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Les Miserables
May. 24th, 2019 04:53 pmSo. Having finished the BBC adaptation of Les Miserables, there are a couple of things I want to say right off.
1) Enzo Cilenti should have held out for a bigger part. He's the light of this production and he does nothing. I quite shipped his character with Javert as well, especially toward the end. Very sad.
2) Clearly I was right not to talk too much about it before seeing the whole thing. I've had time to forget a lot of my more minor gripes and to focus on broader issues, and I did think the last episode was really very good. It was kept from being great, imo, by the problems the adaptation had had throughout and by the general "eh" feeling of the ending, but it was good.
3) I've had to ask myself if it is in fact possible to make the end of this story uplifting without the spirits of the dead singing a rousing chorus about freedom, and I just don't know. I've seen the 1934 French version, and 1935 version with Charles Laughton, and 1978 version with Anthony Perkins (it occurs to me that I only ever remember who played Javert), and I don't strongly remember the end of any of them. The end of the 1998 version is memorable only because they made the executive decision to cut it short, and maybe that's fair.
Anyway, uplifting was not achieved, but I say again that the last episode was very good. I also liked a lot of the casting, especially Enzo Cilenti once again, and the genetically improbable Thenardier family. Really good performances all around there. I enjoyed the Waterloo opening as well.
But I do still have complaints. They are as follows:
( Read more... )
TL;DR I love the book, I love the musical, and I liked this adaptation toward the end and maybe overall I judged it too harshly. If you haven't seen it, please don't hesitate on my account.
1) Enzo Cilenti should have held out for a bigger part. He's the light of this production and he does nothing. I quite shipped his character with Javert as well, especially toward the end. Very sad.
2) Clearly I was right not to talk too much about it before seeing the whole thing. I've had time to forget a lot of my more minor gripes and to focus on broader issues, and I did think the last episode was really very good. It was kept from being great, imo, by the problems the adaptation had had throughout and by the general "eh" feeling of the ending, but it was good.
3) I've had to ask myself if it is in fact possible to make the end of this story uplifting without the spirits of the dead singing a rousing chorus about freedom, and I just don't know. I've seen the 1934 French version, and 1935 version with Charles Laughton, and 1978 version with Anthony Perkins (it occurs to me that I only ever remember who played Javert), and I don't strongly remember the end of any of them. The end of the 1998 version is memorable only because they made the executive decision to cut it short, and maybe that's fair.
Anyway, uplifting was not achieved, but I say again that the last episode was very good. I also liked a lot of the casting, especially Enzo Cilenti once again, and the genetically improbable Thenardier family. Really good performances all around there. I enjoyed the Waterloo opening as well.
But I do still have complaints. They are as follows:
( Read more... )
TL;DR I love the book, I love the musical, and I liked this adaptation toward the end and maybe overall I judged it too harshly. If you haven't seen it, please don't hesitate on my account.
