Die Elenden

This first installment in the two part 1948 Italian adaptation of Victor Hugo 's epic novel is not the most faithful to its source, of those versions that I have seen so far (only six out of an estimated 8O films) and the performers are merely serviceable rather than offering striking characterizations such as Baur and Vanel did in the 1930s French version. But of those that I have seen it is the most visually stunning.

The underrated genre craftsman Riccardo Freda, a specialist at the time in historical romance and later in horror, summons a variety of resources to bring scene after scene in the episodic story to vivid life: meticulous decor and costuming, moody chiaroscuro lighting, frequent dollying in and out from objects and persons of attention, frequent staging using rich depth of field, exciting cutting, and most interesting of all to me, the decision to set up a number of setups using height and verticality with the camera looking at a higher level above or looking down on things or dramatic use of staircases and street steps.

A flashback told to the hero, Valjean, by the suffering unwed mother Fantine, of her brief period of happiness with other young ladies on a Sunday picnic with who would prove to be frivolous young men, suddenly reminds us in its sweeping liveliness of Kenji Mizoguchi.

Than which there can be no higher praise.