Comments on Les Miserables movie

[jo]

Posted: 11/22/12 at 6:27pm

Baz Bamigboye of the UK Daily Mail shares what he could from the screening of Les Miserables that he has seen --

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-2237100/Les-Miserables-Grippingly-emotional-film-adaptation-looks-like-real-joy-watch.html?ito=feeds-newsxml

>>Hugh Jackman said the film of Les Miserables would revolutionise the way people viewed movie musicals.

The actor plays Jean Valjean in Tom Hooper’s stirring film version of the award-winning musical by Claude-Michel Schonberg, Alain Boublil and Herbert Kretzmer.

When I spoke to him, during filming at Pinewood Studios, he explained why. ‘We sing as we act, rather than lay down songs weeks in advance,’ he said. ‘It makes it much more realistic — particularly with a gritty story like this.’

People lucky enough to be invited to private screenings of Les Miserables this week told me that having the actors sing live, as it were, added a grippingly emotional intensity to the picture (which is already pretty emotional!).

One showing yesterday in central London left the audience moved to tears.

Viewers I spoke to praised the film’s ‘breathtaking’ appearance, and the performance of stars, including Jackman and Anne Hathaway.

They revealed that Russell Crowe, as Inspector Javert, had a scene-stealing moment halfway through which allowed cinema-goers to have a quiet sob.

People who caught yesterday’s screening seemed equally impressed by the younger actors, mentioning Eddie Redmayne’s knockout Marius, Samantha Barks’ moving Eponine, Amanda Seyfried’s touching Cosette, and Aaron Tveit’s enjoyable Enjolras.

And Sacha Baron Cohen and Helena Bonham Carter bring the house down as the Thenardiers, unsurprisingly.

I have seen Les Miserables, too, but I’m not allowed to write about it yet, alas.

The fact it’s even ready this far ahead of its January 11 UK opening date (its world premiere is in London on December 5) is a tribute to director Hooper’s tenacity (and that of producers Eric Fellner, Tim Bevan, Cameron Mackintosh and Debra Hayward).

Les Miserables will be a major Oscar and Bafta contender.<<<

[bobs3]

Posted: 11/22/12 at 7:36pm

I had a very good feeling that HBC and SBC were going to steal every scene they are in. They were born to play the Thenardiers.

[MattDe]

Posted: 11/22/12 at 7:54pm

A very confusing and hard to understand musical in my opinion.

[jimmycurry01]

Posted: 11/22/12 at 8:03pm

Really? How so? I always felt like the plot was nicely streamlined and quite easy to follow on stage.

[broadwaydevil]

Posted: 11/22/12 at 8:29pm

Javet = cop, Val John = bad guy but maybe good maybe confusing who knows...do not understand? Fanteen = lady but maybe not maybe mommy maybe prostitute. Cosetee = little girl but then big girl very confusing.

War = something like French Revolution, barrikade = something like a fence, Marius = student or not or soldier or confusing, idk.
Enjoorlahs = angry boy, calm down, why so mad?
Gavroche = little boy, so young. Thenardiers = mean, sell poor little Cosetee. Eponeen = crazy, no sense.

Javet gets sad and dies. Val John = turns good. Marius loves little Cosetee. Eponeen is on her own and dies from bad men. Why flags? Confusing.

Who is Victor Hugo?

[GatorNY]

Posted: 11/22/12 at 9:13pm

Love this: ".... Aaron Tveit’s Enjoyable Enjolras."

[My Oh My]

Posted: 11/23/12 at 7:37am

As a relentless "Mis" fan since big hair was in style, I can say with some confidence the following are the most popular misconceptions about this musical:

#1 - Without a doubt, the French Revolution thing. In fact, I believe the powers that be actually ran with it back in the mid-90s, and placed slogans such as "History Repeats Itself" in ads announcing return engagements, and other similar mentions of HISTORY. I always thought that was weird and random, even as a history-hating schoolboy. They seemed to allude to that more popular revolution since people are drones and go with what's familiar, "Oh! A musi-cal about the French Rev.? Oh, I studied that in grade school! Letssss goooo!!!"

#2 - Merry-us chooses Cassette over Epoh-9!!!

