French writer/ director Jean-Pierre Améris turns the Victor Hugo classic into L’HOMME QUI RIT-Lite, relatively faithful to the novel (at least till the end) while misreading intent. You’d hardly know Hugo’s ‘grotesque’ Gwynplaine (disfigured in childhood by Gypsies as part of a Royalist Plot, left with a terrifying grimace carved in his face) earned laughs from a cruel society tickled by his hideous misery. So, Marc-André Grondin hits on a sort of Teen Beat Gwynplaine, more cute than scary. With Gérard Depardieu as gruff protector, Christa Théret as his blinded childhood sweetheart and Emmanuelle Seigner as the titled Lady who sees him performing for the hoi polloi, learns his secret, then figures out how to use his aristocratic heritage to her advantage at the Royal Court. Hugo’s marvelous whirligig plot mechanics are streamlined into place, fashionable as a Tim Burton/Johnny Depp vehicle. On its own terms, much comes off, but you don’t need to know the astonishing 1928 Paul Leni/Conrad Veidt late-silent version to ascertain the missing emotional baggage, wonderment and real pain.
DOUBLE-BILL/LINK: The 1928 version is in superb shape visually, but calls out for a fresh soundtrack to replace the original synched music-track disks, now sounding like a dated compromise to meet the burgeoning Talkie market. https://maksquibs.blogspot.com/2008/06/man-who-laughs-1928.html
ATTENTION MUST BE PAID: In CLAIR DE LUNE, a stage adaptation by his wife, John Barrymore played Gwynplaine in-between his two legendary Shakespeare productions of KING RICHARD III and HAMLET, a pair of roles that together almost perfectly characterize Hugo’s tragic, tortured jester.
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