Les Miserables

Written by

William Nicholson Alain Boublil, Claude- Michel Sch�nberg and Herbert Kretzmer

Adapted from the Stage Musical "Les Mis�rables"

Based on the novel by Victor Hugo

May 20, 2012

BLACK SCREEN

SUPERIMPOSE CAPTION:

The year is 1815.

The French revolution is a distant memory. Napoleon has been defeated. France is ruled by a King again.

A1EXT. TOULON PORT - DAYA1

RISE UP out of the iron-grey surface of the ocean, seething in the wind, towards the shore. Winter rain slices the air. Ahead, the port of Toulon, home of the French navy. A forest of tall masted warships.

The great ships heave at anchor, the wind whipping their rigging.

Through the sea spray we see the great ribs of warships under construction, and warships being refitted.

SUPERIMPOSE CAPTION:

Toulon Home port of the French navy

1EXT. TOULON DOCK - DAY1

Storm-lashed sea and driving rain. A great wave rises up and hammers down. As it recedes we see the figures of men heaving on great ropes, the sea water streaming down over their faces. The harsh storm light catches glints of metal: these men are CONVICTS, chained by manacles, heads shaved, wearing red shirts with prison numbers crudely stitched onto them.

Now we see that the ropes run up to a ship that is being hauled ashore - a storm-damaged man-of-war, its masts broken, rising and falling on the surge.

As yet another great wave rolls over the convicts, we follow the straining ropes down into the base of the slipway, and find the convict JEAN VALJEAN, up to his waist in water, chained by two sets of manacles, as the rain and spray and wind scream round him. A great brute of a man, he seems to feel nothing.

2.

The convicts sing in time with the rhythmic pulls on the rope -

The camera RISES UP to find JAVERT, the officer in charge of the convict workforce, looking on, his face rain-lashed and expressionless. He stands above the men on the top of the dock, as lines of convicts labour beneath him on the steep steps of the dock wall.

Behind Javert, through the storm rain we glimpse a forest of half-built ships, their ribbed frames like great skeletons in the mist.

FOREGROUND convicts are at work on another ship that is almost completed, labouring in the crashing spray.

With a last great heave the lines of convicts haul the damaged ship onto the slipway.

CRACK! The stern flagpole of the ship snaps in a vicious gust of wind and crashes down into the shallow water near Valjean. Javert sees and points his stick at Valjean in silent command. Valjean stares back for a beat, defying him. Then he drops down into the seething water and re-emerges with the great mast in his hands, held over his head. His head breaks water with his bitter gaze still on Javert, as he throws the mast ashore in a deliberate display of strength.

Javert nods to the guards, and they begin to form the chained men into lines to return to their prison. The storm is passing now, blown by the driving wind.

Javert approaches Jean Valjean.

He hands Valjean a folded yellow paper.

He strides away to command the lines of convicts as they're marched away. Valjean walks away, hardly able to take in that he is free at last.

The convicts sing as he goes.

2EXT. ROAD OUT OF TOULON - DAWN2

Valjean makes his way up a rising track, a worn knapsack on his back. He comes to a stop at the top of the hill, and there before him, lit by the rising sun, spreads a wide vista of fields and towns and villages, stretching into the distance, with the snow capped Alps beyond. Behind and below him lies Toulon at the sea's edge. As we hear the musical theme ('Freedom is Mine'), we see for the first time the darkness in his face give way to a new hope.

3SCENE OMITTED3

4EXT. COUNTRY ROAD - DAY4

Valjean strides down the long rising road, pulling his thin coat close round him against the cold winter wind.

He passes a long line of labourers working. He approaches the OVERSEER.

The overseer notices shaved hair showing under his cap.

Valjean takes his hat off, revealing his shaved and scarred head.

The overseer scans the yellow paper, and hands it back.

5SCENE OMITTED5

6EXT. MOUNTAIN ROAD - END OF DAY6

Valjean slogs on up the rising track into the mountains. Snow on the ground here, and darkness falling.

He looks up and sees ahead a village built on a rock cliff, its lights twinkling, the snowy mountains rising behind. The tower of its handsome church rises up like a promise of refuge. This is Digne.

6AEXT. DIGNE - DUSK6A

Valjean enters Digne. As he drinks from the fountain, he sees a guard standing outside the Mairie. 6.

6BINT. MAIRIE, DIGNE - DUSK6B

Valjean stands waiting. The officer fastidiously writes down the name of Valjean in his huge ledger and the name of the town in his passport. The officer signs and stamps the passport.

The officer hands back the passport. Valjean leaves.

6CEXT. DIGNE - DUSK6C

Valjean walks down the high street, spies the warm glow of an inn and enters.

7INT. COUNTRY INN, DIGNE - DUSK7

Valjean sits in the corner, his hat low over his head. He eyes hungrily a group of cart drivers tucking into a roast meal by a roaring fire place. The innkeeper serves him a beer. As he reaches for it his coat sleeve rides up to reveal his wrist, calloused and scarred by manacles. The innkeeper eyes him warily. He discusses Valjean with two other men, then asks for his paper. Sees the phrase "Extremely Dangerous".

VALJEAN'S POV - From the yellow paper in the innkeeper's hands up to the innkeeper's face. A blank stare, a shrug of refusal.

7AEXT. DIGNE - NIGHT7A

Valjean moves off wearily through the village. As he passes down the narrow street, faces peer at him from doorways, but the doors close when he goes by. A shadowy figure follows him. Word has spread that he's a `dangerous man'.

