[Mystical123]

Originally Posted by Makson

I see "A Little Drop Of Rain" is missing from the soundtrack
They can't cut out Eponine's death scene

A Little Fall of Rain is in the movie, just not on the 'highlights', which is stupid. Then again, the highlights is missing Do You Hear The People Sing as well, which is one of the best songs in the show in my opinion!

Originally Posted by chrono88

That might explain my first impression that the extras' vocals were much better than the leads'

Well Hugh Jackman's done musical theatre before, as have Aaron Tveit (Enjolras) and Samantha Barks (Eponine). So the leads are basically half theatre-trained and half not.

[tracystapes]

Originally Posted by Mystical123

A Little Fall of Rain is in the movie, just not on the 'highlights', which is stupid. Then again, the highlights is missing Do You Hear The People Sing as well, which is one of the best songs in the show in my opinion!



Well Hugh Jackman's done musical theatre before, as have Aaron Tveit (Enjolras) and Samantha Barks (Eponine). So the leads are basically half theatre-trained and half not.

I have just purchased the 25th anniversary DVD (which Samantha Barks was in) so will give that a watch soon, looking forward to it!

Is Eponine's death actually in 'A little fall of rain' (in the movie, for those who have seen it)? Or after? It seems things have been shifted around (judging by the soundtrack).

[chrono88]

Originally Posted by Mystical123

A Little Fall of Rain is in the movie, just not on the 'highlights', which is stupid. Then again, the highlights is missing Do You Hear The People Sing as well, which is one of the best songs in the show in my opinion!



Well Hugh Jackman's done musical theatre before, as have Aaron Tveit (Enjolras) and Samantha Barks (Eponine). So the leads are basically half theatre-trained and half not.

The leads here I refer to Cosette, Fantine, JV, Javert (and probably Marius). Javert is clearly the weakest. Cosette is okay. Fantine is a bit weak but her emotions(?) make her performance much better. Marius's is a bit surprising to me, his is not that bad at all

[Mystical123]

Originally Posted by tracystapes

I have just purchased the 25th anniversary DVD (which Samantha Barks was in) so will give that a watch soon, looking forward to it!

Is Eponine's death actually in 'A little fall of rain' (in the movie, for those who have seen it)? Or after? It seems things have been shifted around (judging by the soundtrack).

Surely it has to be in A Little Fall of Rain, she dies during the song, it's part of the score and i don't see how the song would work otherwise.

Spoiler

From vwhat I've read, her getting shot on the barricade is much clearer in the movie than it is on stage, and then she dies in Marius' arms

chrono88, you're the first person I've heard call Anne Hathaway weak, but each to their own of course I'm interested to see how IDAD is staged seeing as it sounds so different from the way it's usually belted onstage. I don't think the more raw vocal is a bad thing at all, in fact I'd have been disappointed with a load of perfect, autotuned voices belting out the big songs, as the point of the film is getting to explore emotions and story to an extent that's simply not possible onstage.

[tracystapes]

JTA; Sorry for not spoilering some of my stuff, I thought pretty much of it was common knowledge (especially for fans). No complaints so far though!

I am looking forward to seeing Samantha Barks as Eponine the most.

[jadebutterfly96]

Originally Posted by tracystapes

Well if you're not into musicals then yes probably wait for the DVD but to be fair, I can't really understand (and this is not directed at you btw ) why people are like "The film is so boring! all it was was singing!" (about musical films in general). Well yes, of course it was all singing as it's a musical

I hope Eponine (Samantha Barks) is in it for more than 20 minutes. Everyone is banging on about Anne Hathaway (who I do like) but I feel a lot of others are getting under looked because of this.

Don't worry. Samantha Barks' On My Own was the second time I cried after I Dreamed A Dream. It was the second best moment of the film for me.

[jadebutterfly96]

Originally Posted by chrono88

I saw the film this evening. And I was not sold to their vocal abilities at all (PARTICULARLY Russell Crowe's).




That might explain my first impression that the extras' vocals were much better than the leads'

I'm sorry but people who keep complaining about the vocals of the film obviously STILL don't get the point.

Tom Hooper wanted to showcase more of the acting and the emotions in the film version, and decided to record the vocals live during the filming. He could have opted the easy way out by auto-tune them to death and use studio recordings instead, Chicago style.

Personally I find Hugh's half singing half speaking style in most of his solos to be extremely effective. It showcases Jean's raw emotions that no one on the stage production would ever manage to do.

Bottom line is, This is a movie. I want to see the acting. If I want to be entertained by perfect vocals I'll head to West End.

[SULLA]

Originally Posted by Moonbean

How can they miss out Do You Hear the People Sing??!! It is the most important song in the show, IMO! That's what the whole show is about!

I would say that "One day more" is more pivotal

Originally Posted by Mystical123

W
As for the amount of screentime Eponine gets:

Spoiler

she's not in it much either apparently - all her songs are lumped together as On My Own is moved to straight after A Heart Full of Love and is immediately followed by One Day More, the introduction to On My Own is cut and Eponine doesn't appear beside Fantine in the Finale (though that's a good editorial change in my opinion).

