Two weeks to go...

There's just about two weeks to go now here in England untill Les Miserables comes out, if you live in America though you might have already seen it since it came out Christmas Day (Seriously, how lonely do you have to be to go to the cinema on Christmas!)

Anyway, remember back in May when i started this blog? I mentioned an Internet reviewer named The Nostalgia Chick who started my obsession with this whole thing when i watched one of her reviews of the musical, here's the link if you cant remember... Why-les-mis

I mention this because i knew from the second i heard there was gonna be a movie version of the musical that she would do a review of it, and she didn't let me down!!

Click this link for the video For some reason blogger wont let you embed videos!

Actually i don't think she's really reviewing the movie, it's more just her opinion of it. I'll reserve my thoughts for when i actually see it but from what I've seen of it already i agree with everything she says. Really if you want to know the Nostalgia chicks thoughts of Les Mis you should watch her review of the stage musical.

One month to go!

OK so there's now just one month to go until the release of Les Miserables here in England.

I'm trying to contain my excitement but OH MY GOD I'M SO FUCKING EXCITED ABOUT THIS MOVIE!!!!!!

I found two more little trailers on youtube

I'm not sure about some of the reviews of it though, is joyous the right word to use about Les Miserables?

You know i may have lost track of what this blog was supposed to be about, it was supposed to be about the book! It's turned into just me squeeing about the movie now, OH WHAT HAS BECOME OF ME!

Behind the scenes stuff

You're in luck gentle readers, I'm in a sharing mood of late and there's been clips galore on youtube, I've found some behind the scenes stuff for you to take a look at today.

Personally i'm not a big fan of behind the scenes stuff, especially when i haven't seen the movie yet, I'd prefer to wait for the DVD release for that kind of stuff but have a look if you want to.

#1 Costumes

#2 Hair and Make Up

#3 Production Design

#4 New Song

This one i was actually glad to see, i think it's lovely. I can tell already I'm gonna be a weepy mess by the end of this film, also i agree with everything they say in this clip, this was something that was missing from the stage musical and it deals with my favourite part of the novel too.

More trailers!

There's just over a month to go here in England until Les Miserables comes out AAAAAAGGGGGGGGHHHHHH I CANT WAIT ANYMORE! LET ME SEE IT NOW!!!

Sorry about that, let me regain my composure.............................................

OK I'm back and I've spotted two more little trailers on youtube, take a look!

I really hate American trailers, they make everything sound overly dramatic. Also that first one sounds like the narrator doesn't even know the story, Valjean wasn't innocent, he stole, kept trying to escape from prison and broke his parole, i know he's the good guy in the whole thing be he wasn't exactly innocent!

That doesn't matter though because I'm super excited about the movie again!!!!! YAY!

Clips Ahoy!!

Fucking hell! It's clips-a-plenty today!

I've found five new clips from the Les Miserables movie on youtube, enjoy!!!

#1 A Heart Full Of Love

#2 Who Am I

#3 On My Own

 

#4 Javert And Valjean

#5 At The End Of The Day

I'll be honest, looking at all these clips I'm a little bit let down. Somehow i thought everything would be bigger, maybe it's because I've only seen Les Mis done on a huge scale so far with really awesome singers and everyone belting out the songs but everything seems a bit subdued in this movie. I don't really know what i was expecting, but this is a little disappointing. I'm still really looking forward to seeing it, but maybe it wont be as awesome as i thought.

I've been picking on Amanda Seyfrieds singing abilities a lot lately but actually i think the weak link here is gonna turn out to be Russell Crowe. I'm not entirely sure why he was cast, he's not exactly known for his singing abilities is he? This same problem came up with the Mamma Mia movie actually there were loads of actors there who really couldn't sing, I know that Hollywood needs big names sometimes to sell a movie but when you're casting a musical why go for people who clearly cant sing?

A short piece on my favorite part of Les Miserables

You know one of the worst things about my life is that i have a lot of time to think, sometimes thinking too much is bad, especially for me. I suppose it really depends on what you think about, I don't really spend my time thinking about intelligent things or really anything of importance. Sometimes the constant thinking makes my life a living hell, because I'll be honest with you the things i think about are sometimes quite disturbing.

That's why i try to fill my life with little projects, like for instance reading a massive book like Les Miserables and then blogging about it, it stops me from thinking about things too much.

Why do i bring this up? Well i was thinking about something in Les Miserables, the relationship between Valjean and Cosette, specifically when Cosette was a child, i really love their relationship with each other, i think it's really sweet, yeah i know that when i wrote about it in pages 385-398 I said that i thought it was a bit creepy but honestly i was lieing, sometimes i cover things up with jokes to hide how i really feel.

I was trying to figure out why i like their relationship so much and i worked it out recently, (I'm about to get kind of deep and emotional here so if you don't like that kind of stuff you have my permission to stop reading)
I never had the best relationship with my dad when i was a kid, i still don't actually, in fact we don't even have any contact with each other anymore, he was pretty much uninterested in anything i did and i cant remember any times when i felt any kind of connection with him, i cant even remember any lengthy conversations i ever had with him either, so the whole good father figure is something i was really drawn to in the book.

