Les Miserables film with good singing- Page 3

[FishermanBob]

Posted: 1/11/14 at 6:10pm

Dave, fabulous, brilliant work. I'm glad you and I agree that a movie that actually opened and closed over a year ago is the perfect topic on which to spend hours debating endlessly about what they should have done.

After seeing Pierce Brosnan's tour de force performance in the movie version of Mamma Mia!, I'm sure you'll agree, he is now the gold standard for what actors doing the movie version of Broadway musicals should sound like when needing to sing in their roles on film. I've spent many hours over the past year in my padded cell, uh, I mean as I've gone about my day, wondering what he would have sounded like in Les Miz the movie if he had been cast instead of Russell Crowe. Can you do a new Youtube video (if your sister is cool with posting it of course) that shows Pierce Brosnan's head grafted onto Russell Crowe's body as he sings some of the numbers? Even if we don't actually have Pierce singing them, just being able to imagine what Pierce's facial expressions might have looked like had he sung the songs in Les Miz would make it an incredibly richer experience for me as I watch the movie and would finally get others to buy into what I have known for years, whenever a Broadway musical is done on film, he should be the first name mentioned for the male lead. Thanks in advance.

[Dave19]

Posted: 1/11/14 at 8:04pm

Liza, it's NOT. You know what prejudice means? Look it up and then come back. My opinions are always based on things I have seen and heard. And I never said the film would tank or anything like that. You completely miss the point.

Princeton, read my previous posts please. Hugh Jackman is trying to sell his lines to the balcony, while stage Valjeans give a much more intimate, real and therefore filmic performance.

Sutton, thanks, I recently watched Evita and it made me think about what works and what does not work in musical films. I noticed that some studio things actually added to the emotion and that some live sung things actually take away from the emotion because we see struggling actors instead of being dragged into their story.

Darquegk, good point. It basically is the same thing. I guess we should consider films as works of art and many different aspects can create emotion or take scenes to a higher level. Therefore I think that for a future Miss Saigon film, you can either put Kim and Chris in an empty concrete room with no sets, sitting on the floor, let them sing their song a couple of times in 1 close-up shot. That actually takes away from the emotion in this case, because what we see is not what they are supposed to be experiencing. In their eyes that night is paradise. Scenes like The last night of the world, Movie in my mind, American dream, can benefit from the sets, lighting, filmic editing, soaring notes, perfect harmonies, better than life feel, to get the point across. That is the magic of filmmaking. In the case of the actors struggling with singing, what this topic is about, we also need to realize that what the audience sees (an actor struggling with singing) is not necessarily good, pure or raw emotion.







Updated On: 1/11/14 at 08:04 PM