(Or Marius chooses Cosette over Eponine)

Oh, the outrage. How could he? Except, there was never really this so called suspenseful choice the dude had to make. He didn't even know Eponine was "there,"

"...but he never saw me thereeeeee!"
"One more day all on my owwwwn!"
"On my own, pretending he's beside me..."
"Without me, his world would go on turning!"
"Little he knows, little he sees!"
"Little you know, little you care!"
"He was never mine to lose. Why regret what could not be?
These are words he'll never say. Not to me, not to me. Not for me. His heart full of love. He will never feel this waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay."

Them Eponine words. Some people think she does plenty of whining. I think she doesn't do enough of it considering the silly numbers of people I've encountered over the years who conjure up this imaginary cliffhanger of, "will he? Or will he NOT??? Ooooooh, stay tuuned..." Puh-leeze.

#3 - "This musical NEEDS to be performed using cockney accents...or it doesn't work!!! Deal is off! The show is ruined! Finished! No good!"

As hysterical as that seems, it's fairly common, and I've encountered my share of people insisting that the musical about French folk need be performed using some sort of British accent. That's fine and all, but saying it doesn't work in an American accent, Australian accent, Irish accent? Oh, wait, the legendary Colm Wilkinson is an Irish dude, but he's a unique exception, yeah, cause he's the original. Seriously?

Les Mis has historically been translated to each country's home language and has always adopted even the distinct lower class equivalent dialect of the area it is playing. In England, Cockney happens to denote the lower class, so it is used on the poor and commoners in the play. Doesn't mean it is used as a rule, and performances in America have never adopted the Cockney thing because it isn't a play about British people, and Cockney isn't a known lower class equivalent that is native to us, so using it wouldn't make sense!

#4 - This is only a recent one, but one that is notable to me. What separates this one from the others is a lot of people, even really bright people and long time theatre fans, make the strangest assumptions borne out of this general, gradual getting out of touch with theatrical conventions. Incredibly, more people than I'd like to report take the original production totally literally. It's as if everything is happening seconds after this event and that event. Fantine bemoans life and is a whore literally two minutes later. A few minutes later, she dead.

Apparently, there is a flaw in the original production, that flaw being there is no clear indication of night and day. Er, what?

Oh, it goes on. Valjean is visited by a bunch of spooks at the end of the play, who appear randomly to sing a nice "farewell!" to us all. And people are sobbing because poor Valjean has croaked. The happy reprise send-off is just that, a happy reprise send off. Added on. Last minute. For ****s and giggles. I've had to explain what it OBVIOUSLY is too many times, it's sad really, considering the uplift and inspiration me and gaggles of people get out of that beautiful finale.

It's a play. A stage play, where the limited space offers limited options, but also ample opportunities for creativity. More and more these days, people don't get that, and consider stuff like the revolve in Les Mis some gimmick used to whirl the cast around randomly. Have they really missed out? Theatrical designs are usually enormously evocative and have a way of filling that limited space typically using just a few suggestive elements with the help of a lil' bit of imagination. The imagination thing seems to put people off. It's not like you have to MAKE yourself imagine stuff, LOL. It just happens but you do have to have a theatrical perspective to see it, something that usually comes naturally. I guess not anymore in this reality obsessed culture. Grr. Meanwhile theatre continues to be more real than real to me in a way no film or other medium can.

#5 - "That sad chick on the cover is Eponine."

No, it's not.

[Wynbish]

Posted: 11/23/12 at 8:46am

Please tell me that was not posted because of a troll's post...

[Jon]

Posted: 11/23/12 at 9:10am

So, for the American equivalent of cockney, would it work if the Thernardiers and other "low class" folk spoke with hillbilly accents? Maybe Brooklyn accents? South Boston?

[CarlosAlberto]

Posted: 11/23/12 at 9:39am

I ain't wasting my time reading what seems to be a 5 page rant over a troll's post. Really?!!

[TBFL]

Posted: 11/23/12 at 10:32am

I love the show and seen it way too many times... but the only thing that does confuse people, is when JVJ comes back as the Mayor, it comes out of nowhere.

