Le Chemineau
About Le Chemineau
Jean Valjean trudges through snow and is refused by the people he begs. The Bishop of Digne feeds him and lets him sleep in the bishop's bed. Valjean steals the silver candlesticks and leaves. At a jeweler's, as he tries to turn the silver into money, the gendarmes close in. The last scene, in which the bishop tells the police the silver was a gift, does not survive.
Cast & crew
More about Le Chemineau
Albert Capellani directed and wrote this Pathé short, the first filming of an episode from Victor Hugo's Les Misérables. It is dated December 1905 and 1906. A surviving fragment runs about five to six minutes and stops at the jeweler. The actors are not identified. One French credit list names players that other records do not confirm.
Themes
Making
Capellani had just begun directing for Pathé. The episode he took is the night at Digne, not the later life of the mayor Madeleine.
Look
The surviving piece uses a track toward Valjean in the snow and a pan that shows the bishop's bedroom before the action moves into it.
Preservation
A fragment survives. It ends at the jeweler, before the bishop tells the gendarmes he gave Valjean the silver. The film otherwise runs past five minutes.
Notes
- The fragment opens on a close view of Valjean walking toward the camera in the snow, then pans into the bishop's adjoining room before anyone enters it.
- A reverse pan follows him out with the silver.
- The German title is Der Landstreicher. An archive copy is also filed as The Strong Arm of the Law.
Scenes
- Valjean begs in a snowstorm and is turned away.
- He sleeps in the bishop's bed, then takes the candlesticks.
- The gendarmes reach him at the jeweler's. The bishop's lie is missing from the print.
Influenced by
- Les Misérables
Also available
- Internet Archive (silent-le-chemineau-aka-the-strong-arm-of-the-law)
