On Monday Les Miserables finally came out on DVD in the UK and I have proceeded to watch it every day... I have a problem, but at least I'm aware of it. Acceptance is the first step right?
The only problem with this is you begin to notice more and more mistakes each time. Of course the bits you love just keep getting better and as much as I adore the movie, it just doesn't live up to the theatre version.
It's also given me the chance to think about why people seeing Les Miserables for the first time aren't as affected by it as say, myself and my crazy friend who basically started crying at I Dreamed a Dream and didn't stop until we'd had a couple of drinks afterwards!
Now there are a bunch of articles you can read on the cinematography and they all make the same point. Every shot in this movie is created to make the audience uncomfortable. The eye contact you'd get in a theatre does not work on film, the dutch angles (tilting of the camera to create suspense and unease.) I mean there is a dutch angle when they're in heaven at the end... literally nothing bad is going to happen next! Unless you count the end of the movie. I won't go into this and bore you but basically it creates an unconscious affect on the audience making them uneasy, and in a film like Les Miserables when you're asking the audience to accept a lot in a very short time this is the last thing you want to be doing!
Next we have the insane amount of close ups. I mean seriously, I was trying to show my dad where the end barricade and Lamarque's funeral were filmed as we have been there and it was all close ups! In huge crowd scenes, close up after close up after close up. The camera is always in the actors face and while in some scenes it's perfect. I Dreamed a Dream... flawless! In most scenes it doesn't work, instead it feels choppy and takes you away from the emotions in a crazy way.
The most used example for this is A Heart Full of Love, we have a love triangle and yet not once do we see all three people on screen at the same time.
Finally the cuts made to the musical. I really missed Dog Eats Dog and feel we missed a lot of the Thenardiers potential when that was cut. Instead of showing how completely evil they are they became pure comic relief.
The biggest thing I hated was all the cuts to the Barricade Boys parts. Mainly Grantaire's verse in Drink With Me... well in fact all the cuts to it! Re- watching this part I realise you do not get attached to these characters, you don't have a chance to with each cut being so quick and moving away from each boy so swiftly. Drink With Me shows the fear they have along with the comradary. They remember the past, accepting that this could be their last night and then Grantaire speaks what they are all fearing, what if your death means nothing. Cutting that just made them another death in a movie full of it.
Every person I know who has seen the movie as their first taste of Les Miserables has been left unaffected by it. They didn't cry, sure they were sad but it didn't rip out their hearts like it does to me. Being so involved I can't put into words why someone wouldn't openly sob at Empty Chairs when all his friends have died, especially little Gavroche who died in vain as the students didn't even receive the bullets he died to retrive. Or Javert's suicide, nearly reaching out to the screen to pull him into a hug and pray he doesn't jump.
I love the movie, mainly because I can watch Les Miserables whenever I like now. But I wish it could be done again, in a way that focuses completely on the emotions. Not trying to be ground breaking with live singing and in so doing having shaky cameras that pull you out of the emotions, just focusing on making something that pulls the audience in and smashes their heart to pieces!
A great movie musical I think of is Moulin Rouge, that manages to be spectacular with it cameras and scenery and costumes etc etc and yet at the same time it pulls you right into the heart of the story. Having said this my dream director would be Joe Wright, he did Atonement, Pride and Prejudice and Anna Karenina. Especially after Anna Karenina, seeing how he incorporated the staging I think he would be perfect! He knows how to get to the emotional core of something and still make a beautiful film.
Okay, rant over. I could speak about Les Miserables for years. There's just so much to go into, so much I would love to see done with it and so many people I would want involved I would bore everyone to death!
Wish me luck, the same to you.
Annabelle.
xoxo
