I actually did like Daphne. What I loved was liking her despite hearing audience members trash her at intermission and during the show. Voice of dissent! I thought she was living it.
I am a huge fan of Daphne's Fantine. It was rough and scratchy and very appropriate for the character. IDAD sounds great when belted, but resonates better when acted. Daphne acted the song brilliantly.
"Anne Hathaway's version of "I Dreamed A Dream", even from the little bit we've heard in the trailer, is the first time this song has ever moved me. It probably wouldn't work on Broadway, but for a film, it's truly heartbreaking. I'll take a wonderful performance over a boring ol' belt fest any day of the week."
I think my favorite thing about the trailer is how gritty and unpolished it all is! We're all so used to see LES MIZ with loud and powerful orchestrations, shining costumes, amazing lighting effects, etc. I'm glad to see the film is taking the risk to present it as a musical while truthfully emphasizing the despair, horror, and terrible living conditions of the cast!
Flashbacks? Bad idea. They'd be ruinous. Imagine if Sir Carol Reed's exquisite direction of Mark Lester's heartfelt, honest "Where Is Love" and Shani Wallace's staggering "As Long As He Needs Me" had been marred by flashbacks.
"Why cut away from Eva as she's singing her biggest song?"
Because people won't have the patience to sit through "seeing someone struggling their way through a song". Theatre works because the singing is good and the notes are satisfying. Film works because it's not about the singing and you don't have to look at a person singing a song in a room the whole time and they can use flashbacks and clever editing.
I'm fine with the camera cutting away. I just am leery of a flashback vignette. Sometimes it works, like in Toy Story 2 during "When She Loves Me." I just like the ambiguity of what she is singing and do not need to actually see the flashback to understand how broken and hard Fantine's life was and is.
Fantine is a 10 minute role. I think we just saw Anne Hathaway's entire performance.
If anyone ever tells you that you put too much Parmesan cheese on your pasta, stop talking to them. You don't need that kind of negativity in your life.
Dave are you seriously saying your attention drifted away because they cut to anne hathaway singing for .5 secs? It's literally half a sec at two separate occasions we see her actually singing the song. I hope flashbacks are not involved at all. From the very short moments they showed Hathaway singing I was grateful this films seems emotionally connected to the characters. Flashbacks would seem chip and gimmicky to me.
Flashbacks tend to be too "music video"ish for my tastes. I seriously am getting sick of movies catering to people with ADD. Just make a good movie and let the people who have a problem with things like watching someone act out a song with no flashbacks to fend for themselves.
Dave19, do you honestly think the short attention span set is Les Miserables target audience? If they want an action film, they'll have The Hobbit, Skyfall and Django Unchained...
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i think it could work with or without flashbacks, as long as it's done well. Great art can support any number of different interpretations, as long as it's a quality interpretation with a strong vision.
I think it's already clear Tom Hooper and team have given this film a great deal of care and thought, so I'm confident it will be a great end product. This trailer only furthers my opinion.
I loved this teaser trailer! It did it's job and now I'm excited for December although a while away. They did a good interpretation for what I've seen so far. Hopefully the entire film will be the same. In the beginning I wasn't too sure about the casting but so far looks good to me. Can't wait for more sneak peaks!
"I think my favorite thing about the trailer is how gritty and unpolished it all is! We're all so used to see LES MIZ with loud and powerful orchestrations, shining costumes, amazing lighting effects, etc. I'm glad to see the film is taking the risk to present it as a musical while truthfully emphasizing the despair, horror, and terrible living conditions of the cast!
Surely you're referring to the 25th anniversary production, no?
You have to be, because the Les Mis most people know and love (the original production, that is) is as gritty as you can get: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zk9Mm_pjBTs
That's the version that moved me into 25 years and counting of unrelenting fandom. I saw the new, sanitized, whimpy, whiney, thinned-out version last year...once was enough.
And, I, for one f*cking LOVE those DIRTY synthesizers that growl in the vid above, as Gavroche begins to tell the story; atmospheric, awesome, gritty, unforgiving, Les Miserables!! =D
Recreation of original John Cameron orchestration to "On My Own" by yours truly. Click player below to hear.
To some of you, welcome to the world of film, where it's all about telling a story.
It seems you are too stuck in your "lady sings a song in a room from beginning to end" theatre world.
I can imagine 1000 things to be shown in "I dreamed a dream". For exapmple the "cutting her hair scene", maybe that happens during the intro of the song, who knows. It might be a flash back from a couple of minutes ago, or a day ago, or years ago. Also, she sings literally about "a dream" so I can also imagine some heavenly images, that maybe show up again when she dies a few scenes later? Also many other (new)things can actually happen when she sings the song.
This is film.
You don't expect to see the face of Russel Crowe for 6 minutes while he is speaking, whispering or screaming his way through his "stars" monologue?
You don't exepect the whole cast to be stuffed into one room singing "one day more" from beginning to end? I expect edits and cuts to different places and times, from valjea's house to a bridge somewhere, to marius and cosette somewhere else, to a broken eponine etc.
These filmmakers know what they are doing and I expect because of this edits and flash backs and added scenes, there will be a lot more backgroudinformation and depth to all of the characters. This is film.
To Dave19, It is entirely possible to make clear, competent points (which you have) without being condescending. Thanks.
As for the flashback concept, I guess when I first thought of how this song would be presented in a film, I expected a flashback to Fantine with Cosette's father, specifically:
He slept a summer by my side He filled my days with endless wonder He took my childhood in his stride But he was gone when autumn came
However, having heard the clip of Hathaway's take on the song, I don't see a flashback being effective. As with many opinions I express on this board, I'm more than happy to be proved wrong.
It's OK for folks to disagree without being disagreeable.
Edited to fix Eponine/Cosette. Thanks.
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