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Dec. 31st, 2012 04:03 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
gwydion* Among this weekend's Syrian government atrocities this weekend, 30 tortured and disfigured bodies have been dumped. They appear to have turned petrochemical facility into a murder factory for executions.
* Republicans keep saying that they are so ideologically opposed to raising taxes on people they are insisting on raising taxes on 98.2% of America citizens. The only way this makes any sense is if Republicans also believe that only the wealthiest 1.8% of Americas citizens are people.
* This year in white Privilege and mainstream GOP Racism:
* Melissa Harris-Perry looks at this year in Misogyny:
* Melissa Harris-Perry looks at this year in homophobia and in progress towards equality:
* "Oldest Known Depiction of Pharaoh:" http://news.discovery.com/history/oldest-pharaoh-found-121228.html
* Interesting pre-Islamic find in Yemen suggesting ties to Africa: http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/buried-christian-empire-in-yemen-casts-new-light-on-early-islam-a-874048.html
* "Mathematician's Century-Old Secrets Unlocked:" http://news.discovery.com/history/mathematicians-century-old-secrets-unlocked-121227.html#mkcpgn=rssnws1
* After 1500 years absence, they are growing the first frankincense in Israel: http://blogs.timesofisrael.com/after-1500-years-frankincense-returns-to-the-holy-land/
* I have never made it through a stage production of Les Miserables without weeping. Repeatedly. There are many things I could say about the movie version. The most pertinent is that I'm glad I brought plenty of tissues.
My bias first: I've seen this twice on Broadway and several times in the traveling version. I owned the Broadway album in one form or another my whole adult life. This is one of the musicals I used to know by heart and for a while I had a job where I worked in the back and I used to sing whole musicals one after another as I worked, with a boss that also liked musicals wandering through to pick up half a duet here and there. This is one of those musicals. I still remember taking my Mother to see it and her fascination with it as a evolution of Opera. I have exposed lovers to it. I still have it in my bones even though I haven't listened to it in a few years for a variety of reasons.
I'm hard put as to where to start. Stylistically, I'm on board with this. I was having a hard time imagining how some of the best set pieces in the stage version would translate to the big screen and they managed all but two. They also took good advantage of the realism of the cinematic form to do some lovely things the stage production had trouble conveying well. While Javert and Gavroche were the primary recipients of the cinematic upgrade, it worked nearly all of the time to the film's betterment in general. There were some changes to the lyrics. Most were neutral, designed to bridge or clarify plot or tighten things up thematically. I did out like them changing "bought" to "saved" in the Bishop segment, but giving Gavroche an extra verse to orient people in history was an excellent idea. People who don't know French history often find this play confusing because they don't understand just how many revolutions and revolts and changes of government happened in the 19th century and it causes problems. The extra little verse seemed to solve that and the scene was charmingly shot. You'd think I'd object to the changes in some of the barricade sequences including them switching around Gavroche and Eponine a bit and dropping couplets here and there, but I genuinely thought the sequencing made better sense in the movie, making it smoother and tighter without changing anything that really mattered. I think the choice of recording the singing in the actual scenes was a excellent as it gave the actors way more options for turning in a performance than the usual lip sinc method gives and this a chance to deliver something the stage version can't.
The casting was mostly solid. Hugh Jackman's been preparing for this movie his whole life and is now the right age and level of experience to pull it off. It's hard to imagine any other movie actor in the right age range who could pull it off the way he does. I had no worries about Russell Crow's acting, but had never heard him sing. He may not be as strong as Mr. Jackman vocally, but his voice is good enough when coupled with his acting to make it work. Having seen the previews I knew Anne Hathaway was going to work, and she worked the hell out of it in the long form. I had no clear idea who Eddie Redmayne was when I saw him doing advance press. IMDB tells me I've seen him once, in a movie I didn't like in which he made little impression on me. He unfortunately bears a close resemblance to a misogynist I went to school with for approximately eleven or twelve years. one of this was liable to recommend him to me. However, once he started singing I figured out why they hired him. Seriously, his "Empty Chairs" was brilliant. Would I have preferred a different actor? Probably, but his voice won me over and he was otherwise perfectly adequate as was Miss Seyfried. (Adult Cosette isn't of much interest to me, as she's not that well developed as a character in her own right in either the novel or the play.) Samantha Barks was turning in the sort of performance that works beautifully in the stage production, but is a little off tone for the style of the film. It's serviceable, but could have been more moving in different hands. Gavroche and the barricade guys were right even if it took a bit to get used to the different looks the film went for. Which brings us to the Thénardiers, who were brilliantly cast. I am not a fan of Sacha Baron Cohen's humor, but he was excellent in a similar role in Sweeney Todd and he has the right sort of steely nastiness and comedic timing for this role. Helena Bonham Carter's voice isn't strong enough for any of the other roles, but Thenardiers don't have to sing beautifully, but rather convey character in song. Her look and style were perfect for this role and they worked beautifully together. I was completely happy with the casting there.
