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sophia_sol) wrote2013-01-29 09:33 pm
sophia_sol) wrote2013-01-29 09:33 pm
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Les Miserables 2012 Movie Cast
NEXT UP: the 2012 movie soundtrack! WHAT IT TOTALLY COUNTS, it is a different experience listening to it as a soundtrack in the context of other soundtracks rather than as part of a movie.
For one thing, this soundtrack goes for less "pretty music", which works in the context of a movie but is a little disconcerting when listening to it as music qua music. Valjean's "Who Am I", for example, is not particularly pretty, but it is successfully very emotional.
Although something I found interesting is that this is the soundtrack I've heard thus far that is the least interested in being pretty, and yet it also has the only Grantaire who actually sings in an aesthetically appealing way. Apparently most people take the "Grantaire was ugly and a drunkard" and decide that he ought to sing unmusically. This movie disagrees. WHICH I DO NOT HAVE A PROBLEM WITH, as George Blagden is great, but it is an interesting comparison with EVERYONE ELSE EVER.
Anyways! It was cool to now hear Colm Wilkinson as the Bishop now that I am familiar with him as Valjean. By his voice he's clearly the same actor, though older! He does well as the Bishop, and I think I actually like him better in that role than as Valjean.
Something that confused me when I watched the movie and which continues to confuse me is why Thenardier puts on a French accent for part of Master of the House. It is a WEIRD DECISION. I do not get it.
Enjolras is good stuff here. Different from Anthony Warlow but just as good. I AM SORRY MICHAEL MAGUIRE, YOU JUST DO NOT MEASURE UP.
I have mentioned in previous posts that I am a fan of Eddie Redmayne as Marius. He is a fantastic Marius! A+ casting. I'm a little confused why so much of tumblr seems to be in love with his face (I like his Marius and he looks and sings and acts well for the role, but his face would not be my personal choice for Most Attractive Face in that movie. He probably wouldn't be in the top five, even.), but that's okay. To each their own.
OH AND I HAVEN'T EVEN MENTIONED ANNE HATHAWAY AS FANTINE YET. Because if it isn't BLINDINGLY OBVIOUS TO YOU SHE IS THE BEST FANTINE EVER then I just don't know if I can handle how wrong you are. :P
CONTINUING, with Javert. I very much like this Javert, though I know he's not up everyone's alley. He is very different Philip Quast -- much gentler -- and even more so than Terence Mann. But even though he's clearly a DIFFERENT Javert, he's also still clearly a Javert.
Valjean I have no opinion on, as apparently I'm just like "yep, it's a Valjean" with every Valjean I've heard thus far. Either it's hard to go wrong with Valjean or everyone works very hard at casting the right people for Valjean, and I haven't decided which yet. :P
I found it an interesting (in a good way!) choice to make Gavroche sing the descant ladies' part in Drink With Me. I've always been a little confused by where the ladies come from in that song in the stage musical, as I've never actually seen the stage show. Were there ladies fighting on the barricade with Les Amis? Or were they just magically there as backup singers?
So they decided, on this one-cd-long highlights album, to put on the instrumental track of the final battle, when there's all sorts of actual singing bits they chose not to include. INTERESTING CHOICE, PTB. I mean, I like that instrumental bit! But you chose to include that and to NOT include Grantaire's verse of Drink With Me! I DISAGREE WITH YOUR LIFE CHOICES. Also I could do without "Suddenly." Like, whatever, I like it better in the context of book!Valjean's relationship with book!Cosette, but it's still not a song that appeals to me very much and I don't anticipate listening to it much at all (if ever). MY OPINIONS OF THE HIGHLIGHTS ARE DIFFERENT THAN YOURS, PTB.
Anyways, then I got all choked up during the ending bit, which I didn't do for the TAC or the OBC and have never done for the CSR, which is interesting. I'm trying to decide whether it's because this recording does a good job of conveying emotion (which, I mean, it DOES), or whether I'm just in a more emotional mood today. Both are possibilities!
For one thing, this soundtrack goes for less "pretty music", which works in the context of a movie but is a little disconcerting when listening to it as music qua music. Valjean's "Who Am I", for example, is not particularly pretty, but it is successfully very emotional.
