1

CONTENT
1. ABSTRACT2
2. INTRODUCTION...3
3. VICTOR MARIE HUGO3
4. LES MISRABLES, THE MUSICAL4
4.1 MUSICAL NUMBERS..................4
4.2 CHARACTERS..6
5. LES MISRABLES, THE MOVIE.7
5.1 CAST...7
5.2 FILMING.....8
5.3 AWARDS....9
6. CONCLUSION10
7. BIBLIOGRAPHY....11




2

ABSTRACT


Les Misrables is a historical novel written by Victor Hugo in the 19
th
century and it
is considered one of the greatest books written in that time. Hugo is also famous for
the Hunchback of Notre-Dame. The first musical - stage adaptation of Les Misrables
was presented in Paris, in 1980. Today, in over a 100 countries, the musical is a
worldwide known spectacle and not every theatre can get permission to perform the
musical because of the high standards set by the authors. The music was written by
Claude-Michel Schnberg, Alain Boublil and Jean-Marc Natel wrote the original
French lyrics and the libretto in English was written by Herbert Kretzmer.
The film adaptation of the musical was made in 2012, receiving many awards among
which were three Academy Awards in the USA. Thanks to the movie, the novel and
the musical found a new way to reach wider audiences.

Key words: Victor Hugo, Les Misrables, Claude-Michel Schnberg, Herbert
Kretzmer, Musical, Theatre, Movie





ABSTRAKT

Jadnici su istorijski roman koji je napisao Viktor Igo u 19. veku i smatra se da je
jedan od najznaajnijih romana napisanih u to vreme. Igo je takoe poznat po romanu
Zvonar Bogorodiine crkve. Prvo izvoenje mjuzikla Jadnici je bilo u Parizu, 1980.
godine. Danas je ovaj mjuzikl irom sveta priznat spektakl koji se izvodi u preko 100
zemalja, i ne moe svako pozorite da dobije dozvolu da ga izvodi zbog visokih
standarda autora. Muziku je napisao Klod-Miel onberg, originalni francuski libreto
su napisali Alan Boublil i an-Mark Natel, a engleski libreto je napisao Herbert
Krecmer.
Filmska adaptacija mjuzikla iz 2012. godine je osvojila mnogo nagrada, izmeu
ostalog i tri nagrade Amerike Akademije umetnosti. Zahvaljujui filmu, roman i
mjuzikl nali su svoj nov put do iroke publike.

Kljune rei: Viktor Igo, Jadnici, Klod-Miel onberg, Herbert Kercmer, Mjuzikl,
Pozorite, Film












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INTRODUCTION

Les Misrables is a historical novel written by Victor Hugo in the 19
th
century. It was
first published in 1862 and it is considered one of the greatest books written in that
time.
At that time France was ruled by Napoleon the Third, whom Victor Hugo opposed.
The country was demolished, devastated and impoverished due to the Napoleonic
Wars. The people of France were starving and there was much poverty in the country.

The novel tells the story of Jean Valjean, an ex-convict who, inspired by a kind
bishop, decides to turn his life around. He becomes a mayor in a small town in France
and the owner of a factory in that town. He is always alert to the risk of being caught
by police inspector Javert, who believes that law-breakers cannot change for the
better. Fantine, one of Valjeans factory workers blames him for being forced to
become a prostitute, after being fired by his foreman. She works so hard because she
needs to pay for her daughter who is in care of an innkeeper, Monsieur Thnardier
and his wife. When Fantine dies, he feels responsible and decides to take care of her
daughter Cosette, but he must escape from Javert.
A few years later, when Cosette is s grown-up, she falls in love with a student, Marius
Pontmercy. He also falls in love with her and enlists his friend ponine, who is
secretly in love with him. She finds out where Cosette lives and takes Marius to her.
Thnardier and his gang plan to rob Valjeans house and ponine prevents the
robbery. The June Revolution is at hand and Valjean plans to travel to England
escaping the political turmoil. Marius joins his friends in the revolution, but is
wounded. Although he hid his former identity, Valjean decides to stay in Paris in
order to save Marius life, because he finds out that Cosette and he love each other, in
order to secure Cosettes happiness. Valjean confesses to Marius his true identity. He
gives them his blessing and they get married. He goes to a monastery to die in peace.
When Marius realizes that the man who saved his life is Jean Valjean, he takes
Cosette to him and thanks him and begs him for forgiveness, realizing what a brave
and kind man he is.


