The movie version of "Les Misérables" is like a diabolically potent combination of Lionel Bart and Leni Riefenstahl. It is based on the hit stage show adaptation of Victor Hugo's novel set among the poor in 19th-century France, which climaxes with the anti-monarchist Paris uprising of 1832. It is a mesmeric and sometimes compelling film, featuring a performance of dignity and intelligence from Hugh Jackman, and an unexpectedly vulnerable singing turn from Russell Crowe. With the final rousing chorus of "Do you hear the people sing?", the revolutionary-patriotic fervour is so bizarrely stirring, you'll feel like marching out of the cinema, wrapped in the tricolour.
Just as some celebrities are so succesful they come to be known only by their first names, this is known everywhere by its abbreviation: "Lay-miz", impossible to say without a twinkle of camp. It's enjoyed staggering global success on stage since 1985. This version, directed by Tom Hooper, of "The King's Speech" fame, has all the singing recorded live on set, with actors listening to a pianist via earpieces, and the orchestral soundtrack added later. The result is bracing, rough-and-ready immediacy from performers who can and do hold a tune.
"Les Misérables" tells the story of Valjean (Jackman), a proud and decent man imprisoned for stealing bread to save his sister's family from starving. Once released, he is viciously pursued by police officer Javert (Crowe) for breaking the terms of his parole, but makes a Hardyesque career leap into respectability, becoming a mayor and factory owner. His path crosses that of his poor employee Fantine (Anne Hathaway) whose grownup daughter Cosette (Amanda Seyfried) is to fall fatefully in love with revolutinary firebrand Marius (Eddie Redmayne) just as Paris erupts in violence, and as Valjean must make his final reckoning with Javert.
It conquers its audience with weapons all its own: not passion so much as passionate sincerity, not power so much as overwhelming force. Every line, every note, every scene is belted out with diaphragm-quivering conviction and unbroken, unremitting intensity. The physical strength of this movie is impressive: an awe-inspiring and colossal effort, just like Valjean's as he lifts the flagpole at the beginning of the film. You can almost see the movie's muscles flexing and the veins standing out like whipcords on its forehead. At the end of 158 minutes, you really have experienced something.
The most affecting scene comes in the movie's opening act, as Valjean is astonished and moved by the Christ-like charity of the Bishop (Colm Wilkinson) who takes him in, and forgives him for attempting to steal silverware, making him a present of it and protecting him from arrest ("I have saved your soul for God"). Jackman sings a soliloquy directly to camera ("Why did I allow this man to touch my soul and teach me love?"), eyes blazing with a new knowledge. There's no doubt about it, this scene packs a massive punch.
Other moments are less successful. Hathatway's fervent rendition of "I Dreamed a Dream", in extreme close-up, has been much admired, but her performance and appearance does seem a bit Marie Antoinette-ish. Her poverty-stricken character is supposed to have pitifully sold her teeth to a street dentist. Conveniently, this turns out to mean just her back teeth: her dazzlingly white front teeth are untouched. Sacha Baron Cohen and Helena Bonham Carter are great as the dodgy innkeepers M and Mme Thénardier, but the crowd scenes have a thumbs-in-the-waistcoat feel, and when smudgy-faced urchin Gavroche (Daniel Huttlestone) addresses grownups in Cockney as "my dear" then we really are in Jack Wild territory.
The star is Jackman. But Crowe offers the most open, human performance of all, apart from Hathaway. His singing is so sweetly unselfconscious that there is someting paradoxically engaging about his Javert, even when he's being a cruel, unbending law-officer and royalist spy. Summarising, although Claude-Michel Schönberg's surging score, has its strange subliminal weepiness moments, as big-screen spectacle, it is unique.
But before we get to the main feature, let's enjoy...
The Pre-show:
When I was a kid / teenager I used to enjoy all the serials, cartoons and newsreels screened before the main feature. To be honest, many times I assisted the theatre, so as to be able to enjoy the on-going serials that captivated my imagination and need of adventure, regardless of the film itself. Lately, I have somehow lost that spirit on the blog, as the majority of the pre-show has been dedicated to enhancing the main feature. So, it's time to rectify and return to the original idea, as presented in our first offerings. That does not mean that we won't offer any extras concerning the main feature. Chapter 26 of "Saturday Night At The Movies" begins with a documentary which enables us to understand today's film through not only the movie or theatre play but also focussing on Victor Hugo's novel itself.
Our new special: "TV on deck", brings us an American sitcom: "Gilligan's Island". A 60s series which follows the comic adventures of seven castaways as they try to survive on an island where they are shipwrecked. Our next American series, is a typical 70s type TV half hour entertainment show. "Three's Company" is based on the British sitcom: "Man About The House". The story revolves around three single roommates, two girls and a boy, who all platonically live together in a Santa Monica, California apartment complex owned by a married couple: The Ropers. Our last but not least important series, dates back to 1943, "The Batman", one of those "white-knuckle" endings where, all of a sudden, it's over and you were "invited" to come back the following week if you wanted to know how it continued. And in this new special, there might always be a surprise, in the form of a cartoon.
The Main Feature:
Title: Les Misérables
Director: Tom Hooper
Cast: Hugh Jackman / Russell Crowe / Anne Hathaway / Amanda Seyfried / Eddie Redmayne / Helena Bonham Carter / Sacha Baron Cohen / Samantha Barks
Release Date: December 25th 2012
Country: United States
On Your Way Out:
This is the moment when we leave the theatre, having enjoyed today's screening and wandering what will be next week's offering. But, so as to keep on savouring today's helpings, we mustn't forget to grab all those goodies that will surely enable us to understand, study or simply expand on today's main feature.
Cheers Shade.
Note: Password for all files: Shade'sVintageRadio
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