Les Miserables-seen it!

[Siam_Sam]

We saw it today and liked it. A friend said it would make us want to get up and sing and dance in the aisles. Um, no, it didn’t do that. But we liked it.

[BigDadWolf]

I saw it last night with my 15 year old son who had seen it before and had been wanting me to go see it with him for weeks.

A couple of points:

1. I have never seen a stage production of Les Miserables.
2. In the last month I finished listening to a 50+ hour audiobook of the original book.

Bottom line is I completely enjoyed it. I am not much of a connoisseur of the fine arts so I don’t have any criticism of the singing and enjoyed almost every one. Having recently completed the audiobook I knew the full story and was impressed with the playwright’s skill in condensing the story while still representing the overall arc plus making the Thénardiers more of a comic relief than the evil spiteful character in the book (I thought the “Master of the House” segment was hilarious.

I would really like to go see a stage version of it and wonder if it will have revival due to the movie.

The only other interesting thing is that my son and I saw it at a 8:00 showing on a Sunday evening and we were the only ones in the theater so it was like a private screening - we both thought that was a lot of fun.

[interface2x]

@BigDadWolf

I would really like to go see a stage version of it and wonder if it will have revival due to the movie.

Depending on where you live you might have a chance to catch the current tour - Dates and places.

[FloatyGimpy]

@interface2x

Depending on where you live you might have a chance to catch the current tour - Dates and places.

Thank you! I didn’t know they were coming here! Yay, so excited!

[gonzoron]

I know I’m late to the party, but I just got the front of the library request line for the DVD this week. I’m a huge fan of the play, and loved the movie, except Crowe, but no need to echo what most others who liked it said. Anyway, the reason I’m bothering posting is:

Am I the only one bothered by Cosette being blonde and Eponine being Brunette? I’ve seen the play 4 times, and it was always the opposite on stage. I assumed that was on purpose, visually, and that they probably used wigs when needed to maintain it. Was it just coincidence? In any case, the Cosette=brunette/Eponine=blonde connection is so cemented in my head that it pulled me out of the movie. I realize it’s a shallow and ultimately meaningless thing, but is it just me?

[Sampiro]

[QUOTE=Hermione]

I must say I liked the fact that they worked more stuff from the Brick back into it. In fact, I’d read the leaked screenplay online this fall and was impressed by just HOW much from the Brick it worked in (some of which didn’t make it into the finished product). For example, after Eponine’s death, Gavroche was to have said, “She was my sister.” On the one hand, it was nice to have one more nod to the novel…on the other, it came totally out of left field. We didn’t even see a baby boy at the Thenardiers’ inn to set it up.
[/QUOTE]

Actually you do; they switch a guest’s valise for one containing a baby. I wondered at the time if that was a nod to Gavroche’s abandonment.

It’s not that I disliked this movie, it’s that I wanted to love it, and I didn’t. It was absolutely… alright. It had a few great moments (those with Anne Hathaway and Colm Wilkinson, mainly), Samantha Barks knocked On My Own out of the park, Jackman held his own as Valjean, but overall fell very flat, and not just with Russell Crowe (though he’s still the biggest “WTF?” in recent casting history). There’s not a scene from the movie that I’d watch on a loop, not even Master of the House (which they wrecked- and why did SBC put on an Inspector Clousseau accent when every character in the piece is French and none of the others are using a French accent?).

And speaking of songs that were cut and Master of the House, I couldn’t believe they cut so much of Beggar at the Feast when that always brought the house down in the theater.

And am I the only person who thinks Eddie Redmayne sounds like a Muppet when he sings?

[Jophiel]

@gonzoron

Am I the only one bothered by Cosette being blonde and Eponine being Brunette? I’ve seen the play 4 times, and it was always the opposite on stage.

I’ve seen it four times and each time Cosette was blonde and Eponine was brunette.

I had a theater friend once tell me that Eponine was a feeder role for Kim in Miss Saigon so you saw a lot of sorta-Asian looking females (skin tone and hair color) in the role. No idea if that’s accurate or not.

[Sampiro]

[QUOTE=Jophiel]

I had a theater friend once tell me that Eponine was a feeder role for Kim in Miss Saigon so you saw a lot of sorta-Asian looking females (skin tone and hair color) in the role. No idea if that’s accurate or not.
[/QUOTE]

Both were played by Lea Salonga, but I don’t know which she played first. Anyone? (Bueller? Bueller?)

There’s occasional talk of a film version of Miss Saigon, but I don’t see it happening. For one thing, the price of filming in Bangkok (which would have to look like 1970s Bangkok) and other Asian locations and reenacting the fall of Saigon and the storming/closing of the the U.S. Embassy (an absolute necessity for the piece) would probably cost more than it could ever gross.

[sachertorte]

@Sampiro

Both were played by Lea Salonga, but I don’t know which she played first. Anyone? (Bueller? Bueller?)

Miss Saigon
Casting for Kim is how she was “found” in the Philippines.

