Caccia all'uomo

The first part of Riccardo Freda's adaptation of Victor Hugo's greatest novel is better than the second part, with more imaginative cinematography and great innovations, the best of which is Fantine's flashback into her glorious happy youth, the best sequence of the film. Gino Cervi is convincing enough, Valentina Cortese is always adorable on screen, and her daughter Cosette is the most adorable of all, arguably the best Cosette of any film adaptation. Hans Hinrich is superb as Javert, the best Javert ever, at least of the ones I have seen, while the greatest asset of the film is the impressive cinematography, making every scene precious in its vibrating life. The novel is much shortened, they always did that even with the greatest novels in the 40s, and anyone who read the novel will miss the most important key scenes, like the trial at Arras. The film begins with the beginning of Jean Valjean's career down the drain, showing the ordeals of his first eighteen years under constant duress and mistreatment with hard prison labour in a quarry among other things, and then proceeds with the bishop Myriel episode, that changes his life, but also here you miss the most important points, as the bishop himself actually makes a point of buying Jean Valjean's soul. All Myriels I have seen have been outstanding, it's a role no one could fail in, and Cicognini's music also adds to the beauty of the film. This could be the best film version of the novel, no matter how much truncated it is.