soph (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
sophia_sol) wrote2012-12-29 09:49 pm
sophia_sol) wrote2012-12-29 09:49 pm
Entry tags:
Les Miserables
Okay. To properly write about my thoughts about this new movie adaptation of Les Miserables, I have to begin with the history of my relationship with the musical.
Once upon a time the only song from Les Mis I'd ever heard was "Castle on a Cloud" and I thought it was stupid and insipid and thus had no interest in the musical whatsoever. HOWEVER. I was best friends with Essie, who was a BIIIIIIIG fan of the musical. We worked together in our high-school's office after school each day doing exciting things like sorting attendance sheets or shredding reams of confidential papers, and often we would spend that time talking about Stuff What We Loved. (see also: how I know so much about batman without ever reading any of the comics or watching more than one movie)
So Essie embarked on a campaign to explain to me just how awesome Les Mis is, and one May she succeeded. We were camping for the May long weekend (Victoria Day weekend) and she'd brought along her discman and three-disc Les Mis soundtrack, and one afternoon she sat me down with these items and said, LISTEN. And I listened. And I had all the feels.
Oh, it was confusing in places, because although the soundtrack Essie shared with me had ALL the bits in it (I think, anyways), not just the major songs, parts of it can be hard to follow when you don't yet have enough exposure to tell one character from another by their voice. And parts of it kind of require the actions along with the words to make sense. But whenever I was confused I would pause the disc and ask Essie to explain and she would do so happily, in great detail. For Essie had seen stage productions of the musical before, so she actually knew what the hell was going on!
Anyways, I fell in love.
Essie burned me my very own copies of the discs -- the first music I ever owned for myself! Though I use the word "owned" loosely, since, um, these weren't exactly legal copies. BUT THEY WERE MINE. And I would listen to them on my own discman every day when walking home from school. And I MEAN EVERY DAY, by gum; I listened to those discs a truly ridiculous amount.
Except -- you know the problem, when you get halfway home and the first disc ends and you don't want to have to stop and take off your mittens and dig out the next disc and switch it over, you just want to get home, so you start again from the beginning of the disc instead of moving on to the next one. And then the next day before starting for home you don't switch over to the next disc because you're all caught up in the part of the story you're at in the first disc, since you're no longer at the end of it after you restarted. So you end up listening to the first disc way more than the second, and the second more than the third.
….I don't know why that paragraph ended up all in "you" instead of "me" because it is OBVIOUSLY ME. Anyways. So I learned the entirety of the first disc off by heart, no really, I could start with "Now bringing Prisoner 24601, your time is up and your parole's begun" and sing until "Everybody raise a glass to the master of the house!" And that's without having the disc playing. (singing along WITH something is much easier on one's memory than singing it entirely alone)
But just because I listened to the first disc so much doesn't mean I didn't also know the other discs super well. Because, I mean, I listened to Les Mis so very much over the next few years.
And, crucially, I never once saw any production of it, and never read the book (even an abridged version). So the story existed, in its entirety, solely in my head. The more times I listened to the music, the more tiny details of the story I was able to suss out from what people were singing, until the story was a glorious whole inside my head, utterly clear in every tiny aspect.
I've never felt any need to read fanfic for Les Mis, and it wouldn't surprise me if part of the reason for that is that I spent all my fannish urges figuring out the canon. Which -- LOLOLOL I JUST MADE A CONNECTION -- is one of my favourite things to do in fandom anyways! Read fic for something I know nothing about until I can piece together the canon from the collection of hints in the fic! So...that was basically what I was doing, with Les Mis, only without any fanfic.
SO. Eventually I'd listened to the music enough times that I no longer felt that overwhelming urge to listen to LES MIS AND ONLY LES MIS FOREVER, and frankly I've hardly listened to it the last few years -- but then I haven't needed to, because I've already got the entire story living in my head, and most of the songs too.
ANYWAYS THAT IS THE CONTEXT, I have adored the Les Mis in my head for eight years and then went to see this movie as the first ever time of seeing SOMEONE ELSE'S VISION.
So obviously I spent a lot of time judging their choices of interpretation. I mean, it was kind of inevitable. BUT AT THE SAME TIME I was sobbing so hard at the end of the movie because FEELINGS.
Where to start, though, in talking about the movie? The thing is, there's SO MUCH to talk about!
Okay, I'll start with this: the opening scene, with the prisoners working in a shipyard in the age of sail, I was just like aldkjfhslkdfjsdlfksf!!!! because dude, I adore Patrick O'Brian and I had never really thought about all the hard labour required at the shipyards.
