In 1981, the shooting of this film began, which broke the box office records of French cinema (fifty-six million francs). It was directed by a filmmaker who had not filmed for eleven years (Robert Hossein). The film's release was already scheduled for October 20, 1982, and immediately promised to be a major back-to-school event. For Michel Magne (already the composer of the soundtracks of Tontons Flingueurs, Fantomas, Un Singe en Hiver, etc...), the time was no longer for great post-romantic scents, nor for acid jazz, and even less for the pop provocations of his Jean Yanne years. The very subject of Les Miserables immediately imposes a solemnity, a depth of field, a feeling of elevation.