The first thing you have to say about Les Misérables (1934) is that it is 288 minutes long. Being this long, as an adaptation of a huge novel, it allows more space for character development, inclusion of multiple plotlines and themes. It is apparently the fullest adaptation of the Victor Hugo novel. However, this would not make any real difference if the film did not stand-alone, but it stand-alones brilliantly. The lengthy running time, while daunting before you start, is actually a breeze. Les Misérables is so entertaining and packed with incident that the running time flies by, though I did watch the film in the three parts, over three days, as designated by the Masters of Cinema blu-ray. I…

I just saw this 1934 version of Les Miserables on the Criterion channel. Raymond Bernanrd directed this nearly five hour version of Victor Hugo's classic. The epic runtime is thankfully broken up into three parts to make it easier to watch. It is considered by many critics to be the best adaptation of Les Miserables. It is definitely more fleshed out than the stage version, the only other version I have seen, with more of a background and storyline given to the French Revolution portion of the book among other parts. I was really impressed with the actor, Harry Baur, who played Jean Valjean. He physically fits the role as a towering hulk of a man, but he was riveting…

The first sound version of Les Misérables. And it's a major piece as Raymond Bernard makes it into a 3-part movie lasting a total of 4 hours and 40 minutes. And even with that length it didn't feel long at all. Bernard quite simply directs a superb movie! He gets the symbolism across perfectly. While some of the revolution sequences in the 3rd part leaves a bit to be desired, the rest manages to make such a strong impression that it more then make up for a little slump.

As long as it was Harry Baur on screen the production was saved. The man was amazing as Jean Valjean! He really commanded the screen with his presence. Just the transformation…

It's funny. I've sat through 70 minute films that felt like an eternity. And movies that threatened to run into perpetuity, which sailed by like a breeze. Les Misérables -a nearly 5 hour epic- was mostly a breeze.

I’m no Les Mis aficionado and have only seen the musical that starred Wolverine and Catwoman a few years back; that's it. I thought that was okay, but this is better. While it doesn't have the music, it does have Harry Baur, and Harry Baur carries this picture on his broad shoulders.

His Jean Valjean is a thing to behold. He can be rather theatrical early on, shouting and gesturing and such. But once he settles down, his quiet strength and humanity…

The old saying talks about going "from the sublime to the ridiculous", but for me it was the reverse order that applied. Having watched a mediocre gay zombie movie, Kevin Hamedani's ZMD: Zombies of Mass Destruction (2009), my next film was this astonishing 4 hour 41 minute adaptation of Victor Hugo's classic novel.

Having now seen both of the films in the Criterion Eclipse DVD box set, I am even more amazed that nobody I know (including me until last week) has heard of, or seen anything made by French director Raymond Bernard. I have included some background on him in my earlier review of Wooden Crosses.

Bernard adapted his screenplay in collaboration with André Lang, with whom he had…

Victor Hugo's Les Misérables is an incredible work of storytelling. In this 1934 film adaptation, Bernard takes advantage of the story when adapting it to the screen, forming it into a three-volume film epic that clocks in at four hours and forty minutes. It's incredible film making in every conventional department, to the point that it is surprising the film actually exists, and exists like this.

Les Misérables is more than likely one of the greatest films of the 1930s, one of the greatest adaptations of classic literature, and one of the best films rooted heavily in Christian ideology. Although, the ideology expressed is simultaneously critical and subversive of religious dogma. Characters consistently engage in what could be described as…

Les Miserables is a work I’m quite familiar with, being fond of the book and a lover of the musical, but I’ve never seen it pulled off quite like this. What definitely stands out is the film’s direction, influenced by German Expressionism in its production design and nearly every shot being a Dutch angle, not too sure if that’s a staple of French cinema at the time but it worked quite favorably for the film. And my god Harry Baur really gave an all time favorite performance. His emotional range reminded me quite a bit of Emil Jannings, which I wouldn’t be surprised if he took influence from him seeing how inspired by German Expressionism this film is, but he…

Included In Lists:
Strong Performances - Harry Baur

My first introduction to Les Miserables was through the adapted musical heralded by Tom Hooper, who assembled a notable collection of stars and allowed their vocal ranges to surface Victor Hugo’s tale to life, and with it, I was left with a positive impression, but it was more so due to the abilities brought upon the cast and the compositions of the songs themselves that caught my attention, in regards to its storytelling, visual design, and direction, it spoke to me like ambient noise, its presence exists and certainly elevated the film’s strengths but my attention was simply were not drawn to it.

Seeing Victor Hugo’s novel in bookstores was daunting to…

Oh my what a film, I picked this up on the cheap with thoughts that maybe I’ll watch it someday, to be honest my brain has been washed partly because when I ever hear the name Les Miserables I immediately think crap Lloyd Webber musical or that funny so so film from a few years back, so diving into this a 1934 film with a runtime of 4 hrs and 40 odd minutes was not really top of my to-do list, any way on a whim I dropped it in Sunday evening with intentions of watching the first part needless to say I became so involved in this tale of these orphans bastards and brawler’s that I couldn’t bring myself…

This along with Fritz Lang's M and Testament of Dr Mabuse are, to me, the first great sound films.
Here is a director taking all the lessons from the silent era and applying it to tell a story that might not have worked as beautifully with intertitles as it did with the advent of sound.
This is an absurd feat, to adapt such an emblematic tale into an ambitious 4 hours of runtime and never have it feel elongated or boring, using the silence as your most powerful tool and the contrasting bombastic calls of revolution to serve as the starkest peaks and valleys in this journey of a punished good Samaritan wrestling against his fate for a sliver of…

Les Miserables is a work I’m quite familiar with, being fond of the book and a lover of the musical, but I’ve never seen it pulled off quite like this. What definitely stands out is the film’s direction, influenced by German Expressionism in its production design and nearly every shot being a Dutch angle, not too sure if that’s a staple of French cinema at the time but it worked quite favorably for the film. And my god Harry Baur really gave an all time favorite performance. His emotional range reminded me quite a bit of Emil Jannings, which I wouldn’t be surprised if he took influence from him seeing how inspired by German Expressionism this film is, but he…

My second film by Raymond Bernard and the first film adaptation I've seen of Victor Hugo's Les Miserables. I was supposed to read this book in tenth grade, but having watched a film of it.... I'm pretty sure I must have just done the Sparknotes because I don't really remember it. At any rate, I can't really speak to just how accurate it is to the book, but I read that this version is supposed to be one of the most accurate films made in terms of fidelity to the book's plot.
I thought it was a well-made movie that divided up pretty neatly into three separate segments. In the first, Jean Valjean is released from prison and, after a…

tyle tej nędzy z nędzy że aż od niczego się nie odróżnia, ani ją skrywa frak ani łachman usprawiedliwia, wielka kinematografia z wielkiej literatury, Eclipse...

[Possibly the --1st-- first back-to-back film production as it was released as three films (Part One: Tempest in a Skull, Part Two: The Thenardiers & Part Three: Freedom, dear Freedom).
This may not count as a back-to-back production as they were all parts of the same movie.
If so, then The Tiger of Eschnapur (1938) and its sequel, The Indian Tomb (1938) would count as possibly the first back-to-back film production.]

The film lasts 4,5 hours and is considered by critics to be the --top-- greatest adaptation of the novel, due to its more in-depth development…