The BISHOP, oh god, the bishop was the best. Well I have always loved that dude, so WELL DONE MOVIE, you preserved that love wholeheartedly! And then throughout the rest of the movie we keep seeing the candlesticks, which Valjean kept even though he sold the rest of the silver to become an honest man! YESSSS. But I loled so hard over one lyric change in that scene -- the bishop says he "saved" Valjean's soul for God rather than "bought" Valjean's soul for god. OH THEOLOGICALLY FRAUGHT CONCEPTS :P
Speaking of lyrical changes, some of those might be legit bits from other versions of the musical than the one I listened to a million times? And some of them make sense for various reasons? But others are just like WTF I JUDGE YOUR CHOICES. Like why the hell did they switch the order of the lines "I run a business of repute, I am the mayor of this town"? THERE WAS NO NEED, it only served to throw me out of the scene for a moment! Also they turned some bits into TALKING when they're supposed to be singing. Actually, I kind of judged all the talking period, because there's NOT SUPPOSED TO BE ANY TALKING, IT'S A THROUGH-SONG.
ANYWAYS, CONTINUING.
Jean Valjean singing Who Am I was really good, and the END of that song, where he leaves the chapel and rips up his papers and throws them over the edge and they swirl away in the wind and the camera pulls out and gosh that was lovely.
Valjean's relationship with Cosette though -- I couldn't help seeing some vaguely creepy Valjean/Cosette overtones. But I'm not sure whether... It's possible I was reading those overtones into it because I have been taught by movies/tv to read ALL open and unapologetic and willingly-discussed affection between characters of opposite genders as ONLY THE DOMAIN OF ROMANCE, friends don't say they love each other, family doesn't say they love each other, EVEN IF THEY DO -- only romantic partners can be like "oh I love her so much, she's changed my life, I don't know what to do about these feels" like Valjean is being in the carriage after he saves Cosette from the Thenardiers. And I WANT to support the notion of open affection between people of all genders and all varieties of relationships, but I couldn't help be uncomfortable with a lot of the Valjean-Cosette interaction. IS THE PROBLEM WITH ME OR WITH SOCIETY OR WITH THE MOVIE? I CAN'T TELL.
Anyways, the Thenardiers were EXCELLENT, scummy in just the right way. I loved how during Master of the House, with all of their tricks and cons, wee!Eponine is involved and present for it all, learning from her parents and seeing it all as great fun, because she's a KID and it's all she's ever really known! That was really well done. And I loved how during the part of Master of the House where Madame Thenardier is talking about her husband in less than positive terms, it's probably partly in serious but mostly it's just part of another con.
The one bit of Master of the House I didn't appreciate was the fact that the lady having sex with Santa called him Santa, because THAT IS AN ANACHRONISM, DO YOUR RESEARCH. Father Christmas would be acceptable, as would Saint Nicholas, but the term Santa is an Americanization of the Dutch Sinterklaas, and that term WOULD NOT HAVE SPREAD TO FRANCE BY THE TIME THE EVENTS OF THE MUSICAL TAKE PLACE.
Although I loved wee!Eponine, I wasn't as into older Eponine, which is kind of tragic because she's really rather awesome! But they did some cuts to her role, and gave some of her awesome to Gavroche. So mostly she was just there to pine over Marius and then keep the letter from him and then die. And you know, I'm just not really into love triangles. I love the Eponine who is in my head, and the Eponine on the screen wasn't her, though the actress did do a good job of her.
But you know who DID do a good job, omfgggg, ANNE HATHAWAY AS FANTINE, she was so good and I had so many feels over her. Like, every scene she was in was PURE GOLD AND TEARS.
Continuing through characters, VALJEAN! and how he's dedicated his entire life to trying to do enough good to make up for the bad he once did, and I'm just like AWW BB YOU ARE A WORTHWHILE HUMAN BEING AND DESERVE LOVE EVEN IF YOU'RE NOT PERFECT.
SIMILARLY, Javert and his harsh mistress Justice, oh god, he just -- it's likeholyschist said: "the best response to learning that the world is better than you thought it was is probably not suicide." OH JAVERT! I mean, I understand? He has DEDICATED HIS ENTIRE LIFE TO THIS ONE VIEW OF HUMANITY and if he allows that to change then his ENTIRE LIFE falls apart, and he can't handle that! He's been this whole repressed bundle of I DEFINITELY DON'T HAVE EMOTIONS, I AM THE LAW and then everything falls apart, oh bb.
But okay speaking of Javert, ONE OF THE CHANGES! The bit where he goes to Valjean and is like, "PUNISH ME BECAUSE I WRONGLY PUT IN A REPORT THAT YOU ARE A CRIMINAL, BUT I JUST DISCOVERED THAT YOU ARE NOT BECAUSE THE ACTUAL VALJEAN WAS JUST ARRESTED" -- that is such a good scene and makes infinitely more sense than what is in my soundrack, which is that when Valjean saves the dude from under the cart, the following exchange occurs:
Javert: "A memory stirs, you make me think of a man from years ago, a man who broke his parole. He disappeared. --Forgive me, sir, I would not dare."
Valjean: "Say what you must, don't leave it there."