That has really annoyed me

For me, in the musical, the quality of the singing is all important. I don't want to see actors who can sing a bit

[Mystical123]

Originally Posted by SULLA

For me, in the musical, the quality of the singing is all important. I don't want to see actors who can sing a bit

I think that's true for the stage production, less so for the movie. This movie isn't meant to be, and never was intended to be, a perfect replica of the stage show - what would be the point in that? It's a new adaptation, and a lot mroe can be done acting-wise on film than can be done on stage in terms of detailing, so if that's at the expense of big belting singing, then that's fine by me. As long as they're all in tune and the tone of their voices don't grate!

[toogoodfortv]

Cannot wait to see this! So excited - especially for Anne Hathaway - love her ... wish they would hurry up and start the production of the movie about Judy Garland .. Anne Hathaway is signed in to play Judy and at first I was sceptical about her singing Judy's songs but my goodness I'm sure she would do her proud! I love Judy Garland and I'm super excited that Anne is going to play her - I wish they'd just hurry up and start it

[jadebutterfly96]

Originally Posted by Mystical123

I think that's true for the stage production, less so for the movie. This movie isn't meant to be, and never was intended to be, a perfect replica of the stage show - what would be the point in that? It's a new adaptation, and a lot mroe can be done acting-wise on film than can be done on stage in terms of detailing, so if that's at the expense of big belting singing, then that's fine by me. As long as they're all in tune and the tone of their voices don't grate!

Yes I think a lot of the die hard Les Miz musical fans seem to have forgotten that the stage production itself is also based on Hugo's novel.

The movie itself sacrifices the vocals for the acting, which in turn better portrays and in my opinion, closer to Hugo's dark themes in the novel.

Anne's version of I Dreamed A Dream to me is the first time that the song has accurately portrayed Fantine's tragedy and anguish the way Hugo's novel meant it. All the songbirds from the stage version have always sung it with a dash of hope, which was not accurate at all.

[toogoodfortv]

I also think Anne would be an excellent Elphaba if they were ever to produce a movie version of Wicked! .... If she ever decided to do Broadway and played Elphaba - I'd be there in a heartbeat!

[idetached]

Originally Posted by tracystapes

It's out in America and apparently they love it. I am really excited for this film. Not been this excited over a movie in a long while.

Sorry, American's didn't exactly love this movie. It made about 18 million in America opening day and was behind 2 other movies. The complaint appears to be the fact they didn't use actors who could really do justice to singing the songs. It is a musical that was turned into a movie and the songs are an iconic part. Maybe the singing is just a personal preference, but movies here get one maybe 2 weekends to make back their money, if this doesn't do it, doesn't matter how good Anne acted, the movie will be considered a flop.

[toogoodfortv]

Anyone seen this - family went to see it in New York - parents come out crying all the way home in the car ... while the teenagers film them ..

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...sensation.html

[jadebutterfly96]

Originally Posted by idetached

Sorry, American's didn't exactly love this movie. It made about 18 million in America opening day and was behind 2 other movies. The complaint appears to be the fact they didn't use actors who could really do justice to singing the songs. It is a musical that was turned into a movie and the songs are an iconic part. Maybe the singing is just a personal preference, but movies here get one maybe 2 weekends to make back their money, if this doesn't do it, doesn't matter how good Anne acted, the movie will be considered a flop.

That's an absolute lie. Of course The Hobbit would top the box office this week, it was to be expected, but Les Mis topped the box office for 3 days in a row since its release on Christmas Day and has already made its money back.

Your $18m quoted was from the opening day, which by the way broke Xmas Day biggest opening record.

Cost $61m.

Gross $67m in its first 6 days (excluding international).


Source:
http://edition.cnn.com/2012/12/31/sh...-ew/index.html

[chrono88]

Originally Posted by jadebutterfly96

I'm sorry but people who keep complaining about the vocals of the film obviously STILL don't get the point.

Tom Hooper wanted to showcase more of the acting and the emotions in the film version, and decided to record the vocals live during the filming. He could have opted the easy way out by auto-tune them to death and use studio recordings instead, Chicago style.

Personally I find Hugh's half singing half speaking style in most of his solos to be extremely effective. It showcases Jean's raw emotions that no one on the stage production would ever manage to do.

Bottom line is, This is a movie. I want to see the acting. If I want to be entertained by perfect vocals I'll head to West End.

I don't see why acting and vocal abilities cannot co-exist in this film.

[jadebutterfly96]

Originally Posted by chrono88

I don't see why acting and vocal abilities cannot co-exist in this film.

I didn't say both cannot co-exist but because the director wanted to record live vocals rather than using studio recording, and wanted to focus on filming close up shots to capture the raw emotions, I think it will be near impossible to achieve vocal perfection under such circumstances.

