Posted on 12/17/2012 9:31:42 AM PST by SeekAndFind
It was ! Fredric March was Valjean and Charles Laughton was awesome as Javert. I missed the third movie - I really wanted to see that one as it was in French with subtitles.
Summed up rather neatly here.
What can one say? Bad cars and bad ideas...
Yes! It was Frederick March. I hesitated to say so, for certainty. Sounds like you also missed the third one that night. I would have liked to wade through that one also! Thx.
BTW! You’re so right! Charles Laughton nearly stole the show! Magnificent chactor acting, a more poignant portrayal of despair for his guilt, the likes of which ever could be portrayed better.
I was just joking-—but can same-sex marriage scenes injected into one or another “updated” classics be too far off?
Think of all the muggings Shakespeare’s plays have taken over the years as a way to make them more ‘relevant’.
It must be subliminal advertising, because I do remember the view of Ann’s “nether regions” made me feel “less miserable”.
Victor Hugo is better known in France as the greatest of French poets.
His poetry is excellent and too many Westerners think his reputation rests on “Les Mis.” It doesn’t.
The article is in error - the later events in Hugo’s novel are a portrait of the July Revolution of 1830 that overthrew the Bourbon monarchy and brought to power Louis-Phillipe - the “Citizen King.” Hugo was originally a conservative and monarchist but the events of the Second Empire under Napoleon III made him a republican and socialist.
What didn’t you like about the stage version? Did you see a bad production? It obviously endures.
I saw the original RSC production at the Barbican Centre in London. It starred Colm Wilkinson & Patti Lupone.
I’m a traditionalist: I simply don’t like English musicals. I like Broadway musical comedies or serious American musicals like Sondheim’s Sweeney Todd.
I don’t think the English standards for musicals are up to snuff. As much as I hate the way Broadway musicals have evolved over the last 20 years, the on-stage talent is still utterly amazing. British talent just can’t compete.
But, if you want to talk about standards in drama, the Brits have it all over us. Again, with exceptions.
You don’t even like “Oliver!”?
Hmmm...an interesting question. What I like about that musical (and I have the original recording) is the great Georgia Brown singing “As Long as He Needs Me.”
I only saw one production of that in London in the 1970s and it was very limp-wristed.
It has as many great songs as any American musical and its’ success here probably paved the way for the popularity of the Beatles. ‘Jesus Christ Superstar’ and Evita work better as concept albums than stage musicals.
West Side Story. Gang warfare, the two male leads die.
Porgy and Bess. About a begger, an abused wife, and drugs.
Showboat. The show-in-show lead performer is outed as 1/32 black, and ostracized.
South Pacific. WWII. Second love interest is killed in action.
Evita. She dies.
Jesus Christ, Superstar. He dies.
Chicago. They're all murderers.
Sweet Charity. An optimistic prostitute?
And on and on.
-PJ
There were some ambiguously shady people at the inn during Master Of The House.
-PJ
Okay, let’s do one on Auschwitz or Treblinka or any German concentration camp. I bet there’s some fun stories there that could be put to music.
Please, sir. May I have some more?
-PJ
Ever hear of The Producers?
-PJ
Musicals are not inherently frivolous. Yes you could do a musical set in the camps if you do it with taste.
On the stage, when Valjean dies he's greeted by Fantine and Eponine.
In the movie, it's just Fantine.
-PJ
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