Victor Marie Hugo

Hugo (Picture 1) was born on 26 February 1802 and died in 1885 on 22 May. He was
a French novelist, poet and dramatis of the Romantic movement. He is considered as
one of the best and one of the most famous French writers. He first became famous in
France as a young poet, later on as a novelist. Outside France, his best-known works
are Les Misrables written in 1862 and Notre-Dame de Paris or The Hunchback of
Notre-Dame written in 1831.
Victor was the third child of Joseph Leopold Sigisbert Hugo and Sophie Trebuchet.
He had two older brothers: Abel Joseph Hugo and Eugene Hugo.
He got married to his childhood friend Adele Foucher (1803-1868) in 1822. They had
four children: Leopoldine, Charles, Francois-Victor and Adele.
He died of pneumonia at the age of 83. More than two million people joined his
funeral procession in Paris from the Arc de Triomphe to the Panthenon, where he was

4
buried. He shares a crypt within the Pathenon with
Alexandre Dumas and Emile Zola. Most large French
cities have streets named after him.

Picture 1 - Victor Hugo











Les Misrables, the musical

The musical is based on the book Les Misrables. It is a sung-through musical, which
has music by Claude-Michel Schnberg, original French lyrics by Alain Boublil and
Jean-Marc Natel and the English-language libretto written by Herbert Kretzmer.
It was released as a French-language album. The first musical-stage adaptation of Les
Misrables was presented in Paris, at the Palais des Sports, in 1980 (Picture 2).
However, the production was closed after three months when the booking contract
expired.
The opening night of Les Misrables was at the Barbican Theatre on 08 October
1985. At the opening, the London production critical reviews were negative, but the
public opinion was opposite - the box office received record orders. When the three-
month engagement sold out the reviews improved.


Musical numbers (table 1)

Table 1


Song Performer(s)
1
Prologue: Work Song Valjean, Javert and the Chain Gang
2
Prologue: On Parole Valjean, Farmer, Laborer, Innkeepers Wife,
Innkeeper, Bishop of Digne
3
Prologue: Valjean Arrested, Valjean
Forgiven
Policeman and Bishop of Digne
4
Prologue: What Have I Done? Valjean
5
At the End of the Day The Poor, Foreman, Workers, Factory Girls and
Valjean
6
Lovely Ladies Sailors, Old Woman, Fantine, Crone, Prostitutes,
Pimp
7
I Dreamed a Dream Fantine
8
Fantines Arrest Bamatabois, Fantine, Javert and Vajean
9
The Runaway Cart Townspeople, Valjean, Fauchelevant and Javert
10
Who Am I? /The Trial Valjean
11
Fantines Death: Come to me Fantine and Valjean

5
12
The Confrontation Javert and Valjean
13
Castle on a Cloud Young Cosette and Madame Thnardier
14
Master of the House Thnardier, Madame Thnardier and Customers
15
The Well Scene Valjean and Young Cosette
16
The Bargain / The Thnardier Waltz of
Treachery
Thnardier, Valjean, Madame Thnardier and
Young Cosette
17
Look Down Gavroche, Beggars, Old Woman, Prostitute,
Pimp, Enjolras, and Marius
18
The Robbery Thnardier, Madame Thnardier, Marius,
ponine and Valjean
19
Javert's Intervention Javert and Thnardier
20
Stars Javert
21
ponine's Errand ponine and Marius
22
ABC Caf / Red and Black Students, Enjolras, Marius, Grantaire and
Gavroche
23
Do You Hear the People Sing? Enjolras, Grantaire, Students and Beggars
24
Rue Plumet In My Life Cosette, Valjean, Marius and ponine
25
A Heart Full of Love Marius, Cosette and ponine
26
The Attack on the Rue Plumet Thnardier, Thieves, ponine, Marius, Valjean
and Cosette
27

One Day More
Valjean, Marius, Cosette, ponine, Enjolras,
Javert, Thnardier, Madame Thnardier,
Gavroche and Company
28
Building the Baricade (Upon These
Stones)
Enjolras, Javert, Marius, ponine and Valjean
29
On My Own ponine
30
At the Barricade (Upon These Stones) Enjolras, Students and Army Officer
31
Javerts Arrival Javert and Enjolras
32
Little People Gavroche, Students, Enjolras and Javert
33
A Little Fall of Rain (ponines Death) ponine and Marius
34
Night of Anguish Enjolras, Marius, Valjean and Students
35

The First Attack
Enjolras, Grantaire, Students, Valjean, Javert and
National Guard
Soldier
36
Drink With Me Grantaire, Students, Women and Marius
37
Bring Him Home Valjean
38
Dawn of Anguish Enjolras and Students
39
The Second Attack (Gavroches Death) Gavroche, Enjolras, Marius, Valjean, Feuilly and
Students
40
The Final Battle Army Officer, Enjolras, Grantaire and Students
41
Dog Eats Dog (The Sewers) Thnardier
42
Soliloquy (Javerts Suicide) Javert and Valjean
43
Turning Women of Paris
44
Empty Chairs at Empty Tables Marius
45
Every Day Cossette, Marius and Valjean
46
Valjeans Confession Marius and Vajean
47
Wedding Chorale Guests, Thnardier, Marius and Madame
Thnardier
48
Beggars at the Feast Thnardier and Madame Thnardier