I saved the Bishop for last because of the way casting enhanced the meaning of the film. I had not checked the casting lists and had no idea that they had Colm Wilkinson on the cast. I last saw him on Broadway more than two decades ago, so didn't recognize him physically. Imagine the disorienting moment he began to sing THE WRONG PART! There was Jean Valjean singing to Jean Valjean. To me and likely to most fans, Mr. Wilkinson's voice is Jean Valjean's voice. This was the only moment Mr. Jackman's voice felt a little thin, and this is because the was such richness and nuance and understanding in the older man's voice. If anyone understands this story to the bones, it's Mr. Wilkinson. The thing that was so brilliant beyond the respect and fan service aspect of casting him as the Bishop, is the way it deepened and changed the meaning of the story. Suddenly, the Bishop had a whole back story in my head. Instead of the section being one of the weaker segments, a two dimensional image of piety necessary for moving forward the plot, it had all this depth! I was imagining the Bishop as an earlier generation's Jean Valjean, one who found god instead of Cosette and came to find peace after great hardship in the penance of poverty and the serving of others. For the first time ever for me, the Bishop felt like a real person to me. It made his reappearance at the end seem a natural and necessary part of the journey, as if Jean Valjean had become the Bishop. It was beautiful and it was oh so right and I'm glad his voice and image are recorded in this film forever.
* "Best of 2012: Our Favorite Middle Grade Titles:" http://slatebreakers.com/2012/12/27/best-of-2012-our-favorite-middle-grade-titles/
* "Best of 2012: Our Favorite Young Adult Titles:" http://slatebreakers.com/2012/12/24/best-of-2012-our-favorite-young-adult-titles/
* Snow Day Cake: http://www.cakewrecks.com/home/2012/12/30/sunday-sweets-snow-day.html
* Republicans keep saying that they are so ideologically opposed to raising taxes on people they are insisting on raising taxes on 98.2% of America citizens. The only way this makes any sense is if Republicans also believe that only the wealthiest 1.8% of Americas citizens are people.
* This year in white Privilege and mainstream GOP Racism:
Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy
Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy
* Melissa Harris-Perry looks at this year in Misogyny:
Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy
Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy
* Melissa Harris-Perry looks at this year in homophobia and in progress towards equality:
Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy
Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy
* "Oldest Known Depiction of Pharaoh:" http://news.discovery.com/history/oldest-pharaoh-found-121228.html
* Interesting pre-Islamic find in Yemen suggesting ties to Africa: http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/buried-christian-empire-in-yemen-casts-new-light-on-early-islam-a-874048.html
* "Mathematician's Century-Old Secrets Unlocked:" http://news.discovery.com/history/mathematicians-century-old-secrets-unlocked-121227.html#mkcpgn=rssnws1
* After 1500 years absence, they are growing the first frankincense in Israel: http://blogs.timesofisrael.com/after-1500-years-frankincense-returns-to-the-holy-land/
* I have never made it through a stage production of Les Miserables without weeping. Repeatedly. There are many things I could say about the movie version. The most pertinent is that I'm glad I brought plenty of tissues.
My bias first: I've seen this twice on Broadway and several times in the traveling version. I owned the Broadway album in one form or another my whole adult life. This is one of the musicals I used to know by heart and for a while I had a job where I worked in the back and I used to sing whole musicals one after another as I worked, with a boss that also liked musicals wandering through to pick up half a duet here and there. This is one of those musicals. I still remember taking my Mother to see it and her fascination with it as a evolution of Opera. I have exposed lovers to it. I still have it in my bones even though I haven't listened to it in a few years for a variety of reasons.
