Les Misérables

Les Misérables ★★★★★
Directed by Claude LeLouch and starring Jean-Paul Belmondo, this film, in French, is a passionate, moving, exceptionally well-acted film about a Jewish family escaping the Nazis in WWII France, eventually returning back together after the war, and an older illiterate man, once prized as a boxer, and now running a moving business, helping the Jewish family, including father who was a lawyer, mother who was a ballerina, and 11 yo daughter survive in the chaotic years of 1940-1946 France. This film is a must-see, very loosely based on the Victor Hugo novel by the same name. I will not tell the story as it would destroy the first time impact of the film, which all, whether or not you understand French, would be deeply moved by. It is the depiction of total depravity, not only with many of the Nazis, but many of the French people, in their treatment of the Jews at the time, and yet also a depiction of people selflessly and at all possible cost of their life-giving of themselves for what is noble and right. Why it has not hit the American cinema like “Life is Beautiful” or “Jacob der Lügner” is beyond me.