[OperaBwayLover]

Posted: 11/23/12 at 11:18am

Great post, My Oh My! #1 drives me up the wall; for my undergraduate Capstone research project in college, I chose to discuss the relevance of the women in Les Miserables, the novel. We were required to present our work, with a powerpoint and all. Afterward, most of my classmates came up and said, "Oh, I had no idea that's what it was about! I thought it was just a book about the French Revolution, like A Tale of Two Cities."

I'd like to add one more misconception, albeit a minor one:

#6: "Andrew Lloyd Webber wrote 'Les Miz'!" No he did not. In fact, it's well-documented in Edward Behr's excellent book that 'he clearly didn't like it...(even) offered to refund Cameron the deposit on the theatre." But still, because it's in the category of mega-musicals, everyone lumps it in with his catalogue. A general assumption made by the general public, and it annoys me to no end for some reason.

[henrikegerman]

Posted: 11/23/12 at 12:25pm

What most surprises me about the link is a photo of Angelina Jolie smiling.

[jo]

Posted: 11/23/12 at 3:28pm

Any tweets ( twitter is allowed, not full reviews) from the first official screening at the Alice Tully Hall, Lincoln Center?

[Fan2]

Posted: 11/23/12 at 6:16pm

If interested I suggest going to IMDB since there's a thread over there keeping track of all the twitter postings - from all accounts the movie is a triumph. Everyone gets high marks and some people seem to be surprised by Redmayne. Here's one report
from Roger Friedman at showbiz411.

>>Cheers and a standing ovation this afternoon at the first screening of the film version of Les Miserables. Tom Hooper, Oscar winner for The King’s Speech, has made a thrilling, sensational epic of the legendary Broadway show. This now becomes the Titanic of this year’s awards season, the film to beat. Hugh Jackman is a triumph as Jean Valjean, Anne Hathaway sings the heck out of the film’s big numbers, and Samantha Barks just about steals the film.
Screening

[best12bars]

Posted: 11/23/12 at 6:30pm

The one going off on Aaron Tveit on those Tweets is apparently his manager. Easy there, hon. Nothing like a shill to taint future opinions. Step away from the cell phone and keyboard now and actually do him a favor. Seriously.

[Michael Bennett]

Posted: 11/23/12 at 7:15pm

Roger Friedman is also a paid studio publicist so he must always be taken with a grain of salt

[jo]

Posted: 11/23/12 at 7:16pm

Check both the Les Miserables Page on IMDB and the Movie Awards Board also on IMDB ( which is actually a little faster in getting reactions).

[steven22]

Posted: 11/23/12 at 7:45pm

My friend's parents in the SAG union and she got tickets to see a screening this afternoon in NYC. She is at a talkback with Anne Hathway and the creative team on the movie. She said the movie was unbelievable and that Anne was amazing as Fantine. Apparently, the creative team on the movie finished editing the movie last night at 2am!

[TBFL]

Posted: 11/23/12 at 7:47pm

I really hope Sam gets a 'and introducing....' credit, especially after all the named competition that went up for the part. Its a great role to make her debut in and fingers crossed she gets the recognition.

[steven22]

Posted: 11/23/12 at 7:50pm

Just had a thought, Samantha Barks would be a great Elphaba in WICKED. Just time time for the movie....?

[TBFL]

Posted: 11/23/12 at 8:03pm

Not a bad idea! Back on the 'id do anything' tv programme, she did attempt defying gravity and wasn't great, but that was a long time ago and she has improved so much since then. If she gets amazing reviews, she could definitely be a contender.

[jdtp12]

Posted: 11/23/12 at 9:34pm

This guy shares some of his thoughts. He mentions "I Dreamed a Dream" was all one take. Is he saying it's just one shot with no different angles/cuts? That sounds very intriguing.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6FElj9Hf4oE&feature=youtu.be

[sueb1863]

Posted: 11/23/12 at 9:44pm

He also says one song was cut but doesn't say which one.

[bk]

Posted: 11/24/12 at 12:17am

"Apparently, the creative team on the movie finished editing the movie last night at 2am!"

No. Not possible. And anyone saying that is clearly an idiot, mishearing it, or a shill.