movies/tv Les Miserables

[VanellopeSofia 33]

So I'm just a wee bit obsessed with Les Miserables. I currently have 6 recordings of the musical on my iTunes and was wondering if any other bronies like Les Mis. I know they're out there because of this photo I found online:

 

If you are a big fan of Les Mis I'd love to hear your dream cast! Mine is as follows

 

Colm Wilkinson- Jean ValJean (so close with JOJ)

Norm Lewis or Hadley Fraser- Inspector Javert

Anne Hathaway- Fantine

No preference for the Thenadiers, just not Sacha and Hellen

Micheal Ball- Marius

Katie Hall- Cossette

Frances Ruffelle- Eponine

Ramin Karimloo- Enjoras

[Zygen 6,066]

I frankly have never watched it, or seen it or whatever, other then hearing about it i really don't know anything about it.

 

So i have no opinion of it really. It wouldn't make sense for me to have one with the little knowledge i posses though ;p.

[~Silver Essence~ 2,625]

I have nothing against it, but it never truly interested me.

 

The movie adaption that was released not too long ago was ok, but not my favorite.

[Sunny Fox 5,952]

Nostalgia Critic (along with other reviewers) did a musical review of the Les Mis movie. Doesn't seem like it was a particularly good adaptation.

 

http://thatguywiththeglasses.com/videolinks/thatguywiththeglasses/nostalgia-critic/40344-nostalgia-critic-les-miserables-musical-review

 

The review is very funny, though.

[Dusknight Haze 161]

Great image!

 

I feel like a Les Miserables MLP animatic would be a true work of art. Don't know how hard it would be to find quality singers though. 

 

As far as Les Miserables by itself goes, I do enjoy it to some degree, but the novel is so much... more. Les Miserables the musical has always felt a lot more than just "truncated" to me, but I suppose I am greatly biased in that respect.

 

The movie also wasn't that great. Anne Hathaway and Seyfried killed it but everyone else was kind of meh, especially Jackman and his nasally singing voice. 

[VanellopeSofia 33]

  On 2013-09-09 at 3:58 AM, Dusknight Haze said:

 

The movie also wasn't that great. Anne Hathaway and Seyfried killed it but everyone else was kind of meh, especially Jackman and his nasally singing voice. 

I 100 % agree, I loved those too even though a lot of people hated Amanda, she's one of my favourite Cosettes, I couldn't stand Hugh's voice also, and Russel was okay, but could've been cast better. The entire cast could've been casted much better, I was disappointed with it overall

[Dusknight Haze 161]

  On 2013-09-09 at 4:04 AM, VanellopeSofia said:

I 100 % agree, I loved those too even though a lot of people hated Amanda, she's one of my favourite Cosettes, I couldn't stand Hugh's voice also, and Russel was okay, but could've been cast better. The entire cast could've been casted much better, I was disappointed with it overall

 

Russell's voice was good and Javert's musical melody and motif are my favorite of the entire production, but he just had so few actual moments of expression beyond singing. At least other people used very expressive mannerisms and gestures (Hathaway's legendary performance comes to mind) but Russell was like a moving statue. It makes sense, sure, because the Inspector is supposed to be an uptight vanguard of the law, but it's hard to get a sense of his conflict if he doesn't really show the bubbling boil of an ethical quagmire deep down below on a few occasions through his physical presence, and Russell sucks at that completely.

 

While the bridge scene is always ridiculously emotional to watch, it's really only because of the situation and what Javert does than anything on Crowe's part.

[GrimCW 658]

One of these bloody days I want to actually see this.

 

Ignore the rest, I'm on a rant a bit here...

  Reveal hidden contents

Skeptical of movie formats for classic works though :/

Even with something like Sweeney todd, i've seen the movie, series, and a proper broadway play version of it.

And WOW the things that were cut for the video versions... It literally takes/alters more than the individual play groups and directors ever had...

I mean, i understand why, But I still feel it damages the story and overall feel that was given by the classic work. And many will never know of it due to their lack of willingness to see the play version. (as apparently musical theater, or theater in general is stipulated as something for old people and homosexuals now.... bah...)

