Members Geoff Grace Posted December 28, 2012 Members Share Posted December 28, 2012 Has anyone here seen the movie yet? I just saw it and thought it was exceptionally well done. I have it on good authority that most of the singing was performed live.Highly recommended! Best,Geoff Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Anderton Posted December 28, 2012 Members Share Posted December 28, 2012 Based on the title, is it about magazine workplaces? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members rasputin1963 Posted December 28, 2012 Members Share Posted December 28, 2012 I will see it when it comes out on DVD, unless someone takes me to see it in the cinema. I used to sing these songs live, both in English and in French ["Rouge! Le peuple est en colere! Noir! Le peuple est en misere!"] I had kind of feared that maybe this musical had, by 2012, been "done to death", but it may surprise with stunning visuals after all.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Geoff Grace Posted December 28, 2012 Author Members Share Posted December 28, 2012 For me, the biggest difference between seeing it onscreen vs. onstage was the ability to see the expressions on the actors' faces as they sang. It added an extra emotional layer I had missed when I last saw it during the '90s while it was in LA. But certainly (or should I say, "Mais certainement?") the cinematography adds to the experience as well. On a personal note, the movie provided a hefty dose of nostalgia for me Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Geoff Grace Posted December 28, 2012 Author Members Share Posted December 28, 2012 Originally Posted by Anderton Based on the title, is it about magazine workplaces? Possibly. I'm not sure magazine supervisors grope employees while they're trying to work though...Best,Geoff Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members girevik Posted December 28, 2012 Members Share Posted December 28, 2012 Originally Posted by Geoff Grace Has anyone here seen the movie yet? I just saw it and thought it was exceptionally well done. I have it on good authority that most of the singing was performed live. We were wondering about that after we saw it. Anne Hathaway sang surprisingly well enough that we wondered, too, if a pro vocalist sang her parts for her (a la Milli Vanilli). We didn't have that question about Russell Crowe or Hugh Jackman, hehehe...I thought it was a fine production too, but I'd never seen the musical live. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members rasputin1963 Posted December 28, 2012 Members Share Posted December 28, 2012 A bit of OT Trivia: LES MISERABLES was a smash theatrical hit all over the world. Everywhere it was staged. With one exception: Paris, France. Why? was the show not beautifully, expertly mounted? Weren't the writers, Boublil & Schoenberg, French, and the concept album first written and recorded in French? Yes, yes and yes. It's just that the big stage musical, as a form of entertainment, is not really "done" by the French, traditionally, not really countenanced or avidly attended. Opera, yes. Straight theater, yes. but musicals are seen as something very British and American. (But next door in Germany, they love musicals, and most big blockbuster musicals-- all the Lloyd-Webbers, f'rinstance--- get translated into the German.) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members blue2blue Posted December 28, 2012 Members Share Posted December 28, 2012 I love 20th century musicals in large part (although decidedly not Lloyd-Webber), but, while I haven't seen this mounted, I have to say that I didn't care much for the music I've heard from it. I was hoping I might, since my mom really likes the play (and it's always nice to be able to share culture stuff with mom, she became one of the Cirque du Soleil's biggest fans after I turned her and her late husband on to them). But every time I've sat down to listen to it, I ended up turning it off. I, too heard (on NPR) that the singing was all or largely sung live. (That said, in the snippet I heard, it sounded like some Melodyning going on -- but certainly not at the trainwreck level of auto-tuning clumsiness that made Sweeney Todd as painful to try to listen to as it was a delight to watch on the big screen.) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Hard Truth Posted December 28, 2012 Members Share Posted December 28, 2012 I was dragged to see it on X-mas by relatives. It is actually an opera, not a musical, since very line of dialog was sung. The acting was fine and the cinematography, sets, costumes and scenery were beautiful. To my great relief, the actors did not use their big microphones-haven't-been-invented-yet opera or musical theater type voices. However, I found the music very weak. The melodies were not interesting and the orchestral backings stayed well in the background. I'm not the type to routinely say this type of thing, but in this case its true, there were no memorable or attractive melodies. Sometimes the decision to hold certain notes longer seemed random, as if the composer was thinking "too many short notes in this section, let's stretch this word into whole note." Also the rhymes were often lame. I felt that if they took the time to do another pass-through they could have come up with rhymes that would have made more sense or flowed better. In some ways it reminded me of Umbrellas of Cherbourg because of the relatively naturalistic singing, but despite using singers with unimpressive voices, Umbrellas still had several good melodies which have become standards. I don't think any of the songs from Les Miserables will endure on their own. The fact that the singing was done on the set did not add or take anything away from the quality of the result in my opinion. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members blue2blue Posted December 28, 2012 Members Share Posted December 28, 2012 Hard Truth really nailed my feelings about the music for the play, derived from listening to the music straight through (as long as I lasted). It made me think it was 'supposed' to sound serious, but I simply found it a bit tedious -- and the libretto did, indeed, strike me as more than a bit puerile and pro forma, getting us from plot point A to plot point B within a rhyme scheme and intended meter but providing little else for me to enjoy. Very different, for me, than something from, say, Sondheim. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Geoff Grace Posted December 29, 2012 Author Members Share Posted December 29, 2012 I suppose it depends in part on the way you're first exposed to the music. I can see how it could seem like a long, aimless piece in the context of the two-and-a-half hour production. But having been exposed to the individual songs first, I don't see it that way at all. I'll grant I'm biased in that some of the emotional resonance the songs carry for me comes from having heard my wife sing them so often; but it's hard for me to hear "I Dreamed a Dream," "On My Own," and "Bring Him Home" and not be moved. Of course, YMMV. Best, Geoff Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members rasputin1963 Posted December 29, 2012 Members Share Posted December 29, 2012 Originally Posted by Hard Truth . I don't think any of the songs from Les Miserables will endure on their own. Tell that to You-Know-Who: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members rasputin1963 Posted December 29, 2012 Members Share Posted December 29, 2012 Will I sound like a ponce if I say that the original French concept album is nicer than the English? [ATTACH=CONFIG]350881[/ATTACH] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members DejaNew Posted December 29, 2012 Members Share Posted December 29, 2012 Seeing this tonight. Let's hope it lives up to its reviews Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Hard Truth Posted December 29, 2012 Members Share Posted December 29, 2012 Originally Posted by Geoff Grace I suppose it depends in part on the way you're first exposed to the music. I can see how it could seem like a long, aimless piece in the context of the two-and-a-half hour production. But having been exposed to the individual songs first, I don't see it that way at all.I'll grant I'm biased in that some of the emotional resonance the songs carry for me comes from having heard my wife sing them so often; but it's hard for me to hear "I Dreamed a Dream," "On My Own," and "Bring Him Home" and not be moved.Of course, YMMV.Best,Geoff Perhaps its the performances in the movie that made the songs seem lacking in melodic interest to me. I appreciated that they sang them relatively naturalistically, but perhaps that flattened out the original melodies. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.