[tracystapes]

'The Making of Les Miserables' is on ITV1 at 4.50pm today

[Aerick]

Originally Posted by idetached

Sorry, American's didn't exactly love this movie. It made about 18 million in America opening day and was behind 2 other movies. The complaint appears to be the fact they didn't use actors who could really do justice to singing the songs. It is a musical that was turned into a movie and the songs are an iconic part. Maybe the singing is just a personal preference, but movies here get one maybe 2 weekends to make back their money, if this doesn't do it, doesn't matter how good Anne acted, the movie will be considered a flop.

theaters have been packing them in! Just saw it today and loved it.

My only petite gripe, is Helena Bonham Carter, now I've enjoyed her for years going back to A Room with a View. but I kept expecting to see Johnny Depp appear appear somewhere, and I swear some parts with she and SBC seemed almost too Sweeney Todd'ish to me (why I surmise I was looking for Depp).

Never saw the stage version so really had nothing to compare it to. I didnt think Russell Crowe's singing was 'so' bad, it wasn't great, but he got his point across,

[Mystical123]

Originally Posted by chrono88

I don't see why acting and vocal abilities cannot co-exist in this film.

They can, but vocals doesn't just mean big stage vocals belting to the back of a theatre. There are a couple of interviews with Samantha Barks where she talks about how different it is singing on camera to singing on stage and how much more subtle and detailed you can be. I'll try and find them, but they're on Youtube somewhere and I think they explain perfectly why anyone who's going in to see this expecting that it'll sound like the stage show is setting themselves up for a fall. It's not supposed to sound the same, the stage show is only one half of the source material for this movie.

Originally Posted by idetached

Sorry, American's didn't exactly love this movie. It made about 18 million in America opening day and was behind 2 other movies. The complaint appears to be the fact they didn't use actors who could really do justice to singing the songs. It is a musical that was turned into a movie and the songs are an iconic part. Maybe the singing is just a personal preference, but movies here get one maybe 2 weekends to make back their money, if this doesn't do it, doesn't matter how good Anne acted, the movie will be considered a flop.

It's already recouped its not inconsiderable budget, it's not a flop.

And you're quoting selective stastics and ignoring the fact that it opened on Christmas Day and was up against the Hobbit, which is such a publicity machine that it was always going to beat whatever else opened in the same month as it.

"The complaint" is not a complaint voiced by everyone, I've read plenty of reviews that have praised Hathaway, Barks, Redmayne, Tveit and some that have also praised Jackman Seyfried, HBC and SBC. The most common problems people have had with it appear to be Crowe and the close-up camera work, but don't generalise that into a broad statement that America didn't love the movie, because plenty of people have and there have been lots of reports of packed cinemas.

It's not a musical turned into a movie, it's a movie based on Victor Hugo's novel Les Miserables which incorporates the score to the stage production that is itself based on the novel. Just like Chicago, Mamma Mia etc it's not a carbon copy of the stage show and was never going to be.

[tracystapes]

Don't forget the 'Making of' today on itv1 guys

[Suze]

I'm a huge fan of Les Miserables, have read the book 4 times (once in french!), seen most film adaptations, have every soundtrack recorded (including the french concept album), both Les MIs anniversary DVDs and have seen it on stage over 20 times.

All of that to say - I'm a Les Mis geek.

I was taken to see the film last week (I was visiting my family in Canada) and loved it. Yes, it's different from the stage version - but like others have said that is what makes it interesting.

I really thought that recording the singing live worked - it really allowed the actors to act the songs. Overall I didn't think the vocals suffered for that and I was impressed with the quality of singing. Russell Crowe was probably the weakest singer - but he wasn't bad - just not quite a West End vocalist. Javert is one of my favourite characters in the musical though - so he was being compared to some pretty amazing voices in my mind! The people who came with me (who are not Les Mis geeks) thought he was really good.

I found the close ups a bit overwhelming at times, but the film moved me and I cried more than once (but not for half of it as my niece claims!!!).

I've already booked my ticket to see it again when it opens here on the 11th!! Can't wait.

(Yes, my geek-ness does embarrass me a bit - but we all have our weaknesses. )

[Suze]

Originally Posted by tracystapes

Don't forget the 'Making of' today on itv1 guys

Watched the Making Of. A pleasant hour but wished there had been more backstage stuff. The interviews were interesting - nice to see the cast were fans of the musical before the filming started.

[ImOnlyWee]

Originally Posted by grimtales1

I've only seen a small clip of her singing, Moon River in a Simpsons episode, it was lovely I wish she'd release a full version of that

Would love to see that!! She's unbelievably talented! This is one of my faves...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WNZ8uaw_dDE

and people say she can't sing...

[Kolin Klingon]

Oh that special pissed me right off!

I was trying to show my brother the power and beauty of Les Mis and all we got was no more then two words and then CUT!

How could anyone who is not already besotted with it (myself included) be inspired to watch it after that?

It was frustrating!