Yesterday's Movies

Before watching the movie:

I’m decently acquainted with the plot of the book, but somehow more through osmosis than from actually having watched the 1998 movie in class. I also recall attempting to read the book, but when I picked up the distressingly large tome with shockingly small text I was already having second thoughts, and then when this supposed English translation began with five pages in Latin, I put the book down and gave up.

I’ve wanted to experience the musical for a long time, and it’s always been a disappointment to me that the 1998 version was not based on the musical and that the musical was never properly filmed on stage (though there was an “original cast in concert” film just lined up on the stage performing the music, which I saw some of possibly in the same class that watched the other movie). When I decided to include Les Mis in this run of musicals, I was hoping there would’ve been another version because I’ve heard mostly bad things about Tom Hooper’s directorial decisions. But somehow this monumentally popular show has only been done on film the one time.

After watching the movie:

At the end of a harsh prison sentence for theft of one loaf of bread, quadrupled for attempted escape, the guard Javert gave “Prisoner 24601” parole papers he was to carry the rest of his life and return regularly to check in. Shunned by the normal world unwilling to give this “dangerous criminal” an honest job, Jean Valjean almost returned to crime but for an act of mercy by the bishop who exhorted him to dedicate his life to God. Valjean decided to break his parole to create a new identity to help others. Eight years later, Valjean has become the well respected mayor of Montrueil and owner of a successful textile factory. When Valjean sees Javert, the new chief of police in his town, arrest a prostitute for defending herself from an abusive prospective client, Fantine reveals to him that she was an employee of his favorite only recently fallen into this life after her coworkers tried to drum her out for having a secret illegitimate daughter and he left the matter to his foreman. Valjean swears to her he will make it right, and though Fantine soon dies of illness, he promises to her that he will raise her daughter as his own. Javert meanwhile is highly suspicious the mayor may be the one who slipped parole almost a decade ago, and after Valjean pays off the Thenardiers, the crooked innkeepers entrusted with Cosette, to take their child slave off their hands, the pair must quickly disappear to evade Javert’s reinvigorated hunt. The curtain falls and another nine years go by. Now in Paris, a discontent is growing among the poor and the students. Only one elderly general among the king’s court speaks for the problems of the lesser citizens, and he is near death, but the students plan to make themselves heard. With Javert now a Paris police detective, and the former innkeepers still bitter Valjean got Cosette from them for so little now grifting on the street, Valjean plans to run again, but now there is an extra complication: Cosette is in love with one of the revolutionaries.

I’m not sure why the prevailing narrative around this movie that reached me is that it was badly directed. I didn’t find the live singing to be a problem at all, which was a particular criticism leveled in the places I heard opinions about it and apparently hardly anywhere else. Maybe it’s been reevaluated more harshly after Hooper’s disastrous Cats rendition. What bothered me more was the casting full of the biggest stars possible. It’s hard to see the characters when the actors on screen come with years to decades of well known roles. I expected to have more of a problem with Russell Crowe as Javert, but he did well enough I almost put Geoffrey Rush, one of the main parts of the other version that I remember well, out of my mind. And I do recall when I originally heard that Sacha Baron Cohen was in it, I was baffled where the Borat guy fit in this high art, but he’s actually quite suited to the kind of person Thenardier is, as well being a more chameleonlike actor. On the other end, I didn’t see Mme. Thenardier, only “there’s Helena Bonham Carter doing the charismatically deranged murderess again”, and Anne Hathaway is just unmistakably Anne Hathaway throughout her appearance. I’m probably better prepared to see Hugh Jackman in whatever role he’s playing now than I was in 2012 though. I also thought Eddie Redmayne was going to stick out more but I think I know his face better than I know his actual work, and he disappears into Marius, who almost becomes the main character of the second act.

The structure of the story is almost two separate stories thanks to the multiple time skips. The second time skip would’ve been a more logical place to divide the acts, but “One More Day” is a truly spectacular Act I finale anyway. I remembered almost nothing about the Paris section even though I’m sure it was the main reason we were shown the other movie in class (even though it’s set after the restoration of the monarchy I’m sure my history class watched it to discuss the French Revolution). What’s iconic about the book is Valjean’s attempt to live as a free man under unjust law and the second half is much more about the next generation’s fight for similar goals than Valjean’s own difficulties, so it doesn’t come into the discussion as much. But now I have a better understanding of who people are talking about when they discuss Marius or Eponine (who feels like she must have had more to do in the book).

I got to thinking while I was watching that it’s a bit inappropriate that a French novel should find one of its biggest worldwide successes in an English language musical, and then I discovered that the show was conceived in French and was translated into English to great success, but the music was written for French lyrics. That’s a very interesting move I’m not sure has happened that much and if I’d gotten to study French the way I wanted to in school, maybe I’d pursue a listen to the original to study the adaptation.

There are many legendary and beautiful numbers in this show that are deservedly beloved, but as it’s written to be through-sung, there’s also quite a lot of recitative, a practice I’m not that big a fan of. To my taste I would prefer characters speak verse rather than hammer the same note flatly so much. However, the plot is so complex (I made an attempt to cut down the summary above and it’s still probably twice as long as for most movies) and usually moves the most during the recitative sections that I didn’t notice too much.

Maybe this show is still better on the stage, maybe it was undercut by being a big epic blockbuster with high cinematic realism and another take would’ve been even better. But the source material is just of such high caliber, a Great Novel elevated by great music, that the cinematic elements and high production values afforded here make this feel very close to the most captivating way to experience this story. At least until there’s another adaptation of the musical, I think this or an original cast recording is probably how I’m going to prefer to come back to this show, and I already want to listen to the music again.