I think subject movies is transplanted from the namesake Broadway show, a stage opera in the form of motion ficture. All of the actors sing, or recite, their dialogues or soliloquies instead of conventional ones. Unlike vaudevilles, the actors perform with a style in between stage and picture, half normal and half exaggerating, but all seem pretty natural to the audieence. Most backdrops of the film are the architectures and strets of city of Paris, which are almost the same as they are now.(I admire France's efforts in perserving its culture and antiques.) Of course either the playwright or the scriptwriter adapted the opera/movie from one of the greatest novels ever created during 19th century: Victor Hugo's prominent masterpiece.

The settings of the storyline took place in tumultous era of Franch Revolution when there had been the transitional time of different stages evolving from monarchy, thru ochlocracy, autocracy and restoration, to democracy. Under a society of turmoil and disparity, the underpriviledged commons struggled to scratch a living, and Jean Valjean was one of them. He was convicted a prison sentence of 19 years due to just stealing a loaf of bread for his starving niece.  After being released, he was religiously-inspired by a Father.  Since then, he changed his cynical attitude toward the world and became a cultivated gentleman and a mayor with a pseudonymous name.   Because he jumped the parole, Javert, a draconian police inspector, gave chase on him incessantly.  At last Javert killed himself because his mind was deeply baffled with a question of whether abiding the law or following his conscience; while Jean Valjean, throughout an eventful life, insisted on his principle and lived on his last days peacefully. 

People say that law is the bottomline of ethics, whereas Victor Hugo tried to argue that conscience is the ultimate law. Not until the world has reached the realm of his calling, no real happiness will ever exist.  He is right, and that's also why I love the romanticism of 19th century.

p.s.  Last September when travelling to Paris, I came to visit Hugo's residence, now a memorial library, in a compounded park.  I regret that I didn't buy a "Les Miserables" of English version at the library.  I remember the first time and only time I have ever read the novel was when I was a second or third grader in a primary school.  Of course the book was a abridged children reader in the translated name "孤星淚".  The first completed, unabridged Chinese edtion was finally published in 1984, co-translated by 李丹、方于, a married couple and professors of Franch.  Please google to see the fate of the couple and the process of their translating the novel, which people said it had been even more miserable than the story of "Les Miserables" itself.