Javert: "I have only known one other who could do what you have done. He's a convict from a chain-gang, he's been ten years on the run. But he couldn't run forever, I have found his hide-away, and he's just been re-arrested and he comes to court today. Well, of course he now denies it; you'd expect that of a con. But he couldn't run forever, no, not even Jean Valjean!"
Which -- that always confused me! Because it doesn't make sense that seeing Valjean lift the cart would stir a memory, when CLEARLY the memory would have already been near the front of his mind given the recent re-arrest and upcoming trial! BUT THE WAY IT'S DONE IN THE MOVIE IS EXCELLENT, especially how it allows for further focus on Javert's extremely narrow view of right/wrong, and how really he is TRYING TO BE A GOOD PERSON, he's just terribly misguided.
But it is hard to write good analyses of changes when I have no idea how accurate the soundtrack I have is to the actuality of the full musical, and when I have no idea what the contents of the book are, and all sorts of things. I CAN'T DO COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS WHEN ALL I HAVE IS ONE SOUNDTRACK ;_;
CONTINUING. Something I super loved: the parallel between Stars and Javert's Who Am I reprise, with Javert walking right along the edge of a high and dangerous precipice. JAVERT!!!
Sorry, um, I have a lot of feels about Javert. Well, I've always super loved his songs! Stars and Who Am I are both SO FANTASTIC.
Another fantastic song: Empty Chairs at Empty Tables, oh wow, INSTANT TEARS. And Marius was really very good! I, um, look, Marius and Cosette are not my favourites in the musical. Cosette never really gets much chance to shine as her own person; she's mostly just there to be a...idk, a prize? a tangible example of the grace of love? Probably she COULD be interesting, she's just not allowed to be by the story. And on the subject of Marius, I'm kind of with Enjolras: "Who cares about your lonely soul, we strive towards a larger goal!"
But I get them, I do. They're still just kids, really! And they might be a little stupid and a little loveblinded but they'll grow up.
Continuing to the other students -- ugh, they're ALL that kind of shinily idealistic privileged university student who wants really badly to Fix The World's Problems that I remember so well from MY university days (hell, I was probably one of them. Possibly still am.) And seriously, these dudes had me crying so much, because okay they're trying their best to make things better for the underprivileged people in their society and not really knowing the best way to go about it but wanting so badly to do the right thing, and then dying for it, and I just FEEL THEM SO HARD.
Like at Lamarque's funeral, when they begin singing Do You Hear The People Sing, and then everything turns into a clusterfuck and it's just like, oh god, HOW DO I EVEN. HOW.
Prior to watching this movie, none of the students (except maybe Grantaire) were really PEOPLE in my mind, because if all you're doing is listening to a soundtrack, they're kind of all interchangeable. And on the soundtrack I have, Grantaire sounds kind of like a gravelly-voiced old man. And then um IT IS POSSIBLE I THINK THAT GRANTAIRE WAS THE MOST ATTRACTIVE PERSON IN THIS MOVIE (although he might have to fight for that title with dead!Fantine at the end). But that was kind of a mindfuck, because ACCORDING TO THE LAST EIGHT YEARS OF MY LES MIS FEELS, Grantaire was uninteresting and unattractive! And then all of a sudden he was a) attractive and also b) I was having feels over him? HIM AND ENJOLRAS. THE SCENE WHERE THEY DIIIIIIEEEEED oh god I COULD NOT.
Enjolras was kind of a revelation to me because I HAD NO IDEA HE WAS A PERSON, and it turns out he's like the ringleader of the entire revolution? Okay then! And he was like the EPITOME of that shiny idealistic university student I was talking about, you could SEE THE LIGHT OF HIS PASSION IN HIS EYES, OH ENJOLRAS. So yeah. FEELINGS ABOUT HIM TOO.
But back to Grantaire, oh man, I loved how it was clear THE DUDE HAD A SENSE OF HUMOUR, when I'm not sure anyone else in that movie did. But during Red & Black, he's egging Marius on with his lovestruck behaviour and he's finding it hilarious and it is the best. THAT WHOLE SCENE IS AMAZING really!
(my notes-to-self about what I needed to remember to address in this review of the movie said, on the above subjects, "Grantaire has a face! Leader of the university students had a face! THE SCENE WHERE THEY DIED!" Which really is a pretty good summary of my opinions on the subject.)
(For the record, my notes-to-self also included the following sentence/outpouring of feels on the subject of Les Mis in general: "AUGH JUST TRYIGN TO WRITE THIS POST I AM OVERWHELMED WITH FEELINGS AND CANNOT CONTINUE BECAUSE I HAVE NO IDEA HOW TO EVEN BEGIN TO PUT THEM TO WORDS. I have been a really intense fan of this for so long that I really truly CANNOT EVEN.")
CONTINUING.... The ladies singing Turning Through the Years are SCRUBBING UP THE BLOOD FFROM THE COBBLESTONES, auuuuugh, that's so perfect and beautiful and tragic. EVEN IF THEY DON'T SING THE ENTIRETY OF TURNING THROUGH THE YEARS, one of many cuts.
