Les Miserables

      What an experience! I had the privilege of attending a prescreening of Les Miserables (2012).  I didn’t know what to expect.  I have been following this movie since the rumors began.  I have followed the casting. Watched every available clip as soon as it was released. Needless to say I have been anxiously awaiting this day.  I fell in love with the music of Les Mis right from the beginning, it just gets into your soul. Then I got to see it performed live. That was breathtaking! Since then it has been a favorite of mine.  I can’t get enough of it.  So it only makes sense I would be on pins and needles waiting for the movie version.

      Where to start? The music? The acting? The directing? The brutal honesty? Tom Hooper (The King’s Speech, The Damned United, Longford) directed Les Miserables. He really wanted it to be authentic, the life of the people at that time, the look and feel of the poor. It was not sugar coated.  As I mentioned, I think I am pretty familiar with the story and the images portrayed at that time period.  I have never seen it so ……… brutally honest.  The Lovely Ladies song is a perfect example of that honesty.  It’s kind of hard to watch, and the things Fantine is put through ...... how tragic. Anne Hathaway (The Devil Wears Prada, Ella Enchanted, Bride Wars) plays Fantine. I have heard people talk about her the most, fans doubt that she can play that part. She is amazing! The entire cast did a wonderful job singing.

      When you watch any production of Les Miserables the focus is on the talent of the singers and really hitting those notes, the beauty of the voices. However, the movie is all about the emotion of the songs and what they are saying more than anything else. In the past, when a musical is filmed, the actors would lip-sync to a prerecorded track. Not this time! The actors had to sing live. The orchestra was added in post-production and they had to play to the actors singing, not the other way around.  That was so cool. It gave the actors the freedom to act and add the emotion they were feeling in each scene. And there is a lot of emotion in this movie. The composer Claude-Michel Schonberg and lyricist Alain Boublil even wrote a new song for the movie. It is such a beautiful song called Suddenly and it fits in perfectly. All of the music is slightly different due to the actors choices but I enjoyed it just the same. There is so much passion you can’t help but get lost in it.

      There were some things I missed.  You don’t get to hear Gavroche sing the full version of Little People, just the little reprise parts. The other two songs that are cut are the innkeeper and his wife's songs. They do sing Master of the House but not Beggers at the Feast or Dog Eats Dog. I understand why they cut these songs; time, focus, side characters, however they are a bit of comic relief, without them you don’t get a break. One thing I noticed while sitting in the theater was the absolute silence.  It isn’t very often an entire theater is so engrossed.  The only noise was the laughter during Master of the House and then an applause as the end credits rolled.

      Every single person involved in this movie really gave it their all and wanted to please the fans. You could feel it in every inch of the film. I was wondering why it is such a powerful musical and why it has the impact it does on people. It’s not pleasant; it shows humanity at its worst. I mean it’s called The Miserables, it’s not supposed to be pretty.  I think it’s the message it has. “To love another person is to see the face of God”. It’s the story of a man who hated the world and all the wrong that had happened to him. When he lets God into his life and learns to love others, and forgive, he finds happiness. What an important and timeless message.