(no subject)
So now that I've seen it twice, because yes, I am that ridiculous, let's talk about the Les Miserables movie!
I cannot actually talk to its quality, because as soon as I sat down in the theater I immediately lost ten years of wisdom, cynicism and general life experience and became once again the shiny-eyed seventeen-year-old who haunted dead revolutionary fanfiction forums. Which is to say, I had a lot of feelings and I am UTTERLY INCAPABLE of making any kind of critical assessment of this movie whatsoever.
What I can say: this movie was clearly made by people who passionately loved both the musical and the novel and wanted to fit them together as much as humanly possible. Some noticeable touches:
- GAVROCHE LIVES IN AN ELEPHANT! No, you don't understand, Gavroche lives in a giant statue of an elephant. This is one of my favorite things about the book and I am so glad someone else thinks this is as important a detail as I do.
- Fantine loses her teeth! Poor Fantine. :( Though they make it the back teeth, because presumably however far Anne Hathaway went for the role she was not particularly excited about losing two front teeth and I do not blame her. Also, Fantine is angry. When Anne Hathaway sings "I Dreamed A Dream" it's full of rage all the way through, which is something I love, and not something you usually get to hear.
- Valjean gets rescued and smuggled into Paris by the dude he rescued from the cart, which is a nice karmic touch.
- The revolutionaries are PRIVILEGED IDEALISTIC DOOFUSES who have no idea what they are doing. OH KIDS. I am also sort of in love with the dude who played Grantaire, who was not onscreen enough, but fully allowed me to project onto his expressions my belief that he is feeling 'welp we're all going to die and it's all kind of pointless but I love Enjolras you all too much not to stick around anyway . . . . MORE WINE!' at all times. I am really sad that they cut Grantaire's uber-cynical verse from "Drink With Me;" I am also really sad that they only did the first verse of "Turning," which is one of my favorite songs in the show because it's the one about how privileged idealists can make all the dramatic last stands they want, but it doesn't always change all that much for the people who are actually living the lives those idealists grandstand about, except make them a little sadder and give them a mess to clean up.
- Speaking of grandstanding: oh my God, they managed to combine the most gloriously melodramatic aspects of Enjolras' death in the book AND the musical! Like, Enjolras both gets pierced by six bullets in the Cafe Musain while Grantaire dramatically jumps in at the last minute and dies at his feet, and gets to dangle symbolically upside down from a window holding a flag. I DON'T KNOW HOW THEY WORKED THAT BUT IT WAS AMAZING.
And now I have decided to reread the book, which is going to take me the next, er, little while. Les Miserables the novel is divided into five books, and I think I might write it up book by book, since seventeen-year-old Becca has SO MUCH TO SAY about Les Mis the novel, like, you don't even understand. So fair warning! I will try to lj-cut my "EXHAUSTIVE DETAILS ABOUT LES MIS CANON" posts so everyone who has no interest (which is pretty much everyone) can scroll past them.
This entry is cross-posted at Livejournal from http://skygiants.dreamwidth.org/312568.html. Please feel free to comment here or there! There are currently
comments on Dreamwidth.
I cannot actually talk to its quality, because as soon as I sat down in the theater I immediately lost ten years of wisdom, cynicism and general life experience and became once again the shiny-eyed seventeen-year-old who haunted dead revolutionary fanfiction forums. Which is to say, I had a lot of feelings and I am UTTERLY INCAPABLE of making any kind of critical assessment of this movie whatsoever.
What I can say: this movie was clearly made by people who passionately loved both the musical and the novel and wanted to fit them together as much as humanly possible. Some noticeable touches:
- GAVROCHE LIVES IN AN ELEPHANT! No, you don't understand, Gavroche lives in a giant statue of an elephant. This is one of my favorite things about the book and I am so glad someone else thinks this is as important a detail as I do.
- Fantine loses her teeth! Poor Fantine. :( Though they make it the back teeth, because presumably however far Anne Hathaway went for the role she was not particularly excited about losing two front teeth and I do not blame her. Also, Fantine is angry. When Anne Hathaway sings "I Dreamed A Dream" it's full of rage all the way through, which is something I love, and not something you usually get to hear.
- Valjean gets rescued and smuggled into Paris by the dude he rescued from the cart, which is a nice karmic touch.
- The revolutionaries are PRIVILEGED IDEALISTIC DOOFUSES who have no idea what they are doing. OH KIDS. I am also sort of in love with the dude who played Grantaire, who was not onscreen enough, but fully allowed me to project onto his expressions my belief that he is feeling 'welp we're all going to die and it's all kind of pointless but I love Enjolras you all too much not to stick around anyway . . . . MORE WINE!' at all times. I am really sad that they cut Grantaire's uber-cynical verse from "Drink With Me;" I am also really sad that they only did the first verse of "Turning," which is one of my favorite songs in the show because it's the one about how privileged idealists can make all the dramatic last stands they want, but it doesn't always change all that much for the people who are actually living the lives those idealists grandstand about, except make them a little sadder and give them a mess to clean up.
- Speaking of grandstanding: oh my God, they managed to combine the most gloriously melodramatic aspects of Enjolras' death in the book AND the musical! Like, Enjolras both gets pierced by six bullets in the Cafe Musain while Grantaire dramatically jumps in at the last minute and dies at his feet, and gets to dangle symbolically upside down from a window holding a flag. I DON'T KNOW HOW THEY WORKED THAT BUT IT WAS AMAZING.
And now I have decided to reread the book, which is going to take me the next, er, little while. Les Miserables the novel is divided into five books, and I think I might write it up book by book, since seventeen-year-old Becca has SO MUCH TO SAY about Les Mis the novel, like, you don't even understand. So fair warning! I will try to lj-cut my "EXHAUSTIVE DETAILS ABOUT LES MIS CANON" posts so everyone who has no interest (which is pretty much everyone) can scroll past them.
This entry is cross-posted at Livejournal from http://skygiants.dreamwidth.org/312568.html. Please feel free to comment here or there! There are currently
comments on Dreamwidth.