I'm hard put as to where to start. Stylistically, I'm on board with this. I was having a hard time imagining how some of the best set pieces in the stage version would translate to the big screen and they managed all but two. They also took good advantage of the realism of the cinematic form to do some lovely things the stage production had trouble conveying well. While Javert and Gavroche were the primary recipients of the cinematic upgrade, it worked nearly all of the time to the film's betterment in general. There were some changes to the lyrics. Most were neutral, designed to bridge or clarify plot or tighten things up thematically. I did out like them changing "bought" to "saved" in the Bishop segment, but giving Gavroche an extra verse to orient people in history was an excellent idea. People who don't know French history often find this play confusing because they don't understand just how many revolutions and revolts and changes of government happened in the 19th century and it causes problems. The extra little verse seemed to solve that and the scene was charmingly shot. You'd think I'd object to the changes in some of the barricade sequences including them switching around Gavroche and Eponine a bit and dropping couplets here and there, but I genuinely thought the sequencing made better sense in the movie, making it smoother and tighter without changing anything that really mattered. I think the choice of recording the singing in the actual scenes was a excellent as it gave the actors way more options for turning in a performance than the usual lip sinc method gives and this a chance to deliver something the stage version can't.
The casting was mostly solid. Hugh Jackman's been preparing for this movie his whole life and is now the right age and level of experience to pull it off. It's hard to imagine any other movie actor in the right age range who could pull it off the way he does. I had no worries about Russell Crow's acting, but had never heard him sing. He may not be as strong as Mr. Jackman vocally, but his voice is good enough when coupled with his acting to make it work. Having seen the previews I knew Anne Hathaway was going to work, and she worked the hell out of it in the long form. I had no clear idea who Eddie Redmayne was when I saw him doing advance press. IMDB tells me I've seen him once, in a movie I didn't like in which he made little impression on me. He unfortunately bears a close resemblance to a misogynist I went to school with for approximately eleven or twelve years. one of this was liable to recommend him to me. However, once he started singing I figured out why they hired him. Seriously, his "Empty Chairs" was brilliant. Would I have preferred a different actor? Probably, but his voice won me over and he was otherwise perfectly adequate as was Miss Seyfried. (Adult Cosette isn't of much interest to me, as she's not that well developed as a character in her own right in either the novel or the play.) Samantha Barks was turning in the sort of performance that works beautifully in the stage production, but is a little off tone for the style of the film. It's serviceable, but could have been more moving in different hands. Gavroche and the barricade guys were right even if it took a bit to get used to the different looks the film went for. Which brings us to the Thénardiers, who were brilliantly cast. I am not a fan of Sacha Baron Cohen's humor, but he was excellent in a similar role in Sweeney Todd and he has the right sort of steely nastiness and comedic timing for this role. Helena Bonham Carter's voice isn't strong enough for any of the other roles, but Thenardiers don't have to sing beautifully, but rather convey character in song. Her look and style were perfect for this role and they worked beautifully together. I was completely happy with the casting there.
I saved the Bishop for last because of the way casting enhanced the meaning of the film. I had not checked the casting lists and had no idea that they had Colm Wilkinson on the cast. I last saw him on Broadway more than two decades ago, so didn't recognize him physically. Imagine the disorienting moment he began to sing THE WRONG PART! There was Jean Valjean singing to Jean Valjean. To me and likely to most fans, Mr. Wilkinson's voice is Jean Valjean's voice. This was the only moment Mr. Jackman's voice felt a little thin, and this is because the was such richness and nuance and understanding in the older man's voice. If anyone understands this story to the bones, it's Mr. Wilkinson. The thing that was so brilliant beyond the respect and fan service aspect of casting him as the Bishop, is the way it deepened and changed the meaning of the story. Suddenly, the Bishop had a whole back story in my head. Instead of the section being one of the weaker segments, a two dimensional image of piety necessary for moving forward the plot, it had all this depth! I was imagining the Bishop as an earlier generation's Jean Valjean, one who found god instead of Cosette and came to find peace after great hardship in the penance of poverty and the serving of others. For the first time ever for me, the Bishop felt like a real person to me. It made his reappearance at the end seem a natural and necessary part of the journey, as if Jean Valjean had become the Bishop. It was beautiful and it was oh so right and I'm glad his voice and image are recorded in this film forever.
* "Best of 2012: Our Favorite Middle Grade Titles:" http://slatebreakers.com/2012/12/27/best-of-2012-our-favorite-middle-grade-titles/
* "Best of 2012: Our Favorite Young Adult Titles:" http://slatebreakers.com/2012/12/24/best-of-2012-our-favorite-young-adult-titles/
* Snow Day Cake: http://www.cakewrecks.com/home/2012/12/30/sunday-sweets-snow-day.html