Passing the uncurtained window of a cottage, he comes to a stop. Through the window he sees a scene that breaks his heart: a father at a table by lamplight, his young wife before him, his children on either side. Nothing special, and yet everything he's never had.

8EXT. PRISON, DIGNE - NIGHT8

He stops at the local jail. An iron chain attached to a bell hangs from the prison door. He rings. A grate slides open. 7.

The grate slides shut. As Jean Valjean walks away, some children who have been following begin throwing stones at him. He threatens them with his stick and they scatter.

8AEXT. DIGNE - NIGHT8A

He sees over a garden wall a low doorway in a stone turret. Valjean stoops through the doorway and lies down on some straw. He hears a ferocious growl and sees the head of an enormous mastiff. It is a dog kennel.

8BEXT. DIGNE - NIGHT8B

Snow falling as Valjean makes his way down the road, hungry, weary, moving slowly, his trousers ripped and bloody from where the dog has bitten him.

At the end of a road, the snow-covered church; beside it, a dark churchyard.

9EXT. CHURCH YARD, DIGNE - NIGHT9

Snow-covered gravestones in moonlight. Exhausted, Valjean collapses to the ground and huddles himself into the shelter of a doorway.

A lantern glows in the dark. The lantern approaches, throwing shadows. Its little circle of light comes to rest on the crumpled figure of Valjean.

He stirs and opens his eyes.

VALJEAN'S POV - The glow of the lantern in the darkness. Beyond it, the half-seen features of a kind old man. The BISHOP.

Bewildered, fearful, suspicious, Valjean gets up and goes with the Bishop into the house by the church. 8.

10INT. BISHOP'S HOUSE - NIGHT10

A simple table on which is laid out bread and wine, with silver cutlery. Two silver candlesticks light the room, illuminating walls painted with religious scenes. The Bishop ushers the bewildered Valjean into the room. The bishop's sister Madame Baptistine stands. Valjean hesitates.

The Bishop gestures to the housekeeper Madame Magloire.

The Bishop gently takes his arm and draws him into a chair.

Valjean sits, and the Housekeeper lays food before him. Famished, Valjean eats like an animal. The Bishop says a short grace.

11INT. BEDROOM, BISHOP'S HOUSE - NIGHT11

The Bishop leads Valjean to a bedroom where the walls are also painted with religious imagery. Across the passage, Valjean sees the open door to the Bishop's own bedroom. There the Housekeeper is putting the table silver away in a cupboard.

He turns to see a bed made up with clean white linen waiting for him. He hasn't slept in such a bed ever in his life. But the Bishop is smiling, offering it to him.

The Bishop turns away to go to sleep.

Valjean laughs a strange laugh.

LATER THAT NIGHT -

Valjean lies on the bed, fully dressed, deeply asleep.

Outside a dog barks.

Valjean's eyes snap open. The first thing he sees by the light of the moon is an image of God the Father gazing down on him from the painted ceiling. In panic, fearing judgement, he sits bolt upright. Then he looks round, and remembers. He gets out of bed, and opens the door.

There, across the narrow passage, the door stands open to the Bishop's bedroom. In the moonlight, he sees the Bishop lying asleep. Above his bed, the cupboard where the silver is kept.

Valjean moves silently into the Bishop's room, holding a metal miner's spike which he pulls from his bag. The floor boards creak. He looks down at the old man, holding his breath, but the bishop is peacefully and innocently asleep. He reaches up to the cupboard. It is unlocked. The cupboard door opens with a sharp cracking sound. The Bishop, disturbed in his sleep, moves a little. At once Valjean is over him, like a wild animal, spike raised to strike should he wake. The Bishop sleeps on. The moon comes out and lights up his beautific, smiling face. Valjean is thrown. He turns back and opens the cupboard door fully: there is the silver. 10.

Carefully he picks it out, fearful of every clink. One last look at the sleeping old man, and he makes a run for the door.

12EXT. CHURCHYARD - NIGHT12

Valjean rushes out of the back door of the house. He crosses the graveyard, scrambles over a back wall, and he's gone.

13INT. BISHOP'S HOUSE - DAY13

The Bishop is coming in from morning Mass in his vestments when the door bursts open and two policemen drag Valjean before him. Valjean hangs his head, unable to meet the Bishop's eyes.

He upends Valjean's kitbag, and the silver tumbles out.

The Bishop looks from the silver to Valjean.

Amazed, Valjean looks up.

The old Bishop is holding out the two silver candlesticks.

Silenced by the Bishop's gentle tones, the policemen turn and leave.

Valjean, utterly bewildered, takes the silver candlesticks.

14INT. CHURCH, DIGNE - DAY14

Valjean kneels in the church.

He takes out his yellow passport and stares at it.

He turns towards the altar, and the crucifix above it.

If there's another way to go I missed it twenty long years ago. My life was a war that could never be won. They gave me a number and murdered Valjean When they chained me and left me for dead Just for stealing a mouthful of bread! Yet why did I allow this man To touch my soul and teach me love? He treated me like any other He gave me his trust He called me brother. My life he claims for God above... Can such things be? For I had come to hate the world - This world that always hated me!

Take an eye for an eye! Turn your heart into stone! This is all I have lived for! This is all I have known! One word from him and I'd be back Beneath the lash, upon the rack. Instead he offers me my freedom! (more) 12.

Slowly, he examines the yellow passport and raises it high, as if to the altar.

Valjean stands and turns, walking fast to the door of the church.

15EXT. CHURCH, DIGNE - DAY15

Valjean comes out of the church into the graveyard and reaches a bell set on the edge of a promontory. Below lies the steep drop down the mountainside to the dark valley below.