Classics, you can’t live without them. Les Misérables is a perfect example, a universal and timeless tale that can be told in many different ways. Ladj Ly’s first review of Victor Hugo’s epic was a 2017 short movie that, in 2019, has been enlarged to a full-length feature in which history merges with reality.
2018 football world championship final. The French national team won the cup the day after the anniversary of the 1789 revolution. Montfermeil is one of the Parisian banlieues, the hood districts where immigrants and minorities are confined. Mathieu Kassovitz let the world discovered banlieus with his gangsta and supercool La haine.
Banlieues have been depicted in more realistic ways over the years, such as Kechiche’s L’esquive. Marivaux inspired the Egyptian director, Montfermeil is more than a literary inspiration. It is one of the main settings of Hugo’s feuilleton. It’s doomed to be a scenario for the abused underdogs of society.
The main storyline of Les Misérables is based on actual events personally depicted by Ly in the 2017 short movie. It’s almost an autobiographical story and an outstanding and powerful testimony.
But putting aside the undoubtful political importance, Les Misérables is even more surprising for its high cinematic standard. It’s an intense thriller inspired by the French Polar legacy and the American hard-boiled cop’s stories. It’s Training Day joining western and horror, especially in the taut final sequence. Ly shows a solid classic and cinephile background, picking up inspiration from Melville, Leone, Friedkin, John Carpenter’s Precinct 13th and Escape from New York.
Les miserable is an excellent debut
Ladj Ly is very aware of what making movies means and is very good with actors. The three cops are perfectly blended. Damien Bonnard and Alexis Manenti are expert players and worked together in terrific F.J. Ossang’s 9 Doigts. Bonnard also had a role in Dunkirk, and Manenti has been seen in Netflix’s original series The Eddie. Djebril Zonga takes up the character he already played in the short version infusing a touching and truthful pain.
Les Misérables is entertaining, breathtaking, and, most importantly, cinema at its highest level.