#1
Posted: 8/5/14 at 9:34pm
After all this time, I'm going to break my silence and tell you all how I feel about the Les Miserables film that came out in December of 2012.
The 1930's-early 70's was a time when musicals were an art form, an important part of cinema. Musical films, especially adapations from theatre musicals, like: "Guys and Dolls", "Okalhoma!", "The King and I", "Carousel", "South Pacific", "The Sound of Music", "Funny Girl", "Oliver!", "Fiddler on the Roof", "Cabaret", and "Jesus Christ Superstar", were all very popular and added importance, but since beginning of the mid-70's, changed peoples views due to "realistic films" (New Hollywood) and didn't even bother with the genre anymore. In the mid 70s-late 90's, musical films were viewed by Hollywood as an outdated genre that won't say: box office hit, even Oscar worthy. That is until in 2001, when Australian director Baz Luhrmann created "Moulin Rouge"; (an epic mess of a film with great design but an extremely, infuriating cliched plot, some questionable song placements, to fast editing, and okay acting.) the genre was popular once again. Then in 2002 another triumph occured , from director Rob Marshall's Oscar winning smash hit: "Chicago", which won Best Picture, the first musical film to win such an honor since "Oliver!" in 1968. However there was a price to pay, the most recent of musical films never reached any sort of high honors with critical misses and became box office bombs like: "The Phantom of the Opera" "Rent", "The Producers", "Across The Universe" (not an adaptation of a theatre musical), "Mamma Mia" (box office hit but not critically warm), "Nine", and "Rock of Ages". Despite the "good" musical films winning money and better reception like: "Dreamgirls", "Hairspray", and "Sweeney Todd" (kind of), they never ranked with the classics from the early years when musicals were a common genre. As for me, none of the recent musicals films, not even "Chicago", or "Evita" in 1996, reached me to rank them with the best of the classics. That is, until I saw "Les Miserables", the film adaptation of the popular musical version of the same name which itself is based on the 1862 Victor Hugo novel.
That film, is nothing short of not only a triumph of film, it is a reinvention of a genre that was dying out again. This is not only the best musical film in a very long time, it may be my favorite film of 2012 period; this is a memorable, epic, and beautiful experience that I will never forget in a movie theatre. Directed by Tom Hooper, who won an Oscar for "The King's Speech" in 2011, makes this an extrodinary piece that justifies him as a director with a vision, which you barely see anymore. His filming style is fascinating with close-ups on the main characters with one single song to sing, sweeping shots of France, intense and sweeping editing (By Chris Dickens; which is needed in a barricade battle near the end of the film and the best finale for any musical film since "The King and I"), makes him not only creative but very memorable. His direction is Oscar calliber and it works for the story, actors, the sets, and the songs to be in harmony. The greatest aspect that makes this film work is the live singing on set without lipsyncing to a recording from three months ago makes this more unique than any other musical film. Sure it has been done several times in the past, but not to this extent. You could not find a better choice than him, he did justice to the source material.
The casting is a very rare thing which I call: inspired. Hugh Jackman did a very great job as Jean Valjean, with his outstanding acting and well done singing. Russell Crowe, which I will confess, suprised me. He actually is not a bad singer at all, in fact, he did very good as Javert. You could feel the intensity when he and Jackman are on screen together, his song "Stars" may be his only minor weak part of the movie. He sings it well, but it feels a little flat; although that is a great sign of an actor putting consistant continuity to his acting and his singing is only second, which works very well in musical films. I disagree with critisisms that he is the weak link (honestly Gerard Butler did worse in Phantom). Anne Hathaway, all I can say about her is give her the Oscar for Supporting Actress please. She was perfect as Fantine, the mother of Cosette; her singing was amazing, her acting was great, and she truly was one of 7 times this movie made me very teary eyed. "I Dreamed a Dream", was one of the many brilliant scenes, that from what I heard in the movie theatre I went to, people cried; I had that moment too. Amanda Seyfried did a nice job for what she had to do with such a thankless character named Cosette. Eddie Redmayne was also perfectly cast as Marius, which his song "Empty Chairs at Empty Tables" also moved me to tears. Samantha Barks once again did a great job with reprising her role as Eponine and we feel her pain as Marius loves Cosette. "On My Own" and "A Little Fall of Rain", is where her acting is outstanding and her death scene is very sad but heart warming. Sacha Baron Cohen and Helena Bonham Carter are perfectly cast as the Thenadiers giving us much needed comic relief. Lets give thanks to Aaron Tveit as Enjorlas the revolutionary, his singing may not be as great as some of the stage actors who played this role before, but he sings it well and his character is played very charismaticly.
The only minor thing which I can say was a bit of a problem was that some scenes felt a little rushed but again, it's only a minor blip in a outstanding film with this kind of effort put into it. The look of the film when it comes from a design point of view is breathtaking to look at on the big screen.
All in all, this is the movie we have all been waiting for. Great casting, acting, singing; with outstanding direction, editing, cinematography (by Danny Cohen) and designs (costumes by Paco Delgado and production by Eve Stuart) makes this as not only the best adaptation of a stage musical in a very long time, but the absolute best film I have seen in 2012; I will remember and talk about it for years to come.
