Les Miserables

Just saw it earlier this week. Amazing that they're singing live.

Wonderful visuals, except I'm not sure I'll ever understand the intentional camera shake. Enough already, I want to see the characters, not be fighting motion blur and intentional camera movement like something from a monkey camera operator. I don't mind going handheld for that energy from natural & subtle movement, but this was Les Miserables, not The Bourne Supremacy. Of course, it was only particularly bad in some parts. The film as a whole had a wonderful look to it. Really wonderful look and great use of Visual Effects to create 19th Century Paris.

The sewer scene seemed a bit over the top, but whatever. You know the visuals are powerful when you almost start gagging from them. :)

Hugh Jackman was spectacular. Anne Hathaway was great, and that long single shot of her singing "I Dreamed a Dream?" Powerful performance.

Great film all around and worth seeing as a change up from dialog driven narrative.
 
Allan Black said:
Anne Hathaway should make room on her shelf for an Oscar.

Cheers.
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... and she got it! Knowing what she offered us in her role, I cried.

So did many dads I've found out .. and the sound crew got Oscars too. Well done.

3 Cheers for Anne and the guys.
 
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This never gelled for me. It seemed quick and disjointed and some scenes were never allowed to settle (which is built-in to a stage performance). The worst example was after the "One Day More" number, which should naturally be followed by an intermission. Instead, it cuts immediately to the funeral procession; there is simply no time to absorb what just happened.

The ending lost its punch. It was just too . . . big. Too lit. Too "epic." Also, too sudden. It was a demonstration of what you can do on stage that you can't do on film.

To its credit, many movie versions of stage musicals cut really good songs and substitute inferior new ones. In this case, cutting "Little People" in favor of "Suddenly" was a good choice.

Individual performances were staggering, though Anne Hathaway's performance in the trailer was superior to the cut in the film, and plus, the re-arrangement of the songs detracted from it (the trailer suggested the original arrangement, which to me makes more sense). Visuals were excellent. The men of the Revolution were too high-pitched.

EDIT:

Wow, I don't necessarily disagree with some of the points this reviewer makes, but if you're going to be THIS scathing about the craft of something, your own prose shouldn't be a train wreck.

https://www.minotdailynews.com/page...rables----when--Les--means-more.html?nav=5001
 
We shot a spoof of Les Mis the other week at European St. at Universal Studios, and I had a blast re-creating the look of the movie. Steadicam and handheld; 18mm at T1.8, right up in the actor's grills of course. As I told my focus pullers and operators, "don't worry if there's a few bumps in the frame or buzzes in focus--happened in the movie, so it can and should happen here!"

I chose one of the night exterior looks from the movie to emulate (I actually hadn't watched it until prepping for this shoot). I had a 20x20 butterfly of light grid with five blondes gelled cyan--I forgot which flavor, offhand--rigged above it on a 60 ft Condor. Mixed it up with various incandescent practicals and dimmed tungsten sources from the floor. The music track and performances were hilarious, think it will come out great! Thankfully the visual style of the movie gave me ample opportunity to parody.

Sadly I can't share any of the frame grabs, it will air in the fall.

lesmis.jpg
 
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For any who are interested, the Les Mis spoof I discussed in post #25 above airs in tomorrow's season premiere of Key & Peele at 10:30/9:30c on Comedy Central. I think it came out great.
 
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CharlesPapert said:
For any who are interested, the Les Mis spoof I discussed in post #25 above airs tomorrow's 3rd season premiere of Key & Peele at 10:30/9:30c on Comedy Central. I think it came out great.
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Congrats! It's part of the K&P show? (sorry, a little confused by your wording.)
 
CharlesPapert said:
Mmmm, sorry, I did drop a word here and there. Fixed it so it hopefully makes more sense. Yes, the Les Mis sketch is in Key and Peele airing this Wednesday.

You can see brief glimpses of it in this preview: http://youtu.be/rT1nGjGM2p8?t=3m49s
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Haha, cool. Watched Key & Peele for the first time just last night: the Best Of episode, from Ssn 1 & 2. Funny s--t. Looking forward to the show tomorrow night; I'll be watching for the Les Mis sketch now. :beer:
 
So, I just watched Les Mis again tonight (great work on the parody, BTW, Charles), and... it pretty much sucked ass.

There were like 3 truly great moments in the film, and the rest of it just fell on its face. The thing that annoys me the most is how they sing almost all of the dialogue in the film (easily 95+%), but for about 60% of that, it's not really singing, it's just talking to a half-assed and usually kind of awkward, uncomfortable, stilted tune.

I'll stress that the visuals were nothing short of fantastic. I don't really get how Django Unchained was nominated over this, but that's the Academy for ya.

Anyways, this is all irrelevant, but I've noticed recently that I have a tendency to try really hard to like any film I was excited about before seeing, and then upon rewatching, many of those movies are just terrible. I wish Hooper had just remade the Liam Neeson version, sans the music, instead of adapting the musical play -- sure, Hathaway's number was fantastic, cynics be damned, but I feel like the film we could have had would be worth losing that.
 
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