 

Book wise... I dunno, I'm fairly skeptical of translated books as is.. the translators tend to take a LOT of liberties at times, oft changing whole sections just to "fit better with the language" despite it alters the purpose and scene at the same time (hence i'm also somewhat skeptical of the Bible, but thats for another place and time)

 

One fine example though is trying to find the unabridged 3 volume complete version of "Journey to the West".

I can find one or 2 of them, but not all 3. And plenty of abridged/altered/cut versions

But most would only want the cut versions since they'd be easier to understand, and shorter to read.. sooo.. no place seems to carry the full set. (and before its mentioned, Amazon is a TERRIBLE place to try getting such from.. I tried them for other old books and it took TWO YEARS after i PAID for them for only TWO of the THREE volumes  i had ordered to even show up. They refunded the price for the third of that set, but it was book one of the three.. kind of pointless having 2 and 3 :/   Never in between was I even contacted on why it was taking so long when they were listed as "In Stock", nor did they respond to my emails...)

 

 

Edited September 9, 2013 by GrimCW

[Dusknight Haze 161]

  On 2013-09-09 at 4:19 AM, GrimCW said:

One of these bloody days I want to actually see this.

 

Ignore the rest, I'm on a rant a bit here...

  Reveal hidden contents

Skeptical of movie formats for classic works though :/

Even with something like Sweeney todd, i've seen the movie, series, and a proper broadway play version of it.

And WOW the things that were cut for the video versions... It literally takes/alters more than the individual play groups and directors ever had...

I mean, i understand why, But I still feel it damages the story and overall feel that was given by the classic work. And many will never know of it due to their lack of willingness to see the play version. (as apparently musical theater, or theater in general is stipulated as something for old people and homosexuals now.... bah...)

 

Book wise... I dunno, I'm fairly skeptical of translated books as is.. the translators tend to take a LOT of liberties at times, oft changing whole sections just to "fit better with the language" despite it alters the purpose and scene at the same time (hence i'm also somewhat skeptical of the Bible, but thats for another place and time)

 

One fine example though is trying to find the unabridged 3 volume complete version of "Journey to the West".

I can find one or 2 of them, but not all 3. And plenty of abridged/altered/cut versions

But most would only want the cut versions since they'd be easier to understand, and shorter to read.. sooo.. no place seems to carry the full set. (and before its mentioned, Amazon is a TERRIBLE place to try getting such from.. I tried them for other old books and it took TWO YEARS after i PAID for them for only TWO of the THREE volumes  i had ordered to even show up. They refunded the price for the third of that set, but it was book one of the three.. kind of pointless having 2 and 3 :/   Never in between was I even contacted on why it was taking so long when they were listed as "In Stock", nor did they respond to my emails...)

 

 

 

Your example is valid but keep in mind it's a French book, which is extremely similar to English. Not to mention it was released much more recently than an ancient classic like Journey to the West, which has had centuries of time to be corrupted by passing through the ages and being transcribed, interpreted, translated, analyzed, and all those things repeated again.

 

Les Miserables the novel was also released during the era of the invention of linguistics as a discipline so many of the English translations around that time of other works are pretty damn good, if a bit wordy (but many works of the day were wordy, translated or not, so this is a minor gripe).

 

Les Miserables the novel is a doorstopper of a book. It is only appropriate that the musical is like literally 1/10th of the length of the book, but Hugo, in the tradition of novelists of his day, wrote a lot of arguably extraneous detail into his exposition of things so you're not losing a whole ton of events.

 

Les Miserables the musical, I can tell you, is about a faithful a musical adaptation of a 1000+ page novel can be.

 

Oh, and again on the note of translations; Asian works suffer much more than European works when it comes to translations. I doubt there are any truly bad Hugo translations on the market right now. It's just so much easier to translate French, German, Spanish, etc., than Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Hindi, etc., in a meaningful and artistic way that keeps to the author's intentions.

