Les Misérables is a 1925 French silent drama film directed by Henri Fescourt, based on the 1862 novel of the same name by Victor Hugo.
Although Cinéromans wanted the adaptation to be a single feature film, Fescourt successfully argued for it to be released in four feature-length parts.[1]
Filming took place from 24th March until 24th December 1925 in Digne, Provence, Arras, Montreuil, and the Joinville Studios.[2][3][4]
Cinéromans assigned a six million franc budget for the film.[1] Funding was provided by the Westi Consortium, but in August 1925 it went bankrupt, meaning many scenes, such as the barricades, were shot in the studio.[2][5][6]
It was released in France in four parts, released in weekly instalments on 25th December 1925, 31st December 1925, 8th January 1926, and 15th January 1926.[7][8] Each part was precisely 2000 metres of film long.[9]
Even before the French premiere, it was reported in Universal Weekly that Universal Pictures had obtained the rights to reproduce the film.[10]
An abridged version running at around four hours had its British premiere on 9th April 1926 in a trade performance at the London Hippodrome, beginning with a staged prologue featuring many of the actors from the film emerging from a large book and walking "across the stage before the sleeping figure of Victor Hugo".[11] It was attended by Fescourt himself, as well as ambassadors and ministers from multiple countries.[11][12] This performance was followed by a tour of trade performances in Birmingham, Manchester, Newcastle, Glasgow, Leeds, Liverpool, and Cardiff.[11] David Lloyd George also had a private viewing of the film in his own home.[12]
In November 1926, it was released to the British public in cinemas around the country in two parts: 'The Soul of Humanity' and 'The Barricades'. Together these totalled 22 reels, coming to a running time of 280 minutes.[13][5]
The American premiere took place in the Forrest Theatre, Philadelphia to an invite-only audience on 24th June 1926, followed by a similar showing in Washington, D.C. the following day.[13]
An abridged version from Universal was released on Broadway in August 1927 at the Central Theatre with music by Hugo Riesenfeld.[14] This followed a one-night-only showing of a longer, but still abridged to 15 reels, version at Carnegie Hall on 8th July 1926.[15] It was reported that "At noon on Sunday, August 28th [1927], the box office at the Central Theatre was forced to close while the police attempted to clear a passageway in front of the theatre" due to the film's popularity.[16] People stood in the theatre to watch it, resulting in the Central Theatre showing to audiences of 15% over capacity in the first five days and ran "an impromptu special performance", as reported in Universal Weekly.[17] It was also shown in Brooklyn's new Montmartre Theatre simultaneously.[17] It was then shown at other locations around the country.[18] Rudmer Canjels writes that there were "two versions the exhibitor could eventually choose from in 1927: a 12-reel version [...] and an eight-reel version that eliminated the character of Fantine."[19]
A 9.5mm abridged version was released in 1931 with English intertitles for home viewing.
It was restored in 2014 by a collaboration between the Centre national du cinéma et de l'image animée (CNC), the Cinémathèque de Toulouse, Pathé, and the Jérôme Seydoux-Pathé Foundation. They restored the film from negatives at the CNC and the Cinémathèque de Toulouse, and also used a reel of intertitles and scripts containing Fescourt's annotations. The restoration effort began in March and finished in November 2014, and involved editing 12,000 metres of film down to 8490 metres.[4] Music by Roch Havet was added from a recording at the May 2016 Festival d'Anères.[20][21][22][23]