My Second Cinema Trip: Les Miserables (2020): Not A Bonnet In Sight!

https://youtu.be/YFfdlLW9Rwg

Wonderful film, but a tough watch with little hope or redemption; tho there are subtle hints of personal reflection and transformation. Emotions are pretty much hidden until the end. It hints at Victor Hugo but it's set in the schemes of Paris. It all goes Lord of the Flies/Judges at the end and we don't know how it ends. But for me, it's the biggest testimony to why everywhere needs local church and indigenous workers..

99.9% of the adults/authority figures in the film are corrupt, liars, untrustworthy, sinful, exploitative and manipulative. Those who should uphold the Law and the moral example generally don't even though they have their own mothers, daughters, sons at home or at a distance. The film confronts these 'Law makers' with their own corruption - a father with his own daughters power perves on others' daughters; a son fails to protect another mother's son; a devoted father doesn't do what he should to keep families together. They are, at points confronted with the truth and their own ethics/morality/sin but they never follow through fully, tho you can see the impact of it on them and how it scars later generations - those with authority don't do what they should do, only when it suits them or gains them advantage. The truth, tho known, never gets out there like it should.

In the film, local Muslims are trying to do something, to show care for young people; but apart from one, they're very much papering over the visible cracks - tho they do care. But if there'd been a church too, some obvious local believers - who knows?

Fascinating film about how those with power wield it and how their home lives conflict with how they live and act in public. Also how much people, especially young people, need adults around them who will be boringly, achingly, tediously consistent and just be there til it kills them!