L'Homme qui rit (2012)
Directed by Jean-Pierre Améris

Film Synopsis

England in the late 1600s.  When he was a very small boy, Gwynplaine was kidnapped by a gang of gypsies, who marked his face with a scar that gave him what looks like a permanent grin.  Some time later, the boy escapes his captors and comes to the aid of a blind orphan girl, Déa, who has lost her way in the fiercest of winter storm.  The two abandoned waifs are offered shelter by a raggedy fairground performer named Ursus, who gives them a place to stay in his modest but cosy caravan.  An immediate bond of friendship is established between these three disparate individuals and some years later they are still together, performing at fairgrounds all over the country.

It seems that Gwynplaine has a natural talent for making people laugh, and Ursus makes good use of this, to the extent that the young man soon becomes something of a star.  Audiences flock from far and wide to see the laughing man, the clown with a permanent smile.  Gwynplaine's popularity soon makes him rich and famous, but this celebrity comes at an unexpected price.  Gradually, he finds himself being drawn away from his two dearest friends, Déa and Ursus.  In the end, the famous 'man who laughs' will have much to cry about, when his noble past suddenly catches up with him...