Les Mis

[chocolatepot]

I do not normally cry in theaters. I get misty, I sniffle, but that's about it. But I was full-on chin-wobbling crying by the end. Lots of people were, I could hear someone taking big sobbing gasps behind me. I think what really did it, I mean I was crying before but it really did it, was when Fantine and Jean are standing on the heavenly barricade and all of Paris is inside the barricade, like in Night Watch (I need to reread that book), because in heaven Paris did rally behind the revolutionaries instead of letting them down, and all the oppressed stood up and said "we refuse to be treated like this" and Fantine represents all the women forced to turn to prostitution* and Valjean represents all the people sent to prison for being poor, essentially.

I wish there hadn't been so many close-ups, mainly because in a close-up you can't see the clothing. What I could see looked really fantastic, though. I'm still thinking about Fantine's smocked pink dress from the factory - that's pretty labor intensive, is the implication that she's been cast off from a moneyed family? (I read an abridged version of the book in eighth grade, so ... I don't actually remember the canon here. Wikipedia says she was a grisette, though, so maybe this was actually a poor costuming choice.) The hair was generally good except Fantine and Cosette should have had theirs up.

The barricade the barricade not over that yet either. Grantaire and Enjolras - death scene - too much for words. I was misting but not quite bawling yet there.

Russell Crowe was not as bad as I was expecting, but I think the trouble is that he just can't act-sing. His voice is decent, but he can't sound stern. Should have cast Terrence Mann! Amanda Seyfried was much better than her couple of notes in the trailer had me thinking - it was only the really high notes that sounded weak. Eddie Redmayne's voice was a bit weird but he acted really well, so. Everyone else was just fantastic. Colm Wilkinson being at the end again contributed to my tears.

(ETA: Really enjoyed the Thenardiers. HBC still can't sing but at least that works for the role this time. I would watch a whole movie about the two of them.)

For the most part I found the changes really jarring, because I know the lyrics so well (and because some of them destroyed rhymes, wtf). Some of them I figured were done to explain things to the audience that I didn't think needed explaining (Cosette asking if he'll be a father to her, yes, of course; Eponine asking if Marius is still pretending to be poor, we just saw him with his rich grandfather, it's obvious), some of them made no sense - but I was really happy that Cosette said "in your eyes I am still that child lost in the wood", because it has always bothered me that she doesn't remember. She doesn't have a lot of character in the musical, but if she remembers and has been able to move on from it then it gives her more strength. IMO.

(ETA: I was also okay with the change in the second Look Down, explaining that they'd killed the king but had another one. Good reminder to people that IT'S NOT THE FRENCH REVOLUTION, plus also a good reminder that early twentieth century Paris saw kind of a lot of this.)

* Oh my god, I read some Tumblr post recently where someone was banging on about how terrible it was that prostitution in Les Mis was ~perpetuating the idea that the majority of sex workers don't choose sex work freely. And the article about how awful it was that Anne Hathaway said losing weight to look skeletal for Fantine was "required". That one flashed into my mind at one point, because they suggested that CGI should have been used, like in Benjamin Button or Captain America. Except that the former was really obviously and sometimes distractingly CGI, and the latter used a body double, which would still have required someone to be skinny. Why am I still on this site. ANNE HATHAWAY DESERVED ALL HER PLAUDITS, DON'T YOU DARE IMPLY SHE ONLY GOT ATTENTION FOR LOSING WEIGHT.

Comments

[lliira]

*facepalm*

Just because some sex workers choose the work freely, that doesn't mean sexual slavery doesn't exist! And it certainly should not be ignored, whether in a contemporary or historical context!

What's with so many people thinking it must be 100% one thing or 100% the other thing? The world does not work that way! This is such a pet peeve of mine.

[chocolatepot]

IDK, and I feel like I keep coming across it. I can't decide if it's classist ("It's all about informed decisions, rarely based on economic necessity or abuse") or just selfish ("More attention to other women's problems takes away from attention to mine").