supposed to? And why, to be my nit picky purist self, did they build the barricade outside of the Cafe Musain instead of Corinthe? And why, even in a six hour long miniseries with added scenes not in the book, could the screenwriter not find time to put in the end of the barricade scene, Enjolras' death in particular? His character and his death are symbolic and support one of Hugo's major themes in several of his novels: the idea that someday perfection and progress will come, but they cannot happen with the world in its current state. And yet, somehow, in all of the movies, his character plays a very small role. The closest was in the 1958 French version that kept his death scene identical, even if it barely developed his character the rest of the time.
In regards to technical issues, the only one that stood out to me concerned Asia Argento. At first I thought I was imagining it, but the closer I looked, the more I noticed her lips did not sync up with the audio. I suppose she must have been speaking English or Italian and was dubbed in French, but the fact that it was noticeable was very disappointing. As much as I loved her appearance and her acting, perhaps it would have just been better to have a French actress in the role. However, despite the sloppy dubbing job, her dubbed voice was particularly well chosen.
Overall, despite my aforementioned list of annoyances, I thoroughly enjoyed this movie and I recommend it to anyone who has a thorough knowledge of the story and can deal with not understanding all of the dialog. Otherwise, you might end up very, VERY confused. I know nothing about the English version, but at half the running time, I find it hard to believe it would be nearly as good.