[VanellopeSofia 33]

  On 2013-09-09 at 4:10 AM, Dusknight Haze said:

Russell's voice was good and Javert's musical melody and motif are my favorite of the entire production, but he just had so few actual moments of expression beyond singing. At least other people used very expressive mannerisms and gestures (Hathaway's legendary performance comes to mind) but Russell was like a moving statue. It makes sense, sure, because the Inspector is supposed to be an uptight vanguard of the law, but it's hard to get a sense of his conflict if he doesn't really show the bubbling boil of an ethical quagmire deep down below on a few occasions through his physical presence, and Russell sucks at that completely.

 

While the bridge scene is always ridiculously emotional to watch, it's really only because of the situation and what Javert does than anything on Crowe's part.

I see where you're coming from, Russel does have a voice and he doesn't deserve some of the criticism he gets, but I just really didn't like his acting, like look at Earl Carpenter

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6zq9DqarYB4

He a) sounds better and b ) looks like he cares. Russel as you said, was a walking statue showing hardly any emotion.

Edited September 9, 2013 by VanellopeSofia

[GrimCW 658]

  On 2013-09-09 at 4:26 AM, Dusknight Haze said:

 

 

Les Miserables the novel is a doorstopper of a book. It is only appropriate that the musical is like literally 1/10th of the length of the book, but Hugo, in the tradition of novelists of his day, wrote a lot of arguably extraneous detail into his exposition of things so you're not losing a whole ton of events.

 

Les Miserables the musical, I can tell you, is about a faithful a musical adaptation of a 1000+ page novel can be.

 

Musical play, or the movie?

hmm I still want to try for the book, but is there a recommended "complete" version thats out there? Hard to tell these days since most often don't even mention it in the description anymore :/

And I'd guarantee most will be altered versions

 

I want a shot at all 3, sadly the play may be hard to find... But I'd love to enjoy the book/movie, and have been eye balling the movie on iTunes since it released. But been kind of scared to dare at it until after i've had a shot at the play or book first...

Edited September 9, 2013 by GrimCW

[Dusknight Haze 161]

  On 2013-09-09 at 4:37 AM, GrimCW said:

Musical play, or the movie?

hmm I still want to try for the book, but is there a recommended "complete" version thats out there? Hard to tell these days since most often don't even mention it in the description anymore :/

And I'd guarantee most will be altered versions

 

I want a shot at all 3, sadly the play may be hard to find... But I'd love to enjoy the book/movie, and have been eye balling the movie on iTunes since it released. But been kind of scared to dare at it until after i've had a shot at the play or book first...

 

The musical performance itself. The movie is okay. Shorter than the full musical, of course, and as noted by me and Vanellope (what a great name, by the way), it could have been much better.

 

If you want the whole book Les Miserables the novel, you'll be looking for an "unabriged" version, which has little to no text cut out. It'll take a ridiculously long time to read it, though, so keep that in mind.

 

If you want to watch the movie, you can just watch any of the myriad recordings of the musical itself to get an idea of what it should be, then compare the movie to it. It's nice to compare things to the novel but it's just so long and unwieldy that I don't bug people about not reading it.

[GrimCW 658]

  On 2013-09-09 at 4:43 AM, Dusknight Haze said:

If you want the whole book Les Miserables the novel, you'll be looking for an "unabriged" version, which has little to no text cut out. It'll take a ridiculously long time to read it, though, so keep that in mind.

 

 

I knew the unabridged one is the one to seek, I was moreso curious if anyone knew where to find it.

Most copies of books aren't labeled as abridged or not anymore.. Example being I've seen plenty of cutup copies of LotR and Sherlock Holmes that were completely unmarked. Even read some of the sherlock ones before... (thankfully i have my good ol' hard back complete editions for sherlock now and a 60+ year old set of the unabridged LotR books I dealed out of an old HS teacher .. He never even opened them... I mean wtf man!? Bet was simple though, read the set before the end of the year and they were mine Finished in 2 months... )

 

Off to dig up a recorded ver of the play.. I completely forgot they do that for some... This has got to exist...

