Les Miserables 2012 Film
Joke Grinman
Les Misrables is a 2019 French crime thriller film directed by Ladj Ly in his full-length feature directorial debut, from a screenplay by Ly, Giordano Gederlini and Alexis Manenti, based on Ly's 2017 short film of the same name. Manenti stars alongside Damien Bonnard, Djebril Zonga, Issa Percia, Al-Hassan Ly, Steve Tientcheu, Almany Kanoute and Nizar Ben Fatma.
The film, set in the commune of Montfermeil in the aftermath of the 2018 FIFA World Cup, is based on a real-life occurrence of police violence which took place in the city on 14 October 2008,[3] and was observed and filmed by Ly. The story follows several characters within the commune, as a theft from a teenager spirals into the threat of a large crisis. The film's title is a reference to the Victor Hugo 1862 novel of the same name, written in Montfermeil and partially set in it; in the novel, Montfermeil is also the setting of the meeting of Jean Valjean and Cosette, a girl abused by her adoptive parents. The film depicts abuses against poor citizens, especially teenagers of sub-Saharan African or Maghrebi ethnicities, thus stressing the continuity in the fate of the poor in Montfermeil.
It had its world premiere on 15 May 2019 at the Cannes Film Festival, where it won the Jury Prize. It was released in France on 20 November 2019 and received critical acclaim, earning twelve nominations at the Csar Awards and winning four including Best Film. Among other honors, it was selected as the French entry for the Best International Feature Film at the 92nd Academy Awards, eventually achieving the nomination.
The film begins with images of the crowd in Paris celebrating the victory of the French team at the 2018 FIFA World Cup on the Avenue des Champs-lyses, perceived and celebrated in France as a moment of brotherhood among people of different social classes, ethnicities, and backgrounds.
Soon after, Stphane Ruiz, a police officer who recently moved to Paris and joined the anti-crime brigade, is assigned to work with squad leader Chris and brigadier Gwada on duty in the nearby city of Montfermeil. Chris often aggressively abuses his power on young people, with Gwada complacent in that abuse; while feeling unease, Stphane doesn't interfere. Meanwhile, Issa, a known juvenile delinquent, steals Johnny, a lion cub, from a circus, causing its owner Zorro to go to the local community leader known as "the Mayor" and threaten to return with firearms if Johnny is not returned. Chris and his squadron are tasked with finding and retrieving the cub.
One of Issa's friends takes a picture of Issa with the cub and posts it on Instagram, leading Chris to find out that Issa is the culprit. They chase, capture, and handcuff him, but he claims that the cub had run away. Issa's friends then attack the three officers, throwing things at them to stop them from taking Issa in. When Issa tries to run away, Gwada, having accidentally tear-gassed himself during the chase, shoots him in the face with a flash-ball. Issa's friends scatter, but the squadron realizes that they have been filmed by a drone, which escapes. While Stphane wants to take a badly wounded Issa to a hospital, Chris and Gwada refuse, and instead, the trio take him with them in their search for the drone's owner.
The trio arrives at a local neighborhood contact of Chris, leaving Issa in their care and using information given to them by that contact to find Buzz, the person the drone belongs to, forcing him to flee before he can upload the video. Buzz, who still carries the drone's memory card, escapes the squadron and takes shelter with Salah, a restaurant owner and key member of the local Islamic community. Both the squadron and the Mayor, having found out, arrive at Salah's restaurant. After a tense confrontation during which Chris attempts to illegally arrest Buzz, Ruiz convinces Salah to give him the memory card, claiming that Issa's shooting was just an accident.
After recovering Issa and the cub (which happened to be spotted near them), the squadron takes the two to the circus. Although Issa is made to apologize, Zorro attempts to lock him as well as the cub inside a cage with a lion, scaring Issa into wetting himself and almost making Stphane shoot the lion until Issa is eventually let go. Deciding that Issa has learned his lesson, Chris drops him off and warns him not to tell anyone what happened and, if asked about his injury, to say that he slipped and fell. In the evening, the characters involved in that day's event seemingly return to their normal lives, some with visible signs of distress and doubt. Issa, who had been told earlier that his father did not want him back home because of his behavior, sits alone on a ruined couch, traumatized. Later that night, Ruiz meets Gwada in a bar and tells him that he knows that a flash-ball cannot be fired by accident, and that Gwada had therefore intentionally shot Issa. Gwada blames his stress and the group for overwhelming him, and Stphane, while unconvinced, leaves Gwada with the card, telling him to "do what you gotta do."
