Movie Review: Les Miserables

"Oh, my friends! My friends, don't ask me what your sacrifice was for! Empty chairs at empty tables, where my friends shall sing no more."


So, I'm sure you have all already seen Les Miserables.  But I hadn't until this evening.  Caleb and I had both not seen it, so we made a sibling-date out of it watching it in the basement.  So, I really like Les Miserables.  I also really like Les Mis.  Yes, there is a difference.  I have read Hugo's masterpiece twice--once in English and once in French.  In French, it took me a very, very, very long time, but I achieved it.  I have the soundtrack in my iTunes, and I know the story and the musical well. 

It is, like most of classical literature, a work beyond what literature today usually achieves.  It analyzes so many questions of life and puts itself in the perfect place in history to ask those questions.  There are a lot of really great songs from the musical (and a few recitative passages that are completely forgettable). 

I must say that when Caleb and I first started the musical, I was thinking, "This is going to be two-and-a-half hours of pure torture, because this free-singing isn't working out so well."  Even if you have more liberty with the music, you still need to do down-beats and things.  Caleb felt this way too. It got a lot better. 

In the end, it was well-done.  I don't like their Cosette choice.  I think she is kind of funny looking and kind of piercing, especially as a soprano.  The rest was very well done.  I also know that my MLS training has effected my viewing, as I started thinking of the most likely wound infections for Marius post-sewer. 

Moderate to lots of stars.

Comments

cg.gwhatch said…
In the movie I felt like the performances were not nearly so well polished as in the Broadway performances I had seen. I did enjoy it, however.
May 2, 2013 at 10:36 AM
Hannah said…
I definitely agree, Grandpa.
May 2, 2013 at 11:42 AM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Over-analyzing Disney Movies: The Little Mermaid--Why Eric is White.

Image
I have recently noticed a trend of just purely over-analyzing Disney movies.  In this category, I also include the fascination with photoshopping Disney characters to swap genders, races, or eras, as well as making princesses have "realistic" body shapes (which is something I could write a whole other post about, and it wouldn't be pretty.  Spoiler alert:  I find it to be one of the most unempowering trends of recent years).  However, I sometimes wonder at how much people are reading into Disney movies.  Today, I'm going to over-analyze their over-analysis. I recently read that the fact that Eric is a white prince is a representation of how we white-wash racial expectations for our children.  I'm not even sure what that sentence means.  It seems to have a lot of buzz words.  But I'm going to show you today, using evidence from the film, why Prince Eric is, in fact, the correct color. (I will, however, say that Eric is the only Disney prince who legitimatel
Read more

Derevaun Seraun! Derevaun Seraun!

James Joyce is my kind of guy. He made puzzles that I like to think are just for me. He was a great lover of languages, and he is sometimes called the father of a literary technique called polyglotism. This is when you insert other languages in there. Just 'cuz. So, in James Joyce's wonderful story, "Eveline" there is a phrase that nobody knows what it is. Even to this day. "Derevaun Seraun! Derevaun Seraun!" Many people believe it to be corrupted Irish Gaelic. Needing a break from homework, I have approached this by taking the words and then transliterating them into Irish Gaelic, trying to create Irish Gaelic that would be spoken by someone of this status in this time in Ireland. Nationalist, but not educated enough to actually understand all the ins and outs of the language. I came up with two possible phrases that I find very probable. And I'm not pretending to solve the mystery. If Joyce experts over the years have not discovered the mean
Read more

What does it mean to be a Russell?

Image
As many know, most European families (not all, but most) have a coat of arms, a crest, a motto, all that good stuff. So, I decided to look a bit into what being a Russell means. And maybe I'll do the same for Hatches, because I am a Hatch too. The last name Russell is Scottish and means "Red-headed" and derives from the Norman name of Roussel. The Russells are a well-respected Highland Scot clan, complete with Scottish crest and tartan: The motto on the crest "virtus sine macula" means "Virtue without blemish." As Scotland incorporated more and more into England, the Russells became nobility in that world as well, and were thus presented with a coat of arms: And yes, the motto written on that one is "che sara sara." You've got to admit, that's pretty gosh-darn cool. It really does mean "Whatever will be, will be." And in honor of that:
Read more