And then okay the thing that had me crying THE MOST OF ANYTHING was the ending scene, where Fantine leads dead!Valjean away from his body and towards the bright and glorious huge barricade where ALL THE PEOPLE are singing joyfully and hopefully together about how SOMEDAY THINGS WILL BE BETTER and oh god I was sobbing so very hard and I have no idea why that scene got to me so much but OH IT DID, OH GOD, OH GODDDDDDDDD.
Um. Okay. I COULD PROBABLY GO ON but that's OVER THREE THOUSAND WORDS I JUST WROTE, I think I'm done for now. There's all sorts of other stuff I COULD talk about, like how the movie did a great job of demonstrating Valjean's unusual strength in multiple circumstances beyond just the cart-lifting, and how I thought Javert's singing was quite good and I really enjoyed it even though he wasn't as technically proficient as some of the others, and how there were perhaps a few too many extended close-ups on people's faces, and probably I could manage another several thousand words of capslock feelings about ALL THE THINGS, but I will shut up now.
I HOPE YOU ENJOYED THIS EDITION OF "LES MIS FEELS WITH SOPHIA"
Once upon a time the only song from Les Mis I'd ever heard was "Castle on a Cloud" and I thought it was stupid and insipid and thus had no interest in the musical whatsoever. HOWEVER. I was best friends with Essie, who was a BIIIIIIIG fan of the musical. We worked together in our high-school's office after school each day doing exciting things like sorting attendance sheets or shredding reams of confidential papers, and often we would spend that time talking about Stuff What We Loved. (see also: how I know so much about batman without ever reading any of the comics or watching more than one movie)
So Essie embarked on a campaign to explain to me just how awesome Les Mis is, and one May she succeeded. We were camping for the May long weekend (Victoria Day weekend) and she'd brought along her discman and three-disc Les Mis soundtrack, and one afternoon she sat me down with these items and said, LISTEN. And I listened. And I had all the feels.
Oh, it was confusing in places, because although the soundtrack Essie shared with me had ALL the bits in it (I think, anyways), not just the major songs, parts of it can be hard to follow when you don't yet have enough exposure to tell one character from another by their voice. And parts of it kind of require the actions along with the words to make sense. But whenever I was confused I would pause the disc and ask Essie to explain and she would do so happily, in great detail. For Essie had seen stage productions of the musical before, so she actually knew what the hell was going on!
Anyways, I fell in love.
Essie burned me my very own copies of the discs -- the first music I ever owned for myself! Though I use the word "owned" loosely, since, um, these weren't exactly legal copies. BUT THEY WERE MINE. And I would listen to them on my own discman every day when walking home from school. And I MEAN EVERY DAY, by gum; I listened to those discs a truly ridiculous amount.
Except -- you know the problem, when you get halfway home and the first disc ends and you don't want to have to stop and take off your mittens and dig out the next disc and switch it over, you just want to get home, so you start again from the beginning of the disc instead of moving on to the next one. And then the next day before starting for home you don't switch over to the next disc because you're all caught up in the part of the story you're at in the first disc, since you're no longer at the end of it after you restarted. So you end up listening to the first disc way more than the second, and the second more than the third.
….I don't know why that paragraph ended up all in "you" instead of "me" because it is OBVIOUSLY ME. Anyways. So I learned the entirety of the first disc off by heart, no really, I could start with "Now bringing Prisoner 24601, your time is up and your parole's begun" and sing until "Everybody raise a glass to the master of the house!" And that's without having the disc playing. (singing along WITH something is much easier on one's memory than singing it entirely alone)
But just because I listened to the first disc so much doesn't mean I didn't also know the other discs super well. Because, I mean, I listened to Les Mis so very much over the next few years.
And, crucially, I never once saw any production of it, and never read the book (even an abridged version). So the story existed, in its entirety, solely in my head. The more times I listened to the music, the more tiny details of the story I was able to suss out from what people were singing, until the story was a glorious whole inside my head, utterly clear in every tiny aspect.
I've never felt any need to read fanfic for Les Mis, and it wouldn't surprise me if part of the reason for that is that I spent all my fannish urges figuring out the canon. Which -- LOLOLOL I JUST MADE A CONNECTION -- is one of my favourite things to do in fandom anyways! Read fic for something I know nothing about until I can piece together the canon from the collection of hints in the fic! So...that was basically what I was doing, with Les Mis, only without any fanfic.
SO. Eventually I'd listened to the music enough times that I no longer felt that overwhelming urge to listen to LES MIS AND ONLY LES MIS FOREVER, and frankly I've hardly listened to it the last few years -- but then I haven't needed to, because I've already got the entire story living in my head, and most of the songs too.