The next day, the squadron, while on patrol, gets attacked by a small group led by Issa. They chase them, falling into Issa's trap and ending up assaulted by a much larger group of young people, leaving them trapped from all sides in a stairwell and fighting for their lives. Chris is wounded when a bottle breaks on his face, and the backup car Stphane radios for gets immediately destroyed by the young people, forcing the backup policemen to flee. They also attack the Mayor's office and end up clubbing him and throwing him down a set of stairs. Stphane pounds on the nearest door, begging for help, which happens to be the door to Buzz's apartment; however, Buzz further locks the door. Issa lights a Molotov cocktail and prepares to finish the squadron off with it, leading Stphane to point his gun at him and warn him not to. The screen fades to black as both Issa and Stphane try to decide what to do next, and a quote from Victor Hugo's Les Misrables appears: "Remember this, my friends: there are no such things as bad plants or bad humans. There are only bad cultivators."
In October 2018, it was announced Damien Bonnard, Alexis Manenti and Djebril Zonga had joined the cast of the film, with Ladj Ly directing from a screenplay he wrote alongside Giordano Gederlini and Alexis Manenti.[4]
The film had its world premiere at the Cannes Film Festival on 15 May 2019.[5] Shortly after, Amazon Studios acquired U.S. distribution rights to the film.[6] It also screened at the Toronto International Film Festival on 10 September 2019.[7] It was released in France on 20 November 2019 by Le Pacte.[8] It was released in the United States on 10 January 2020.[9]
As of October 2021[update], 88% of the 191 reviews compiled on review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes are positive, with an average rating of 7.6/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "Les Misrables transcends its unwieldy story with compelling ideas and an infectious energy that boils over during a thrilling final act."[10] On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 78 out of 100, based on 35 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".[11]
Le Journal du dimanche revealed that Emmanuel Macron was "upset by the accuracy" of Les Misrables, so much so that he "asked the government to hurry to find ideas and act to improve living conditions in the banlieues".[12] Jacques Dion, in Marianne, said that "[Macron] must never have heard of the Borloo plan [fr] for the banlieues that he himself had abandoned."[13]
People such as Jean-Louis Borloo support the film,[14] and Valrie Pcresse wrote in a tweet: "Proud that the region supported #LesMiserables a real film about the banlieue, which alerts us to the absolute necessity of a plan for the banlieues which does away with ghetto neighbourhoods, with a real ten year strategy!"[14]
Les Misrables is a 2012 epic period musical film directed by Tom Hooper from a screenplay by William Nicholson, Alain Boublil, Claude-Michel Schnberg, and Herbert Kretzmer, based on the stage musical of the same name by Schnberg, Boublil, and Jean-Marc Natel, which in turn is based on the 1862 novel Les Misrables by Victor Hugo. The film stars an ensemble cast led by Hugh Jackman, Russell Crowe, Anne Hathaway, Eddie Redmayne, Amanda Seyfried, Helena Bonham Carter, and Sacha Baron Cohen, with Samantha Barks, Aaron Tveit, and Daniel Huttlestone in supporting roles.
Set in France during the early nineteenth century, the film tells the story of Jean Valjean who, while being hunted for decades by the ruthless policeman Javert after breaking parole, agrees to care for a factory worker's daughter. The story reaches resolution against the background of the June Rebellion of 1832.
Following the release of the stage musical, a film adaptation was mired in development hell for over ten years, as the rights were passed on to several major studios, and various directors and actors considered. In 2011, the stage musical's producer Cameron Mackintosh sold the film rights to Eric Fellner, who financed the film with Tim Bevan and Debra Hayward through their production company Working Title Films. In June 2011, production of the film officially began, with Hooper hired as director. The main characters were cast later that year. Principal photography began in March 2012 and ended in June.[9] Filming took place on locations in Greenwich, London, Chatham, Winchester, Bath, and Portsmouth, England; in Gourdon, France; and on soundstages in Pinewood Studios.
Les Misrables premiered at the Odeon Luxe Leicester Square in London on 5 December 2012, and was released on 25 December in the United States and on 11 January 2013 in the United Kingdom, by Universal Pictures.[3][8][10] The film received generally positive reviews from critics, with many praising the direction, production values, musical numbers, and the ensemble cast, with Jackman, Hathaway, Redmayne, Seyfried, Tveit, and Barks being the most often singled out for praise. However, Crowe's performance as Javert and singing were met with criticism.[11][12] It grossed $442.8 million worldwide against a production budget of $61 million during its original theatrical run. The film was nominated for eight categories at the 85th Academy Awards, winning three, and received numerous other accolades. Since its release, it has been considered to be one of the best musical films of the 21st century.[a]
c80f0f1006