Le Monde Reviews Fred Cavayé's "Les Misérables": Star Cast, Stripped-Down Hugo

Le Monde published a review of Fred Cavayé's new film adaptation of Victor Hugo's "Les Misérables," criticizing the director for delivering a version the paper describes as "ripolinée" — superficially polished — of the classic novel. According to the review, the film assembles a high-profile cast but brings nothing distinctive to the material, instead compiling the story's most famous scenes while stripping away the novel's narrative complexity. The critique centers on the adaptation's reduction of Hugo's sprawling work to a gallery of stars and a sequence of celebrated set pieces, losing the richness of the original text in the process. The review appeared in Le Monde's Culture section on October 13, 2026. The film is directed by Fred Cavayé and adapts the work of Victor Hugo.