ANYWAYS THAT IS THE CONTEXT, I have adored the Les Mis in my head for eight years and then went to see this movie as the first ever time of seeing SOMEONE ELSE'S VISION.
So obviously I spent a lot of time judging their choices of interpretation. I mean, it was kind of inevitable. BUT AT THE SAME TIME I was sobbing so hard at the end of the movie because FEELINGS.
Where to start, though, in talking about the movie? The thing is, there's SO MUCH to talk about!
Okay, I'll start with this: the opening scene, with the prisoners working in a shipyard in the age of sail, I was just like aldkjfhslkdfjsdlfksf!!!! because dude, I adore Patrick O'Brian and I had never really thought about all the hard labour required at the shipyards.
The BISHOP, oh god, the bishop was the best. Well I have always loved that dude, so WELL DONE MOVIE, you preserved that love wholeheartedly! And then throughout the rest of the movie we keep seeing the candlesticks, which Valjean kept even though he sold the rest of the silver to become an honest man! YESSSS. But I loled so hard over one lyric change in that scene -- the bishop says he "saved" Valjean's soul for God rather than "bought" Valjean's soul for god. OH THEOLOGICALLY FRAUGHT CONCEPTS :P
Speaking of lyrical changes, some of those might be legit bits from other versions of the musical than the one I listened to a million times? And some of them make sense for various reasons? But others are just like WTF I JUDGE YOUR CHOICES. Like why the hell did they switch the order of the lines "I run a business of repute, I am the mayor of this town"? THERE WAS NO NEED, it only served to throw me out of the scene for a moment! Also they turned some bits into TALKING when they're supposed to be singing. Actually, I kind of judged all the talking period, because there's NOT SUPPOSED TO BE ANY TALKING, IT'S A THROUGH-SONG.
ANYWAYS, CONTINUING.
Jean Valjean singing Who Am I was really good, and the END of that song, where he leaves the chapel and rips up his papers and throws them over the edge and they swirl away in the wind and the camera pulls out and gosh that was lovely.
Valjean's relationship with Cosette though -- I couldn't help seeing some vaguely creepy Valjean/Cosette overtones. But I'm not sure whether... It's possible I was reading those overtones into it because I have been taught by movies/tv to read ALL open and unapologetic and willingly-discussed affection between characters of opposite genders as ONLY THE DOMAIN OF ROMANCE, friends don't say they love each other, family doesn't say they love each other, EVEN IF THEY DO -- only romantic partners can be like "oh I love her so much, she's changed my life, I don't know what to do about these feels" like Valjean is being in the carriage after he saves Cosette from the Thenardiers. And I WANT to support the notion of open affection between people of all genders and all varieties of relationships, but I couldn't help be uncomfortable with a lot of the Valjean-Cosette interaction. IS THE PROBLEM WITH ME OR WITH SOCIETY OR WITH THE MOVIE? I CAN'T TELL.
Anyways, the Thenardiers were EXCELLENT, scummy in just the right way. I loved how during Master of the House, with all of their tricks and cons, wee!Eponine is involved and present for it all, learning from her parents and seeing it all as great fun, because she's a KID and it's all she's ever really known! That was really well done. And I loved how during the part of Master of the House where Madame Thenardier is talking about her husband in less than positive terms, it's probably partly in serious but mostly it's just part of another con.
The one bit of Master of the House I didn't appreciate was the fact that the lady having sex with Santa called him Santa, because THAT IS AN ANACHRONISM, DO YOUR RESEARCH. Father Christmas would be acceptable, as would Saint Nicholas, but the term Santa is an Americanization of the Dutch Sinterklaas, and that term WOULD NOT HAVE SPREAD TO FRANCE BY THE TIME THE EVENTS OF THE MUSICAL TAKE PLACE.
Although I loved wee!Eponine, I wasn't as into older Eponine, which is kind of tragic because she's really rather awesome! But they did some cuts to her role, and gave some of her awesome to Gavroche. So mostly she was just there to pine over Marius and then keep the letter from him and then die. And you know, I'm just not really into love triangles. I love the Eponine who is in my head, and the Eponine on the screen wasn't her, though the actress did do a good job of her.
But you know who DID do a good job, omfgggg, ANNE HATHAWAY AS FANTINE, she was so good and I had so many feels over her. Like, every scene she was in was PURE GOLD AND TEARS.
Continuing through characters, VALJEAN! and how he's dedicated his entire life to trying to do enough good to make up for the bad he once did, and I'm just like AWW BB YOU ARE A WORTHWHILE HUMAN BEING AND DESERVE LOVE EVEN IF YOU'RE NOT PERFECT.