[vivalostwages]

@Spiritus_Mundi

Loved this film. I’ve a soft spot for the play as well, ever since the wife and I saw it on our honeymoon. I was worried the movie would let me down, actually, since the emotional power of the live performance would be difficult to translate to the screen. I actually found it quite interesting how they addressed the shift in medium.

Some folks have complained about the “talk-singing” of some of the libretto, the etreme close ups, and the weakness of Crowe’s voice. I can understand all of these cmplaints, but I think they also reflect a thematic artistic choice that I quite admired. Film is more intimate and individual a medium than the way Les Mis is traditionally staged. And I think Hopper made specific choices to emphasize that teh important conflict for this story was internal. Everything else was backdrop - Valjean’s conflict is with his own conscience and sense of duty. In the staeg play, Javert is generally a clear protagonist, their struggle almost mano-a-mano. But the film subjugates Javert - he becomes simply a civil servant, a recurring eample rather than a personified force of social injustice. The movie does not need him to be big - it can use establishing shots and visual scale to portray the social inequity directly. Hopper allows, and Crowe portrays, Javert on a human scale rather than an epic one.

As a musical choice, it certainly weakens Javert’s ongs. As a cinematic and thematic choice, I appreciated it very much. Javert’s suicide has always been a problematic conclusion to his dramatic arc in teh musical, precisel because he is generally (and for the dramatic requirements of the stage perhaps inescapably) portrayed as such an elemental and unyieding force, the personification of the unyielding injustices of the rigid social order. But I thought Crose’s portrayal showed a much more human Javert.

Thematically this allowed him to be a more effective foil to Valjean’s own struggles with change and identity. Dramatically I think it gave him a more beliveable entry point for his final fall. Some early touches (such as the scene where he tenders his resignation after believing he had falsely accused the Mayor) really served to foreshadow Javert’s complete identification with his own social role, a counter to Valjean;s ongoing struggle to define his own identity independent of social pressure.

And much more simply, Hathaway, jackman, and Barks were all phenomenal. The child actors were admirable in their parts, and I actually found Marius to be a more earnest and likable chacter in the film than I generally do in the play. redmayne brings a sincerity to teh role that I found unexpectedly compelling.

Personally, I could have done with a little less farce in the Thernadier’s. I think it is a more necessary counterpoint in the stage play than in the film. Bonham Carter and Baron Cohen do fine jobs in their roles, but I think if the staging of their bits had been a bit less over teh top it actually would have worked better in the film.

But I still loved it.

I enjoyed it enough to buy a copy. Upon watching it a couple more times at home, I found Jackman a bit shrill at times but still very appealing; and Crowe makes Javert sound appropriately conflicted and more vulnerable than that character would ever admit.

[SCAdian]

@jayjay

Something I thought about after seeing the movie yesterday…Valjean wasn’t trying very hard to keep a low profile after breaking his parole. You’d think things like becoming prominent in business and political positions, even in a small town, would be something to avoid if you’re on the run. But nooo…not only does he become what is probably the largest employer and economic driver in town, he becomes the freaking MAYOR! Where you’re going to have constant contact with the police, since you’re the guy in charge of them. Duh…

@Cayuga

Yes, but he was living in a time when people — especially the man he was hiding from — believed that people can never change. Javert (and presumably the rest of the police force) were looking for a criminal. It would never occur to them that this wealthy, successful, honest man could have had a criminal past.

Not to mention that there wouldn’t be any photographs of him to pass around - they’d have to rely on descriptions, and sketches based on descriptions.

[sachertorte]

Also late to the party here. Finally watched the movie on DVD last weekend.

Overall, I enjoyed the movie very much.
Russell Crowe was not nearly as bad as I was expecting him to be. I guess reading all the negative stuff about him appropriately lowered my expectations to the point that he didn’t bother me all that much. He wasn’t good by any means (terribly robotic) but not all that bad. I kind of felt that the note he was singing were out of his range because he sounded so strange. The lack of effortlessness made his singing distracting T times.

Anne Hathaway was very good. Obviously not news.

I also enjoyed the references back to the book, but mine was Monsieur Fauchelevent in the convent.

I did not like how they moved On My Own to before One Day More. It didn’t make sense there. That coupled with having Gavroche deliver Marius’s letter to Cosette (Is that from the book? It seems like it is from the book, otherwise WTF?) The end result is Eponine is far less sympathetic, which I didn’t like. I prefer Eponine singing On My Own on her way to deliver the letter. I think it makes more sense there and emphasizes her selflessness and love.

I did like the deletion of Turning(mostly) and Dog Eats Dog. I never liked those songs.

And the camera work drove me nuts. But afterwards, I thought about it, and the filmmakers were kind of stuck, I guess. In the stage show, the main songs are pretty much just the singer on stage singing. There isn’t a whole lot else to see. I could have done with less extreme closeups but I don’t know what else could have been done. They sing and that’s pretty much it. On the other hand that type of creativity would be the difference between a great director and a mediocre one.

[interface2x]

@sachertorte

That coupled with having Gavroche deliver Marius’s letter to Cosette (Is that from the book? It seems like it is from the book, otherwise WTF?)

Yes, that’s from the book.