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49
Valjeans Death Valjean, Fantine, Cosette, Marius and ponine
50
Do You Hear The People Sing?
(Reprise) / [Finale]
Full Company



Picture 2 Musical poster
















Characters

Jean Valjean is a French prisoner (24601) who breaks parole after serving 19 years in
prison. He receives mercy from a Bishop and turns his life around to live for God. He
changes his identity and becomes a wealthy mayor of a small town. Later on he
adopts Cosette, the daughter of Fantine. At the end he dies and the ghost of Fantine
thanks him for taking care of her daughter.

Inspector Javert is a police inspector who is constantly searching for Valjean, the ex-
convict who broke parole. Javert always stands on the side of the law and believes
that law-breakers cannon be forgiven and cannot change for the better. In the end he
commits suicide, broken by the mercy he experiences from Valjean.

Fantine is a poor factory worker who loses her job and turns to prostitution in order to
pay the Thnardiers to take care of her daughter Cosette. As she dies, she asks
Valjean to take care of her child. At the end she appears as a spirit and takes dying
Valjean to Heaven.

Cosette is the daughter of Fantine. She was in the care of the Thnardiers who were
paid by Fantine to take care of her child, but without Fantines knowledge, they made
Cosette work. She is adopted by Valjean and grows into a beautiful young woman,
who falls in love with Marius Pontmercy and he returns her strong feelings. She
marries Marius at the end of the musical.

Marius Pontmercy is a young boy from a wealthy family, who joins his friends in the
June Revolution in 1832. He meets Cosette and falls in love with her and is later
wounded at the barricades and saved by Valjean.

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ponine is the daughter of the Thnardiers, who is secretly in love with Marius. She is
killed on the barricades where she came to see Marius. In the end she appears as a
spirit, along with Fantine, taking dying Valjean to Heaven.

The Thnardiers are second-rate thieves who run a small inn. They are the parents of
ponine and they take care of young Cosette, whom they make to work and used the
money that Fantine sent them for their own needs.


Les Misrables, the movie

Les Misrables is a 2012 British movie (Picture 3) based on the musical of the same
name. It is produced by Working Title Films and distributed by Universal Pictures.
The film is directed by Tom Hooper, scripted by William Nicholson, Alain Boublil,
Schnberg and Herbert Kretzmer, and stars an ensemble cast led by Hugh Jackman,
Russell Crowe, Anne Hathaway and Amanda Seyfried.

Cast

Hugh Jackman stars as Jean Valjean. Around June 2011, Hugh met with the producer
Cameron Mackintosh to audition in New York. Preparing for the role, Jackman lost
15 pounds and later regained 30 pounds to mirror the characters success. He avoided
drinking coffee, drank about 7 liters of water a day, warmed up every day for at least
15 minutes and used a wet washcloth over his face when flying. He worked
extensively with his vocal coach, Joan Lader. He managed to extend his vocal range,
which was categorized a high Baritone.

Russell Crowe stars as inspector Javert. Before being cast as Javert, Crowe was very
unsatisfied with the character. On his way to a friends wedding in Europe, he came to
London and met with producer Cameron Mackintosh. On the meeting with director
Tom Hooper, he told him about his concerns about playing Javert and after the
meeting he was more than determined to be involved in the project and to play Javert.

Anne Hathaway plays Fantine. Amy Adams, Jessica Biel, Marion Cotillard, Kate
Winslet and Rebecca Hall were considered to play Fantine, before Hathaway was
cast. When she was cast she thought that she was maybe not mature enough for the
role of Fantine. Anne lost 25 pounds to play the dying Fantine. She actually cut her
hair very short for this movie, in a scene where Fantine sells her hair.

Amanda Seyfried plays Cosette. She said in an interview that it took her four months
of auditioning to get the role. During the auditioning process Amanda was also
singing and reading the part of Fantine, and forced herself to get into vocal and
physical shape for consideration for both parts. When Hathaway was given the part of
Fantine, she was given the part of Cosette.
Isabelle Allen plays young Cosette.

Eddie Redmayne plays Marius Pontmercy. He found director Hoopers vision
incredibly helpful. Redmaynes audition was on his iPhone. He recorded himself
singing in a trailer during a movie break in North Carolina. It was him who suggested

8
to Hooper that his characters song Empty Chairs at Empty Tables should begin in a
cappella (without musical accompaniment) in order to really express Marius guilt
and pain.