SIMILARLY, Javert and his harsh mistress Justice, oh god, he just -- it's like
holyschist said: "the best response to learning that the world is better than you thought it was is probably not suicide." OH JAVERT! I mean, I understand? He has DEDICATED HIS ENTIRE LIFE TO THIS ONE VIEW OF HUMANITY and if he allows that to change then his ENTIRE LIFE falls apart, and he can't handle that! He's been this whole repressed bundle of I DEFINITELY DON'T HAVE EMOTIONS, I AM THE LAW and then everything falls apart, oh bb.But okay speaking of Javert, ONE OF THE CHANGES! The bit where he goes to Valjean and is like, "PUNISH ME BECAUSE I WRONGLY PUT IN A REPORT THAT YOU ARE A CRIMINAL, BUT I JUST DISCOVERED THAT YOU ARE NOT BECAUSE THE ACTUAL VALJEAN WAS JUST ARRESTED" -- that is such a good scene and makes infinitely more sense than what is in my soundrack, which is that when Valjean saves the dude from under the cart, the following exchange occurs:
Javert: "A memory stirs, you make me think of a man from years ago, a man who broke his parole. He disappeared. --Forgive me, sir, I would not dare."
Valjean: "Say what you must, don't leave it there."
Javert: "I have only known one other who could do what you have done. He's a convict from a chain-gang, he's been ten years on the run. But he couldn't run forever, I have found his hide-away, and he's just been re-arrested and he comes to court today. Well, of course he now denies it; you'd expect that of a con. But he couldn't run forever, no, not even Jean Valjean!"
Which -- that always confused me! Because it doesn't make sense that seeing Valjean lift the cart would stir a memory, when CLEARLY the memory would have already been near the front of his mind given the recent re-arrest and upcoming trial! BUT THE WAY IT'S DONE IN THE MOVIE IS EXCELLENT, especially how it allows for further focus on Javert's extremely narrow view of right/wrong, and how really he is TRYING TO BE A GOOD PERSON, he's just terribly misguided.
But it is hard to write good analyses of changes when I have no idea how accurate the soundtrack I have is to the actuality of the full musical, and when I have no idea what the contents of the book are, and all sorts of things. I CAN'T DO COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS WHEN ALL I HAVE IS ONE SOUNDTRACK ;_;
CONTINUING. Something I super loved: the parallel between Stars and Javert's Who Am I reprise, with Javert walking right along the edge of a high and dangerous precipice. JAVERT!!!
Sorry, um, I have a lot of feels about Javert. Well, I've always super loved his songs! Stars and Who Am I are both SO FANTASTIC.
Another fantastic song: Empty Chairs at Empty Tables, oh wow, INSTANT TEARS. And Marius was really very good! I, um, look, Marius and Cosette are not my favourites in the musical. Cosette never really gets much chance to shine as her own person; she's mostly just there to be a...idk, a prize? a tangible example of the grace of love? Probably she COULD be interesting, she's just not allowed to be by the story. And on the subject of Marius, I'm kind of with Enjolras: "Who cares about your lonely soul, we strive towards a larger goal!"
But I get them, I do. They're still just kids, really! And they might be a little stupid and a little loveblinded but they'll grow up.
Continuing to the other students -- ugh, they're ALL that kind of shinily idealistic privileged university student who wants really badly to Fix The World's Problems that I remember so well from MY university days (hell, I was probably one of them. Possibly still am.) And seriously, these dudes had me crying so much, because okay they're trying their best to make things better for the underprivileged people in their society and not really knowing the best way to go about it but wanting so badly to do the right thing, and then dying for it, and I just FEEL THEM SO HARD.
Like at Lamarque's funeral, when they begin singing Do You Hear The People Sing, and then everything turns into a clusterfuck and it's just like, oh god, HOW DO I EVEN. HOW.
Prior to watching this movie, none of the students (except maybe Grantaire) were really PEOPLE in my mind, because if all you're doing is listening to a soundtrack, they're kind of all interchangeable. And on the soundtrack I have, Grantaire sounds kind of like a gravelly-voiced old man. And then um IT IS POSSIBLE I THINK THAT GRANTAIRE WAS THE MOST ATTRACTIVE PERSON IN THIS MOVIE (although he might have to fight for that title with dead!Fantine at the end). But that was kind of a mindfuck, because ACCORDING TO THE LAST EIGHT YEARS OF MY LES MIS FEELS, Grantaire was uninteresting and unattractive! And then all of a sudden he was a) attractive and also b) I was having feels over him? HIM AND ENJOLRAS. THE SCENE WHERE THEY DIIIIIIEEEEED oh god I COULD NOT.
Enjolras was kind of a revelation to me because I HAD NO IDEA HE WAS A PERSON, and it turns out he's like the ringleader of the entire revolution? Okay then! And he was like the EPITOME of that shiny idealistic university student I was talking about, you could SEE THE LIGHT OF HIS PASSION IN HIS EYES, OH ENJOLRAS. So yeah. FEELINGS ABOUT HIM TOO.
But back to Grantaire, oh man, I loved how it was clear THE DUDE HAD A SENSE OF HUMOUR, when I'm not sure anyone else in that movie did. But during Red & Black, he's egging Marius on with his lovestruck behaviour and he's finding it hilarious and it is the best. THAT WHOLE SCENE IS AMAZING really!