Although something I found interesting is that this is the soundtrack I've heard thus far that is the least interested in being pretty, and yet it also has the only Grantaire who actually sings in an aesthetically appealing way. Apparently most people take the "Grantaire was ugly and a drunkard" and decide that he ought to sing unmusically. This movie disagrees. WHICH I DO NOT HAVE A PROBLEM WITH, as George Blagden is great, but it is an interesting comparison with EVERYONE ELSE EVER.
Anyways! It was cool to now hear Colm Wilkinson as the Bishop now that I am familiar with him as Valjean. By his voice he's clearly the same actor, though older! He does well as the Bishop, and I think I actually like him better in that role than as Valjean.
Something that confused me when I watched the movie and which continues to confuse me is why Thenardier puts on a French accent for part of Master of the House. It is a WEIRD DECISION. I do not get it.
Enjolras is good stuff here. Different from Anthony Warlow but just as good. I AM SORRY MICHAEL MAGUIRE, YOU JUST DO NOT MEASURE UP.
I have mentioned in previous posts that I am a fan of Eddie Redmayne as Marius. He is a fantastic Marius! A+ casting. I'm a little confused why so much of tumblr seems to be in love with his face (I like his Marius and he looks and sings and acts well for the role, but his face would not be my personal choice for Most Attractive Face in that movie. He probably wouldn't be in the top five, even.), but that's okay. To each their own.
OH AND I HAVEN'T EVEN MENTIONED ANNE HATHAWAY AS FANTINE YET. Because if it isn't BLINDINGLY OBVIOUS TO YOU SHE IS THE BEST FANTINE EVER then I just don't know if I can handle how wrong you are. :P
CONTINUING, with Javert. I very much like this Javert, though I know he's not up everyone's alley. He is very different Philip Quast -- much gentler -- and even more so than Terence Mann. But even though he's clearly a DIFFERENT Javert, he's also still clearly a Javert.
Valjean I have no opinion on, as apparently I'm just like "yep, it's a Valjean" with every Valjean I've heard thus far. Either it's hard to go wrong with Valjean or everyone works very hard at casting the right people for Valjean, and I haven't decided which yet. :P
I found it an interesting (in a good way!) choice to make Gavroche sing the descant ladies' part in Drink With Me. I've always been a little confused by where the ladies come from in that song in the stage musical, as I've never actually seen the stage show. Were there ladies fighting on the barricade with Les Amis? Or were they just magically there as backup singers?
So they decided, on this one-cd-long highlights album, to put on the instrumental track of the final battle, when there's all sorts of actual singing bits they chose not to include. INTERESTING CHOICE, PTB. I mean, I like that instrumental bit! But you chose to include that and to NOT include Grantaire's verse of Drink With Me! I DISAGREE WITH YOUR LIFE CHOICES. Also I could do without "Suddenly." Like, whatever, I like it better in the context of book!Valjean's relationship with book!Cosette, but it's still not a song that appeals to me very much and I don't anticipate listening to it much at all (if ever). MY OPINIONS OF THE HIGHLIGHTS ARE DIFFERENT THAN YOURS, PTB.
Anyways, then I got all choked up during the ending bit, which I didn't do for the TAC or the OBC and have never done for the CSR, which is interesting. I'm trying to decide whether it's because this recording does a good job of conveying emotion (which, I mean, it DOES), or whether I'm just in a more emotional mood today. Both are possibilities!
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I am much more choked up about Gavroche's death now that I know Gavroche from the book. I was never particularly into him in the musical and now I'm like GAVROOOOOOCHE YOU ARE SO AWESOME.
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...I always visualized that song as being set back in the wine-shop, and the female voices are the women who work in the shop. Though that doesn't really make a lot of sense now that I think about it more deeply.
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I'm pretty sure I just...never actually attempted to visualize what was going on in Drink With Me, as it wasn't a song that I was particularly interested in, back in the day. Well, it's all about Les Amis, and at that time my interest in Les Amis was LOW compared to everything else. And I couldn't tell any of them apart, which didn't help my level of caring.
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I do think they take a lot of care with casting Valjean, and they kind of have to, since he's onscreen like, the whole time. ahahaha, I love "Suddenly" like anything -- I mean, I actually kind of think it's a crap song as a musical entity, but hearing Jackman sing it -- there's one part where his breath catches and it gets me all teary every time.
