‘Les Miserables’ is a romantic musical film which is based on a novel of the same name.  It is a story of ‘Jean Valjean’, who had been a prisoner once, and turned to be a mayor of a town after being inspired by a bishop’s merciful charity to him.

Background of the movie is France in 19th century, when France and other European countries faced a lot of historical events such as revolutions. French people suffered from starvation and old regimes, and the movie depicts through the way of musical. The movie describes both personal agonies of main characters including Jean Valjean and social challenges which French people faced. Solemn soundtracks of the movie highlight dynamism of the story, and therefore, those soundtracks became very popular after the release of the movie.

Additionally, one of the most impressive scenes of the movie was that of Jean Valjean’s singing ‘one day more’ at church after receiving charity by a bishop. This was because  the aim of camera was focused on Jean Valjean’s face while he was singing. This camerawork let us pay our attention to his song and expression, but I could not imagine how hard it was for him to sing the whole song with being zoomed up.

From those reasons, Les Miserables is worth both reading and watching.