(my notes-to-self about what I needed to remember to address in this review of the movie said, on the above subjects, "Grantaire has a face! Leader of the university students had a face! THE SCENE WHERE THEY DIED!" Which really is a pretty good summary of my opinions on the subject.)
(For the record, my notes-to-self also included the following sentence/outpouring of feels on the subject of Les Mis in general: "AUGH JUST TRYIGN TO WRITE THIS POST I AM OVERWHELMED WITH FEELINGS AND CANNOT CONTINUE BECAUSE I HAVE NO IDEA HOW TO EVEN BEGIN TO PUT THEM TO WORDS. I have been a really intense fan of this for so long that I really truly CANNOT EVEN.")
CONTINUING.... The ladies singing Turning Through the Years are SCRUBBING UP THE BLOOD FFROM THE COBBLESTONES, auuuuugh, that's so perfect and beautiful and tragic. EVEN IF THEY DON'T SING THE ENTIRETY OF TURNING THROUGH THE YEARS, one of many cuts.
And then okay the thing that had me crying THE MOST OF ANYTHING was the ending scene, where Fantine leads dead!Valjean away from his body and towards the bright and glorious huge barricade where ALL THE PEOPLE are singing joyfully and hopefully together about how SOMEDAY THINGS WILL BE BETTER and oh god I was sobbing so very hard and I have no idea why that scene got to me so much but OH IT DID, OH GOD, OH GODDDDDDDDD.
Um. Okay. I COULD PROBABLY GO ON but that's OVER THREE THOUSAND WORDS I JUST WROTE, I think I'm done for now. There's all sorts of other stuff I COULD talk about, like how the movie did a great job of demonstrating Valjean's unusual strength in multiple circumstances beyond just the cart-lifting, and how I thought Javert's singing was quite good and I really enjoyed it even though he wasn't as technically proficient as some of the others, and how there were perhaps a few too many extended close-ups on people's faces, and probably I could manage another several thousand words of capslock feelings about ALL THE THINGS, but I will shut up now.
I HOPE YOU ENJOYED THIS EDITION OF "LES MIS FEELS WITH SOPHIA"
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Gosh, I have like nothing to to contribute, because it's been years since I've seen a stage version or listened to the soundtrack or anything, so it's all pretty hazy to me right now.
But you are making me want ALL the musical, stop that! First Singin' in the Rain, now Les Mis! Argh!
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Anyways yay I am glad you enjoyed my verbose outpouring of feels! I HAVE A LOT OF THEM.
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Like why the hell did they switch the order of the lines "I run a business of repute, I am the mayor of this town"?
I KNOW RIGHT? Like, it doesn't make sense with the book, it doesn't RHYME, I just... wha?
but I couldn't help be uncomfortable with a lot of the Valjean-Cosette interaction. IS THE PROBLEM WITH ME OR WITH SOCIETY OR WITH THE MOVIE? I CAN'T TELL.
hahahaha, the friend I saw the movie with was totally creeped out by the "Suddenly" song for that very reason! I think it is a societal thing? When I put on my "I just read the book!!" goggles, it doesn't creep me out at all, I think it's really lovely, and when I take off the book-goggles, it is kind of weird to me too.
the fact that the lady having sex with Santa called him Santa
YES. I knew something was REALLY WRONG with this and yes, what you say!
But they did some cuts to her role, and gave some of her awesome to Gavroche. So mostly she was just there to pine over Marius and then keep the letter from him and then die. And you know, I'm just not really into love triangles. I love the Eponine who is in my head, and the Eponine on the screen wasn't her, though the actress did do a good job of her.
As you know by now, this is actually book canon! Except that movie!Eponine's face is way too clean! And book!Eponine is way more awesome!
He has DEDICATED HIS ENTIRE LIFE TO THIS ONE VIEW OF HUMANITY and if he allows that to change then his ENTIRE LIFE falls apart, and he can't handle that!
OMG my ABSOLUTE FAVORITE part of the book is this one!
"PUNISH ME BECAUSE I WRONGLY PUT IN A REPORT THAT YOU ARE A CRIMINAL, BUT I JUST DISCOVERED THAT YOU ARE NOT BECAUSE THE ACTUAL VALJEAN WAS JUST ARRESTED" -- that is such a good scene and makes infinitely more sense than what is in my soundrack
YES THIS ALL OF THIS ALSO BOOK CANON
Something I super loved: the parallel between Stars and Javert's Who Am I reprise, with Javert walking right along the edge of a high and dangerous precipice. JAVERT!!!
I have issues with Javert but I DID SO LOVE THIS PART
Also, I looooved your Les-Mis-musical story! My musical story is here :) I think everyone has a Les Mis story!
My rants about the movie are here come talk to me!! (Well, okay, fine, I know you are not always in a commenting mood and I totally support that! I am just having SO MANY FEELS RIGHT NOW AND MUST SHARE!)