I thought in the movie they took out Grantaire's verse entirely! Which, I agree, I did not like that decision, but I don't think it was a CD-highlights cut.
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I think I am just constituted wrong to be able to appreciate Suddenly -- I have no kids and zero desire to EVER HAVE ANY, so parental feels are not ones that I can easily relate to.
Sorry, yeah, they did cut Grantaire's verse from the movie too; I didn't express myself well and was drifting from my displeasure at the soundtrack's cuts to my displeasure at the movie's cuts in general.....
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ETA: Here's a picture (http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-kdIxWyvnl7g/Tvfv2EOGPxI/AAAAAAAAA2o/t1RDto4gi-M/s1600/LM08.jpg) of the barricades from the stage version, with women!
I am not completely sold on Eddie Redmayne's face either -- there's nothing wrong with it, but he looks too much like a teenage boy for me -- but man, he is absolutely adorkable as Marius, isn't he? One thing I love about the movie is that they got a Marius and Cosette who a) have chemistry and b) radiate pure cuteness, which is pretty much what you have to do with those two in order to keep their scenes from being an island of boring on the way to the good parts.
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HAHAHA TRUFAX.
I have never managed to be that vested in Cosette before. I kind of want to cuddle her and take her on adventures.
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Redmayne's face looks EXACTLY like that of an awkward teenage boy, which is part of why he's so perfect in the role! I guess maybe the bits of tumblr that are in love with his face are teenage themselves? And so "teenager" is an attractive look to them? or something? Anyways, yes, the movie's Marius and Cosette are successfully very cute together which is JOB WELL DONE for the movie.
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Man, yes! After three viewings, I am pretty okay with most of it in the movie, but the soundtrack just...blurs into the background compared with any of the cast recordings (although I still prefer it to the OLC).
Although something I found interesting is that this is the soundtrack I've heard thus far that is the least interested in being pretty, and yet it also has the only Grantaire who actually sings in an aesthetically appealing way. Apparently most people take the "Grantaire was ugly and a drunkard" and decide that he ought to sing unmusically.
A lot of the cast recordings have Grantaire singing in a gravelly voice UNTIL Drink With Me, when he suddenly discovers how to sing musically. I am not sure how I feel about that, but apparently I am also shallow and will not complain about anything George Blagden does, on account of his smirky faaaaace.
The first thing I saw Eddie Redmayne in was Pillars of the Earth, where he is basically a thousand-yard-stare creeper (I feel like this is a trend for Marii, since the 1998 movie cast Hans Matheson of the Original Creeper Face), so I gotta admit, I don't quite get all the swooning, but I fucking looooooove him as an actor at this point and Marius is a little bit of a creeper, so whatevs.
I think I hate "Suddenly" and the decision to cut, say, LOTS OF STUDENT THINGS the most of all the decisions in the movie I'm not fond of. It's just so. fucking. boring. And clearly an Oscar grab. It does not advance the plot or do much for Valjean's characterization.
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GEORGE BLAGDEN'S SMIRKY FAAAAAACE IS THE BEST. It is too bad that his next role (something about vikings?) does not look like it's gonna be a smirk-fest for him. He looks all srs bzns in the trailer I saw, although admittedly very ATTRACTIVE srs bzns. (and you're right about the contrast in Grantaire's voice between Drink With Me and all his other lines. It is for this reason that until EXTREMELY RECENTLY I had no idea that verse was sung by Grantaire!)
DO YOU KNOW WHAT I REALIZED LIKE, MOMENTS AFTER POSTING THIS REVIEW? One of the things they cut from the released soundtrack was Do You Hear The People Sing! Which was one of the BEST DONE BITS OF THE MOVIE IMO and it is traaaaaagic that they didn't release it! THEY SHOULD HAVE PUT THAT ON THE CD INSTEAD. Also yes, the movie did remove way too much studenty bits and makes them all way too interchangeable and it is ALSO TRAAAAAAGIC. SIIIIIGH
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The movie highlights are also missing "Look Down," "Lovely Ladies," and a bunch of other songs usually included on highlights cds. The general consensus is that it's a cash grab and a full recording will be released later.
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And I am GLAD TO HEAR the general consensus is that a full recording will be released later because SIGHHHHH.
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(NO SUCH THING AS TOO MANY LES MIS RECORDINGS!)
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