Edited September 9, 2013 by GrimCW

[Dusknight Haze 161]

  On 2013-09-09 at 4:50 AM, GrimCW said:

I knew the unabridged one is the one to seek, I was moreso curious if anyone knew where to find it.

... Off to dig up a recorded ver of the play.. I completely forgot they do that for some... This has got to exist...

 

Hm. I don't frequent the bookstores as much as I used to anymore, so no word on where to pick a good version up.

 

I am pretty sure there are recordings of it on youtube. I remember seeing them before. Of course, they could have been taken down since then.

[scooterlou 23]

I got to see Les Miserables on Broadway back in 2006 when it had its revival... it was AMAZING.  My best friend cried through the entire thing, he was so happy to be there (and at points so sad because, well, it's not exactly the cheeriest musical ever)  I think my favorite recording of it is the one done by the Dream Cast for the 10th Anniversary.  I still get chills whenever I listen to it.

[VanellopeSofia 33]

  On 2013-09-09 at 4:50 AM, GrimCW said:

Off to dig up a recorded ver of the play.. I completely forgot they do that for some... This has got to exist...

Currently there are 4 professional recordings on Youtube:

10th Anniversary, Great Cast, but is missing a lot of scenes also the only one with video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NAVrm3wjzq8

The 1985 Preview Show, First time Les Mis was ever preformed in English. Bad quality but good if you're familiar with the musical

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9fvr0azlEQM

Full Symphonic Recording, Inculdes everything the musical has to offer, 2 hours and 50 minutes pretty amazing if you have the time to listen

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=USIE9R6P9WA

2010 25th Anniversary Tour Cast, Amazing. Simply Amazing. my favourite recording, it's epic, the cast is amazing the orchestration is great, the quality is perfect.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QCofgZjEkkM

  On 2013-09-09 at 4:43 AM, Dusknight Haze said:

and Vanellope (what a great name, by the way), it could have been much better.

VanellopeSofia but Thank you, and 'Dusknight Haze' just sounds so freaking epic! I could totally see a villan with that name! (no offence)

Edited September 9, 2013 by VanellopeSofia

[Candy Blaze 119]

Well, I'm not much of a big fan but I did enjoy the first half of it. I was wathcing it in French class but it was on the last day of school but what I noticed is that in one of the songs, it ended with, "now life has killed the dream I'll dream" is exactly how Friendship is Witchcraft ended with the Itll be okay song

 

I really like that reference!

[Scootalove 10,689]

The film adaptation was pretty decent besides Russell Crowe's singing. The songs are superb, the casting is top notch, and the emotional scenes are really heart warming.

[VanellopeSofia 33]

  On 2013-09-09 at 10:23 PM, Candy Blaze said:

Well, I'm not much of a big fan but I did enjoy the first half of it. I was wathcing it in French class but it was on the last day of school but what I noticed is that in one of the songs, it ended with, "now life has killed the dream I'll dream" is exactly how Friendship is Witchcraft ended with the Itll be okay song

 

I really like that reference!

 

Yeah I saw that episode of FiW too I laughed at the little nod to Les Mis

  On 2013-09-11 at 11:44 PM, Scootalove said:

The film adaptation was pretty decent besides Russell Crowe's singing. The songs are superb, the casting is top notch, and the emotional scenes are really heart warming.

I personally was not a fan of Hugh Jackman, as his voice was just not strong enough to play Jean ValJean, but I liked the movie all the same. Like for comparison, I'm sure you've heard Hugh's version of the "What have I done sweet Jesus What have I done" song, but if you need a refresher it's readily available on YouTube, and then compare that with this recording of John Owen Jones doing the same song:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zTkkL9H8Scs

Holy God, JOhn Owen freaking Jones. Personal biases aside, John just belts out those high notes and it's while it may not be as moving as Hugh, John does do a little sobbing. His voice is so powerful and for-lack-of-a-better-word big it's so amazing. I really think Jean ValJean could've been casted better