The 1930's-early 70's was a time when musicals were an art form, an important part of cinema. Musical films, especially adapations from theatre musicals, like: "Guys and Dolls", "Okalhoma!", "The King and I", "Carousel", "South Pacific", "The Sound of Music", "Funny Girl", "Oliver!", "Fiddler on the Roof", "Cabaret", and "Jesus Christ Superstar", were all very popular and added importance, but since beginning of the mid-70's, changed peoples views due to "realistic films" (New Hollywood) and didn't even bother with the genre anymore. In the mid 70s-late 90's, musical films were viewed by Hollywood as an outdated genre that won't say: box office hit, even Oscar worthy. That is until in 2001, when Australian director Baz Luhrmann created "Moulin Rouge"; (an epic mess of a film with great design but an extremely, infuriating cliched plot, some questionable song placements, to fast editing, and okay acting.) the genre was popular once again. Then in 2002 another triumph occured , from director Rob Marshall's Oscar winning smash hit: "Chicago", which won Best Picture, the first musical film to win such an honor since "Oliver!" in 1968. However there was a price to pay, the most recent of musical films never reached any sort of high honors with critical misses and became box office bombs like: "The Phantom of the Opera" "Rent", "The Producers", "Across The Universe" (not an adaptation of a theatre musical), "Mamma Mia" (box office hit but not critically warm), "Nine", and "Rock of Ages". Despite the "good" musical films winning money and better reception like: "Dreamgirls", "Hairspray", and "Sweeney Todd" (kind of), they never ranked with the classics from the early years when musicals were a common genre. As for me, none of the recent musicals films, not even "Chicago", or "Evita" in 1996, reached me to rank them with the best of the classics. That is, until I saw "Les Miserables", the film adaptation of the popular musical version of the same name which itself is based on the 1862 Victor Hugo novel.
That film, is nothing short of not only a triumph of film, it is a reinvention of a genre that was dying out again. This is not only the best musical film in a very long time, it may be my favorite film of 2012 period; this is a memorable, epic, and beautiful experience that I will never forget in a movie theatre. Directed by Tom Hooper, who won an Oscar for "The King's Speech" in 2011, makes this an extrodinary piece that justifies him as a director with a vision, which you barely see anymore. His filming style is fascinating with close-ups on the main characters with one single song to sing, sweeping shots of France, intense and sweeping editing (By Chris Dickens; which is needed in a barricade battle near the end of the film and the best finale for any musical film since "The King and I"), makes him not only creative but very memorable. His direction is Oscar calliber and it works for the story, actors, the sets, and the songs to be in harmony. The greatest aspect that makes this film work is the live singing on set without lipsyncing to a recording from three months ago makes this more unique than any other musical film. Sure it has been done several times in the past, but not to this extent. You could not find a better choice than him, he did justice to the source material.
The casting is a very rare thing which I call: inspired. Hugh Jackman did a very great job as Jean Valjean, with his outstanding acting and well done singing. Russell Crowe, which I will confess, suprised me. He actually is not a bad singer at all, in fact, he did very good as Javert. You could feel the intensity when he and Jackman are on screen together, his song "Stars" may be his only minor weak part of the movie. He sings it well, but it feels a little flat; although that is a great sign of an actor putting consistant continuity to his acting and his singing is only second, which works very well in musical films. I disagree with critisisms that he is the weak link (honestly Gerard Butler did worse in Phantom). Anne Hathaway, all I can say about her is give her the Oscar for Supporting Actress please. She was perfect as Fantine, the mother of Cosette; her singing was amazing, her acting was great, and she truly was one of 7 times this movie made me very teary eyed. "I Dreamed a Dream", was one of the many brilliant scenes, that from what I heard in the movie theatre I went to, people cried; I had that moment too. Amanda Seyfried did a nice job for what she had to do with such a thankless character named Cosette. Eddie Redmayne was also perfectly cast as Marius, which his song "Empty Chairs at Empty Tables" also moved me to tears. Samantha Barks once again did a great job with reprising her role as Eponine and we feel her pain as Marius loves Cosette. "On My Own" and "A Little Fall of Rain", is where her acting is outstanding and her death scene is very sad but heart warming. Sacha Baron Cohen and Helena Bonham Carter are perfectly cast as the Thenadiers giving us much needed comic relief. Lets give thanks to Aaron Tveit as Enjorlas the revolutionary, his singing may not be as great as some of the stage actors who played this role before, but he sings it well and his character is played very charismaticly.
The only minor thing which I can say was a bit of a problem was that some scenes felt a little rushed but again, it's only a minor blip in a outstanding film with this kind of effort put into it. The look of the film when it comes from a design point of view is breathtaking to look at on the big screen.
All in all, this is the movie we have all been waiting for. Great casting, acting, singing; with outstanding direction, editing, cinematography (by Danny Cohen) and designs (costumes by Paco Delgado and production by Eve Stuart) makes this as not only the best adaptation of a stage musical in a very long time, but the absolute best film I have seen in 2012; I will remember and talk about it for years to come.
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