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When I put on my "I just read the book!!" goggles, it doesn't creep me out at all, I think it's really lovely, and when I take off the book-goggles, it is kind of weird to me too.
Oh huh, thinking back to this song with nearly three quarters of the book behind me, yeah -- it does rather work! I will be interested to see how I react to it when I actually rewatch the movie!
Although it's kind of a bad thing in a movie for things in it to not make sense unless you've read the book; it means you are not being successful at telling the story you are trying to tell....
As you know by now, this is actually book canon! Except that movie!Eponine's face is way too clean! And book!Eponine is way more awesome!
I'm getting more and more torn up in my opinion of Eponine. I HAVE NO IDEA WHAT TO THINK OF HER. I have decided I'm going to abdicate having opinions until I finish the book.
Also, I looooved your Les-Mis-musical story! My musical story is here :) I think everyone has a Les Mis story!
yayyy I am glad you like my les mis musical story! I read yours too and it is ALSO GREAT! <3
AND I WILL COME TALK TO YOU AT SOME POINT THAT MIGHT BE RIGHT AFTER I FINISH THIS COMMENT AND MIGHT NOT BE FOR DAYS, I HAVEN'T DECIDED YET WHETHER I HAVE ENOUGH BRAIN TO KEEP ON MARATHONING COMMENTS TONIGHT!
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The movie version is actually what happens in the book! And I agree that it makes more sense that way -- I also liked that the movie introduces Valjean by way of his super-strength, by having him retrieve the flag, since in the original libretto it doesn't really come up until the cart scene. (And then at the end when he can't lift his trunk it BROKE MY FUCKING HEART ALL THE MORE.) There are a few instances where the movie changes bits of the stage show in a way that's closer to the book version -- that's one of them, and Fantine selling her teeth (OH GOD THAT WAS UPSETTING), and the scene where Valjean and Cosette escape to the convent (although in the book version they make it to Paris okay but Javert stalks them, and then they end up having to run for it while getting caught out on an evening walk). And quite a few of the barricade scenes are closer to the books than they can be onstage, such as Marius threatening to blow the whole thing up, and the students' last stand happening in the cafe (the deaths of Enjolras and Grantaire are more or less straight out of the book, where G is pretty much canonically in love with E -- this doesn't quite make it into the libretto, but actors sometimes play it up in productions -- and spends most of the uprising passed out, until the end when he sacrifices himself for the one thing he believes in). There are also a lot of fairly minor incorporations of things from the book, but I was pretty impressed with the way that a lot of the divergences from the stage version take it back to the original novel, or clarify bits of background not originally given in the musical (like Marius's background, although I'm not sure how clear the backstory of his falling-out with his grandfather would be to someone who hadn't read the book). Oh, and there are also a lot of little visual references, as well, but I won't go over all of them plus I'd need to see the movie again to do it properly. Which I plan to do because it is amazing, and I say this as someone who's loved both book and musical for over 20 years.
I've actually seen the stage show four times, and I also have to say it's kind of a revelation to be able to see the actors' faces! I've never been close enough to the stage version because theater tickets are expensive, m'sieur -- last time I saw it was back in October and while I actually managed to get a seat in the orchestra section because it was a matinee on a weekday so all but the closest seats were under $30, but I still wasn't close enough to get a good look. Anyway, because of that, I didn't mind the film's extensive use of closeup at all, although I've seen it critiqued quite a bit. Hugh Jackman's Valjean especially was something of a revelation in that regard -- a lot of the lifelong aspect of Valjean's struggle isn't quite voiced in the musical, since obviously you don't get the omniscient narration of the novel, and so the performer has to bring out a lot of that through facial acting, and when you're not that close it's kind of easy to lose sight of him. And the film really kept that as a through-line. (Even on a meta level: the actor playing the bishop was Colm Wilkinson, who originated the role in both London and New York.)
...I should maybe save all this for my own review, shouldn't I? But. YES. AWESOME MOVIE. ALL OF THE FEELS. I CRIED SO MUCH. (Like, I have always loved "I Dreamed a Dream," right? But Anne Hathaway's version is the first one that made me cry. BECAUSE OMG FANTINE I WANT TO GIVE HER HUGS AND FOOD AND A MILLION ANTIBIOTICS.)
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Annnnd I just started reading the book today for the very first time. WHO KNOWS IF I WILL FINISH IT, it is 2453 pages long (!!!) and I am only 40 pages in so far and it would not surprise me if I get distracted before I finish, but I am enjoying it MUCHLY so far.
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I shall be back with more feelings after viewing 2 tomorrow, but I really enjoyed this edition of "LES MIS FEELS WITH SOPHIA." Probably I will do a sequel at some point once I have sorted my feels out more.
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I will look forward to yours once you sort your out, and ENJOY YOUR SECOND VIEWING!