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Personally, I find this, which begins the article on the link, horrifying:
"Music from the Oscar-winning film Les Miserables has topped a list of the most popular soundtracks in the UK."
I have long loved -- though not adored -- much of the music from "Les Miserables." But found myself longing to hear it done properly while watching this movie, which I have characterized as the least musical musical I have ever seen. When the movie finally -- mercifully -- ended, I immediately put on my CDs of the original recording with Colm Wilkinson and Patti LuPone because I needed to hear the songs done properly, and would later put on my Blu-ray of the 25th anniversary performance of it. While I believe that it was a brave decision that director Tom Hooper made to have his actors sing their songs live, it resulted in some almost unlistenable performances. I wanted so badly to love that movie; instead, I found much of it almost unbearable. Interestingly, it's said that viewers who had never seen it on stage were more likely to like it than those who had seen it on stage. Alas, I was in the latter category. I wish all those buying the soundtrack could hear how those songs should have been sung. And yes, I quite understand that the object was the realism of actors actually singing their songs as they mouthed them; it just didn't work for some of us.
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I like the Bille August film with score by Basil Poledouris.
A very different film.
A very lush score.
And what has that to do with the stage musical "Les Miserables" re-done for film? Same story with same name and a soundtrack you like? Forgive me, but it seems like mixing apples and oranges to me.
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I just watched this last nite.....
what a bleak, depressing experience!
was the stage show as relentingly oppresive as the movie?????????
brm
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bm:
Re: "I just watched this last nite.....
what a bleak, depressing experience!
was the stage show as [un]relentingly oppresive as the movie?????????
NOT AT ALL!!! In fact, it had equal measures of pathos and comic relief, with some utterly exhilarating moments, and your comment perfectly captures how I felt about it too, although in my case, I was someone who had been thrilled with the musical on stage as well as with subsequent versions on video and CD. For me, that was not the "Les Miserables" that I had seen and had moved me repeatedly. That said, I did feel that director Tom Hooper did a good job in capturing what he set out to capture. Unfortunately, it was an unrelentingly bleak canvass that never seemed to soar, as that show can soar, for those of us accustomed to the magic of some of this music. Frankly, I'd like to hear from more lovers of "Les Mis" as a stage play and audio recording to see how they felt about it.
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LES MISERBLES was one of the great film musicals ever to come down the pipe. everything was perfect. A grand achievement of filmmaking rarely seen in a movie theatre.A MASTERPIECE.
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Dan:
Re: LES MISERBBLES was one of the great film musicals ever to come down the pipe. everything was perfect. A grand achievement of filmmaking rarely seen in a movie theatre.A MASTERPIECE.
Then you probably liked Tim Burton's SWEENEY TODD, and MAN OF LA MANCHA with Peter O'Toole, neither of which moved me. It's so strange. As i've written, it was an ordeal for me to sit through that movie (LES MISERABLES), which shocked me, since I had expected to love it (and I'm a huge fan of Hugh Jackman, having many of his movies, including him as Curly in "Oklahoma!," on DVD and/or Blu-ray). But I'm glad you enjoyed it.
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Dan:
Re: LES MISERBBLES was one of the great film musicals ever to come down the pipe. everything was perfect. A grand achievement of filmmaking rarely seen in a movie theatre.A MASTERPIECE.
Then you probably liked Tim Burton's SWEENEY TODD,.... Blu-ray). .
Funny you should say that......
I got the feeling that the director THOUGHT he was directing SWEENEY TODD
lol!
he even cast Cohen and Carter!
brm
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Mr. Marshall:
Re: "I got the feeling that the director THOUGHT he was directing SWEENEY TODD"
Perfect!!!
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The only "Les Miserables" that I care about was the one written by Alex North in 1952 or thereabouts, for the film starring Michael Rennie.
That tops my "Les Miserables" soundtracks list !
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Best contribution to Hugos superbe novel in my opinion is Honeggers score to the french film with Harry Baur, must be in the thirties.
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Dan:
Re: LES MISERBBLES was one of the great film musicals ever to come down the pipe. everything was perfect. A grand achievement of filmmaking rarely seen in a movie theatre.A MASTERPIECE.
Then you probably liked Tim Burton's SWEENEY TODD, and MAN OF LA MANCHA with Peter O'Toole, neither of which moved me. It's so strange. As i've written, it was an ordeal for me to sit through that movie (LES MISERABLES), which shocked me, since I had expected to love it (and I'm a huge fan of Hugh Jackman, having many of his movies, including him as Curly in "Oklahoma!," on DVD and/or Blu-ray). But I'm glad you enjoyed it.
Ron, I am right there with you on all counts (including SWEENEY TODD)! When friends tell me how great the Les Miz film was, I ask them to sit down with me and listen to Anne Hathaway's valiant attempt at "I Deeamed a Dream" side by side with Patti Lupone's. One of them is an affecting emotional moment in a film and the other is a song performed by a stupendous singer. I can't quite grasp why so many modern film musicals seem to begrudge the fact that there is singing going on (EVITA, SWEENEY, PHANTOM, LES MIZ). And most sadly for me, many of these roles tackled so weakly on film are ones that Patti so marvelously performed on stage. I shudder to think what's to become of the upcoming rumored SUNSET BOULEVARD.
With that said, Marius's "Empty Chairs at Empty Tables" in the film version manages to be both dramatically affecting, and musically superb. I imagine this is what they wanted the whole film to be like. In which case they would have been well advised to hire trained singers who were right for their roles.
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To nerfTractor:
Re: "Ron, I am right there with you on all counts (including SWEENEY TODD)! When friends tell me how great the Les Miz film was, I ask them to sit down with me and listen to Anne Hathaway's valiant attempt at "I Deeamed a Dream" side by side with Patti Lupone's. One of them is an affecting emotional moment in a film and the other is a song performed by a stupendous singer. I can't quite grasp why so many modern film musicals seem to begrudge the fact that there is singing going on (EVITA, SWEENEY, PHANTOM, LES MIZ). And most sadly for me, many of these roles tackled so weakly on film are ones that Patti so marvelously performed on stage. I shudder to think what's to become of the upcoming rumored SUNSET BOULEVARD.
With that said, Marius's "Empty Chairs at Empty Tables" in the film version manages to be both dramatically affecting, and musically superb. I imagine this is what they wanted the whole film to be like. In which case they would have been well advised to hire trained singers who were right for their roles.
Thanks! And I agree that Eddie Redmayne's "Empty Chairs At Empty Tables" was an exception in "Les Miserables." And yet a lot of people liked the movie, so I'm going to try to stop bashing it just because some of us hated it.
As for Patti LuPone, as I've written elsewhere, I had the pleasure of seeing her 6 times (actually 5 1/2 as she lost her voice closing night in Los Angeles and Terri Klausner took over after intermission) in "Evita" before they took it to Broadway, and she was wonderful, as was Mandy Patinkin and Bob Gunton. And having LuPone's "Sunset Boulevard" CDs made it nearly impossible for me to care for Glen Close's performance in the show. That said, I had trouble with Patti as Mrs. Lovett in "Sweeney Todd" -- no one comes close to the great Angela Lansbury!!!
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"How dare you! How DARE YOU!!!!"
-Patty Lupone
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