Hugo Considered

I saw the magnificent movie, Les Misérables, early this year; and I just loved everything about it –even the voice of Russell Crowe.

by Charlie Leck

I wrote in an earlier blog about seeing this fine movie (Les Misérables). It was a remarkable and enjoyable evening. The movie caused me to pull the big novel by Victor Hugo off one of the shelves in my library and I began to skim through it. I made some notes about the notations that I made in the book back whenever it was that I first read it.

The following remarkable quotations are worth printing here for your entertainment…

“To love another person is to see the face of God!”

“It is nothing to die. It is frightful not to live.”

“Teach the ignorant as much as you can; society is culpable in not providing a free education for all and it must answer for the night which it produces. If the soul is left in darkness sins will be committed. The guilty one is not he who commits the sin, but he who causes the darkness.”

“To love or have loved, that is enough. Ask nothing further. There is no other pearl to be found in the dark folds of life.”

“Do you hear the people sing
Lost in the valley of the night?
It is the music of a people
Who are climbing to the light.

For the wretched of the earth
There is a flame that never dies.
Even the darkest night will end
And the sun will rise.”

Victor Hugo spent 15 years in exile on the island of Guernsey, living in Hauteville House (1855 to 1870). Though Guernsey lies closer to France, in the Gulf of Saint Malo, 30 miles off the French coast, it is a part of the United Kingdom. It’s a pleasant place to visit. I was there for only a day in the early spring of 1978 and the Atlantic Ocean winds of early April were strong and chilly. The highlight of my visit was my walk through the house in which the great author lived and wrote. Hugo did a significant amount of writing there.

Les Misérables was published in 1862 after many years of work (while Hugo lived at Hauteville House). It was popular among the masses, but not in academic or high social circles.

I do think that is quite enough to think about for one day, is it not?

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Les Misérables

We saw Les Misérables yesterday and I thought it was wonderful – two and a half hours of delightful entertainment and gripping emotion.
by Charlie Leck

The human spirit is amazing! How unconquerable it can be in certain people and under special circumstances! Isn’t that what Hugo’s wonderful story is about

On any authority’s list of the world’s greatest novels, one would find Les Misérables by Victor Hugo. I had to read it both in high school and college (and I've reread it as an adult, when I could appreciate it more fully). The book caused tumultuous excitement in France when it was released in 1862. Hugo was in exile when the first printings were released. Napoleon III had sent him away for criticizing his rule. The great French writer used the novel and the character of Jean Valjean to describe and criticize the corruption that had crept into every aspect of French life.

The novel is a work of well over 1,000 pages in almost every edition and, of course, the play (now made cinema) can not cover all the aspects of French history that Hugo touched on in his epic account. Yet, one sees enough to get the idea; and what one sees is glorious in its color and emotion. It is a grand love story on so many levels; yet it is first the story of corrupted government and human cruelty – both conquered by powerful love.

Unless you hate musicals, you musn’t miss Les Misérables on a big screen.

The extraordinary movies of 2012 only begin with Lincoln!

I’ve seen some powerful film productions lately. 2012 may be a historic year for very high quality and meaningful movies (I saw Anna Karenina just the other day). Zero Dark Thirty has been released in New York City and Los Angeles and I cannot wait for it to get here. Skyfall, with the brilliant Daniel Craig as James Bond, was also on my schedule last week. Quite exciting for the James Bond fan. Craig was thoroughly remarkable as an aging Bond (and I am a Dame Judith Dench fan and she played M with distinction). And Lincoln, which I wrote about two weeks ago, is the most exciting and remarkable of them all.

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If you read my blog regularly, why not become a follower? All you have to do is click in the upper right hand corner and establish a simple means of communication. Then you'll be informed every time a new blog is posted here. If all that's confusing, here's Google's explanation of how to do it! If you don’t want to post comments on the blog, but would like to communicate with me about it, send me an email if you’d like.