Exams finished yesterday and, having some free time, I decided to
finally bite the bullet and just get it over with… I watched Les
Misérables… the film.
Now, I suppose most of you who are reading this know that I was terrified of watching this film. Les Mis is very important to me as a musical, as it is to many people, and I knew that I would be upset if it wasn’t done justice in the film. I was a little nervous of casting, and then very nervous as I saw the reviews people posted which seemed to lean towards the “it’s not the best, the camera work is shoddy, and don’t even get me started on Javert”. That said, I knew I wouldn’t rest until I saw it so I bought the DVD for thirteen pounds, pretty sure I would regret spending so much on it, and sat down to watch it.
To start with it lived up to my rather low expectations and, in fact, my mother told me to turn it off. The first scene, although immense, sounded a bit like sung by an amateur dramatics company who were attempting to sound like prisoners. It sounded rather messy. Things looked up a bit when Colm turned up because that man could sing completely out of tune and we would still love him (for the record, his singing wasn’t out of tune!). By the time “At the End of the Day” started I was swept off my feet.
The film turned out to be amazing. Having read the script when it surfaced a while ago, I wasn’t surprised that they had made the plot closer to the book than the stage musical but I was surprised about how well the changes worked. Like any human being, I am adverse to people changing something when it already works well but these changes were worth it 100%. Suddenly, every character had a lot more development. Yes, that one student might only have three minutes of ‘camera time’ but you felt like you knew them by the end of it and you sorrowed with them. Yep, there was a lot of sorrow. Mind you, I still couldn’t associate with Cosette but then she has always annoyed me!
Yes, the camera work was a bit odd at times, and took a bit of getting used to, and I must admit that the random butterflies at night were a bit too cliché for me but overall it was beautiful. The ‘ghostly figures’ during Fantine’s death and, of course, at the end where too much for me to bear. Someone came up with some amazing ideas and knew how to carry them off. There was also a rawness to the film that you rarely get in films or on stage. The barricade scenes were brutal, uncomfortable to watch, sickening… Artaud would have been proud.
One thing that I haven’t mentioned is the singing. It was okay. Some people sang really beautifully, some people didn’t but, to be quite honest, it didn’t matter. The acting was exquisite and, other than the first scene, the singing level seemed to suit the characters in question.
Talking of which, I feel I ought to mention Javert as he has been criticized a lot. I will be honest and say that I did not like Crowe’s portrayal of Javert until he joins the students on the barricades. He seemed wooden and it wasn’t until you saw these flickers of doubt that he had any kind of character (and the scene with Gavroche – oh, goodness, if you don’t cry at that then you have no heart!). However, once he started to develop I felt he worked really, really well and so that by his suicide I liked the portrayal. Maybe when I rewatch the film I will be able to appreciate Javert from the start, with the benefit of hindsight.
And thus ends my rant-like review of Les Misérables. I do wish people wouldn’t ask me to review things, I’m rubbish at it. To sum up this entire post: Les Mis was great and Havanah was an idiot for putting off watching it.
Oh, and just another note, I’ve just started a new blog which is a personal one which I hope to use to document my gap year etc. I am going to stay around here for theatre/musical/translation related stuff and you might get the odd personal post but, for those of you who are here for Havanah related stuff (I know, it’s impossible to imagine anyone might want to know about me hehe) then I’m over at http://oiahavanah.blogspot.co.uk/
Now, I suppose most of you who are reading this know that I was terrified of watching this film. Les Mis is very important to me as a musical, as it is to many people, and I knew that I would be upset if it wasn’t done justice in the film. I was a little nervous of casting, and then very nervous as I saw the reviews people posted which seemed to lean towards the “it’s not the best, the camera work is shoddy, and don’t even get me started on Javert”. That said, I knew I wouldn’t rest until I saw it so I bought the DVD for thirteen pounds, pretty sure I would regret spending so much on it, and sat down to watch it.
To start with it lived up to my rather low expectations and, in fact, my mother told me to turn it off. The first scene, although immense, sounded a bit like sung by an amateur dramatics company who were attempting to sound like prisoners. It sounded rather messy. Things looked up a bit when Colm turned up because that man could sing completely out of tune and we would still love him (for the record, his singing wasn’t out of tune!). By the time “At the End of the Day” started I was swept off my feet.
The film turned out to be amazing. Having read the script when it surfaced a while ago, I wasn’t surprised that they had made the plot closer to the book than the stage musical but I was surprised about how well the changes worked. Like any human being, I am adverse to people changing something when it already works well but these changes were worth it 100%. Suddenly, every character had a lot more development. Yes, that one student might only have three minutes of ‘camera time’ but you felt like you knew them by the end of it and you sorrowed with them. Yep, there was a lot of sorrow. Mind you, I still couldn’t associate with Cosette but then she has always annoyed me!
Yes, the camera work was a bit odd at times, and took a bit of getting used to, and I must admit that the random butterflies at night were a bit too cliché for me but overall it was beautiful. The ‘ghostly figures’ during Fantine’s death and, of course, at the end where too much for me to bear. Someone came up with some amazing ideas and knew how to carry them off. There was also a rawness to the film that you rarely get in films or on stage. The barricade scenes were brutal, uncomfortable to watch, sickening… Artaud would have been proud.
One thing that I haven’t mentioned is the singing. It was okay. Some people sang really beautifully, some people didn’t but, to be quite honest, it didn’t matter. The acting was exquisite and, other than the first scene, the singing level seemed to suit the characters in question.
Talking of which, I feel I ought to mention Javert as he has been criticized a lot. I will be honest and say that I did not like Crowe’s portrayal of Javert until he joins the students on the barricades. He seemed wooden and it wasn’t until you saw these flickers of doubt that he had any kind of character (and the scene with Gavroche – oh, goodness, if you don’t cry at that then you have no heart!). However, once he started to develop I felt he worked really, really well and so that by his suicide I liked the portrayal. Maybe when I rewatch the film I will be able to appreciate Javert from the start, with the benefit of hindsight.
And thus ends my rant-like review of Les Misérables. I do wish people wouldn’t ask me to review things, I’m rubbish at it. To sum up this entire post: Les Mis was great and Havanah was an idiot for putting off watching it.
Oh, and just another note, I’ve just started a new blog which is a personal one which I hope to use to document my gap year etc. I am going to stay around here for theatre/musical/translation related stuff and you might get the odd personal post but, for those of you who are here for Havanah related stuff (I know, it’s impossible to imagine anyone might want to know about me hehe) then I’m over at http://oiahavanah.blogspot.co.uk/
