Les misérables

Writer/Director Claude Lelouch first heard of Victor Hugo's classic novel in 1943 when, travelling by train with his mother to flee German Occupied France to Vichy France, she bribed a ticket inspector who noticed her papers were fake with her watch and her engagement ring. She called him a "Thénardier" after he left the compartment, and Claude having not heard of the character before, she proceeded to recount the novel's story to him during that night.

In the scene when Elise Ziman, André Ziman and the other escaping Jews are led to what they believe is the border of Switzerland and the Germans are waiting along the tree line for them. A close up of a German solder wearing a Wehrmacht (army) uniform is shown behind a machine gun. In reality the solders waiting for them would have been Waffen SS. During the war Wehrmacht Units did not have anything to do with rounding up and evacuation of the Jews. This was the job of the SS, SD, Polizei and Gestapo.

Featured in Siskel & Ebert & the Movies: The Scarlet Letter/The Celluloid Closet/Jade/Blue in the Face/Les Miserables (1995)