It took me two months to read the immortal novel of 19th century
France. A great experience that left me wanting more when it was over.
Unlike the tedium of some other thick classics [why does PORTRAIT OF A
LADY come to mind?] this volume delivers it all: sin, Golden Rule redemption,
and pulse-pounding action. I read it and it made me want to become a better,
generous, more forgiving person; more effective than 37 years of sermonized
injunctions against evil.
The only modern medium that could translate this book would be the
television miniseries. Even the best cinematic version, the 3-hour French
film starring Jean Gabin, leaves the hard core devotee wanting more. The
novel begins with the history of a kind-hearted bishop. Every player in
the book has a history and the texture we feel for even the minor characters
is what gives the story the warp and woof of reality. Any one of the half-dozen
primary characters is fleshed out as much as a central character would
be in a modern novel or movie. Think of how many times you read a book
or see an adventure movie about two characters who seem to have no other
friends or close relations. The scenarist usually gets away with it by
throwing in that the character is from out of town, or has no family. How
hard it is to create a real character, one that would have a best friend,
parent, sibling, or even an acquaintance to say, Hey, you just met that
guy and I think he looks dangerous, Hey, don't quit your job yet or at
least call your boss, that adventure you are going off on may screw up
the rest of your life. This would take away from the action and today's
audience wants [or is fed] action. They don't read or see movies for character
development. Television seems character driven what with the popularity
of good-looking white teen angst shows but if Felicity on the WB weblet
didn't seem to be about one commercial break away from sack time with an
earringed goateed hunk, I don't think the show would do as well. I did
a little research on Felicity and discovered she is one of the good girls
on TV as she assumes the supine position. TV bad girls prefer the opposite.
The bishop, referred to by the townsfolk as Monsieur Bienvenue [Mister
Welcome, translated in my book as Monsieur Welcome--trs. assumes we all
know the common words such as Monsieur] had an adventurous public life
that we learn about, the events occurring long before newly released convict
Jean Valjean arrives at his door. It is virtually impossible to portray
the events of the bishop's previous life and the 2 movie versions I saw
make no attempt at it. However it is these events that contribute to his
character: unbounded kindness to the needy, perfect Christian humilty and
charity. The bishop's succesful secular life and the loss of it during
the political turmoil of the era, foreshadow the heights and depths of
the other characters.
The 19th century reader must have enjoyed a good coincidence or
two. Incredible chance meetings, overheard comments, and non-recognitions
of the obvious take place in the book that the screenwriter has generally
dismissed as too far-fetched to the modern audience. Dramatic compression
also folds in and opaques these twists. There's not a lot of humor in the
book and the movie versions have missed what little there was. I enjoyed
the convent gardener Old Fauchlevent, whose life is saved by Jean Valjean
and he manages to return the favor. The old man is the architect of some
hilarious business involving a a live body in a coffin, a cemetery, and
grave diggers that put me in the mind of Billy Crystal's Grave Digger in
Branagh's HAMLET film. Or possibly imagine Zero Mostel in the role to get
an idea of this good-hearted schemer.
The worst transgression in the Liam Neeson Les Miserables is what they do to Cosette. Sorry, but Cosette is not a pistol-packin' mama. She is a lady of the 1800s, not a Honey West/feminist/action figure. She sits out the action at the barricades during the revolution in the streets, pining away for her beloved. In the movie she is at the barricades holding Javert, Jean Valjean's policeman/hunter, at gunpoint, and untying the hands of Javert's prisoner--her boyfriend Marius. Earlier in the pic, Jean Valjean uses Cosette to stall Javert, placing her in some jeopardy as Javert peppers her with questons. This is antithetical to everything Jean Valjean does or is.
The Jean Gabin film is faithful in tone to the novel. Valjean is a hulking
old guy, not a Jedi warrior. The young lovers steal moments away from each
other but maintain a distance that the Jean Gabin film honors but the Liam
Neeson film paractically mocks. It might have been a sop to a hoped for
influx from Clare Danes' young following. The Gabin has a death scene that
actors live for, the Neeson ends with an act of perfidy--Valjean watches
Javert drown himself as he stands by and does nothing. That is not the
same Jean Valjean I got to know and admire in my reading of the novel.
All the actors were good in the Neeson but thet were ill-served by a bogus
interpretation of a great novel.
I read the most recent translation, thumbed through another one,
and scanned an even older one in the public domain that I downloaded from
Project Gutenberg. In the unforgettable death scene at the end of the novel,
the degree of grief varies according to the translator, ranging from sniffles
to full-blown tsunamis of tears. So all my comments are based on the translation
based on the Penguin books version, reprinted over 25 times so it must
be the standard. A publisher's dream-- a perennial book on its annual list,
no royalties to a long-gone author. I hope the translator is still making
something on it.
All the screenwriters have also taken out the lengthy descriptions
of events in French history, including the Battle of Waterloo. I find no
fault here. I enjoyed reading about the battle and even drew on my bookmark
the A-shaped intersection of roads that cut through the battlefield. Hugo
gives an easy-to-render description of the roads that you need to refer
to understand the battle strategies. Perhaps Les Miserables was the ur-hypertext
novel. It would have been handy to click on a map but it fun to draw it.
Read the book, rent or buy the Gabin. I got it for $9.95 at Suncoast
Video. It is dubbed. Skip the Neeson unless you're a Clare Danes fanatic
or if you never intend to read the book.
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