Samantha Barks played ponine. She had played her in the 25
th
Anniversary concert.
A lot of young actresses auditioned for the part of ponine - Hayden Panettiere,
Scarlett Johansson, Lea Michele, Emily Browning, Lucy Hale and Evan Rachel Wood
- before it was rumored that Taylor Swift was offered the part, but at the end Barks
was cast.

Helena Bonham Carter and Sacha Baron Cohen play the Thnardiers. Rowan
Atkinson, Billy Cristal, Ricky Gervias, Steve Martin and Robin Williams were all
considered for the role of Monsieur Thnardier.


Picture 3 Movie poster

















Filming

The filming began on 08 March 2012 in Gourdon. The movie had a production budget
of $61 million. Filming locations in England included Winchester College,
Winchester Cathedral Close, Chatham Dockyards, Her Majestys Naval Base
Portsmouth, St Mary the Virgin Church, South Oxfordshire, Ewelme and Pinewood
Studios. A replica of the Elephant of the Bastille was constructed in April 2012 in
Greenwich.

The actors were singing live as they were acting. The thing that made it easier for the
actors to sing was that they wore earpieces that fed the sound of a live piano being
played off stage, helping them to sing in key.

Composer Claude-Michel Schnberg and lyricist Herbert Kretzmer and Alain Boublil
wrote a new song exclusively for the movie. The song Suddenly has been added in
addition to the cuts of the songs Dog Eats Dog and I Saw Him Once.



9

Awards

At the Academy Awards (Picture 4) in the USA in 2013, the Oscar for the Best
Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role went to Anne Hathaway. They won
the Oscar for Best Achievement in Makeup and Hairstyling and Best Achievements in
Sound Mixing.
They were nominated for Best Motion Picture of the Year, Best Achievement in
Costume Design, Best Achievement in Product Design, Best Achievement in Music
Written for Motion Pictures, Original Song for the song Suddenly and Hugh
Jackman was nominated for Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role.
At the Golden Globes, held in the USA, in 2013, they won Best Motion Picture -
Comedy or Musical, Hugh Jackman won Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion
Picture Comedy or Musical, Anne Hathaway won Best Performance by an Actress
in a Supporting Role.
They were nominated for Best Original Song Motion Picture for the song
Suddenly.



Picture 4 Academy
Awards






























10

CONCLUSION


Les Misrables is a novel by Victor Hugo written in the 19
th
century and is considered
one of the greatest books written in that time. The first musical - stage adaptation of
Les Misrables was presented in Paris, in 1980. Les Misrables has been seen
worldwide by 60 million people. Today, the musical is one the best known musicals
of all time. The film adaptation of the musical was made in 2012 and it received many
awards among which were three Academy Awards in the USA. The movie was
released on 25
th
of December 2012 in 2808 theatres in North America, placing first in
the bow office with 18.1 million dollars. This amount broke the record for the highest
opening day gross for a musical film.
Great, eternal and noble ideas of the novel Les Misrables by Victor Hugo, despite the
preferences of the broad masses to low quality entertainment offered by the media of
today, resists and survives thanks to the movie Les Misrables. People are driven back
to theatres and reading books which gives hope for the remaining of the real cultural
values.

































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BIBLIOGRAPHY


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Les_Misrables

http://www.hyperink.com/A-Brief-Summary-b573a12

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victor_Hugo

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https://www.google.rs/search?q=victor+hugo&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X
&ei=amJSU_mpCIrJtQbzlIHIDw&sqi=2&ved=0CKYBEIke&biw=1439&bih=764#f
acrc=_&imgdii=_&imgrc=6yun6QEmCq5GSM%253A%3BruE58qwi7oLUsM%3Bh
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2Fe%252Fe6%252FVictor_Hugo_by_%2525C3%252589tienne_Carjat_1876_-
_full.jpg%3Bhttp%253A%252F%252Fen.wikipedia.org%252Fwiki%252FVictor_Hu
go%3B2140%3B2632

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Les_Misrables_(musical)

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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Les_Misrables_(2012_film)

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http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1707386/trivia?ref_=tt_ql_trv_1


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miserables+cast&btnG=#facrc=_&imgdii=_&imgrc=FrbVzz3rsFFPwM%253A%3Bi
Oz4B7Mv8YMzRM%3Bhttp%253A%252F%252Fs3.amazonaws.com%252Fkidzwo
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d4be7cccc75f%252Fpremiere.jpg%3Bhttp%253A%252F%252Fwww.kidzworld.com
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