But it actually goes deeper than that.........

I spent a lot of time alone when i was young, more than was healthy i think, not by choice either I'll add, both my parents were pretty lame actually, anyway recently i saw something online that made me remember something that happened to me when i was a kid, something not very nice, i wont go into it in any detail because it's not something i want to share with the world but one of my overwhelming memories of this particular incident is that i was cold and scared and alone, and i couldn't tell anyone what i was scared of, I've still never told anyone what happened and i probably never will.

So when i read in Les Miserables how Valjean rescued Cosette from a horrible life and loved her and made he feel good again and was a good father to her it sort of tapped into this feeling that i have about my own childhood experiences, basically it makes me think about stuff like: Why didn't i ever have someone rescue me? Why didn't anyone ever tell me that i didn't have to be scared? Why didn't i ever have an adult protect me when i was a little kid?

So i think that protectiveness that Valjean has with Cosette is the reason i love that particular aspect of the book so much, I don't think I've ever gotten over what happened to me.

I didn't really need to bring this up, i didn't really need to write this in my blog but you know what, i wanted to. Sometimes writing about stuff is good and like i said I've never really talked about my childhood in any length and this is my blog so i can do what i want!!!! Even though i joked about it and said that Valjean was creepy i actually thought that part of the book was really sweet, it was my favourite part of the whole book, i think it definitely tapped into something I'd forgotten about my childhood.

Oh by the way........UNICORNS!!!!

More movie talk

Yeah i know I'm going a little bit mad with posting videos at the moment but I've seen another short trailer for the new Les Miserables movie and i wanted to share it.

I think the little girl playing Cosette looks adorable, i want to smoosh her little face! (That's nothing sinister by the way, i just mean she has a cute face!)

You might have noticed I'm really looking forward to seeing this film, I'm really glad i read the book this past year, i picked a really good time to get into the whole thing i think. I'll be honest, the book and this movie have been the only things that kept me going this year, If you don't mind me saying, (anyone who's reading this, i know i don't have a big audience) I was a little bit suicidal this year, i honestly don't know what i would have done without Les Miserables.
It's strange to think that a book that's mostly pretty fucking grim might have actually saved someones life.

It's always good to have something to look forward to you know, the only thing I'm worried about though is that once I've seen the film i wont have anything else to look forward to, a film is only new once, you can only experience something new the first time you see it, sure you might have that same excitement the second time and the third time if you're really enthusiastic but eventually it dies down and that sucks.

Sometimes i think it's better to just look forward to something, that way you can never lose that initial excitement.

New trailer!

There's a new trailer out for the Les Miserables movie!

Excuse me for a moment please whilst i scream like a fangirl.

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
GGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG
HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

Woo! I haven't screamed like that since i was 14 and i saw B*witched in concert!

I'm so excited for this movie, it looks like it's gonna be amazing to see, i cannot wait!
Although I'm still not convinced by Amanda Seyfried, i just don't think she has the right voice for this musical, Sorry Amanda, you were great in Mamma Mia!, but i'm not sure if you're right for this musical. But hey, i really dont know anything.

Oh by the way, had anyone else noticed that this movie stars both Wolverine (Hugh Jackman) and Catwoman (Anne Hathaway)? I'm not that big into superheroes myself but i will admit that that is a crossover i would like to see!

I dreamed a dream in time gone by...

Yeah sorry i couldn't think of a title for this post so i just went with a lyric from the musical.

ANYWAY!!!

I'm super psyched this morning because i woke up and found this on youtube, it's a new look at the movie version of Les Miserables coming out this Christmas/January.

This just looks better and better every time i see more about it, I heard that there's a new song been written for the movie with Valjean and Cosette, i cant wait to see that! I'll admit though I'm still not sold on the casting of Amanda Seyfried as Cosette, why is it that in Hollywood the female hero has to be a blond? Cosette isn't blond! Also i don't think Amanda Seyfried is that great a singer, but i am willing to be convinced otherwise, i have been wrong in the past.

Can it be January yet? I'm so excited about this movie. I haven't been this excited about a movie coming out since......i dunno, maybe ever!

The Last Day Of A Condemned Man/Claude Gueux

Ugggghhh.... before i begin i want to point out that Victor Hugo's idea of a short story is surprisingly long >:( Fuck You Victor Hugo!

The Last Day Of A Condemned Man

OK so there’s this guy who we never find out the name of (Fuck it I’m gonna call him Mike) or what his actual crime was but he’s been condemned to die for his crime so I’m gonna assume it was murder because to my knowledge you don’t usually get the death penalty for things like theft, Mike is a calm guy who takes his punishment well, he lives out six weeks in prison gets to see his daughter one last time and then gets the guillotine.

That’s it, try to imagine that stretched over 100 pages >:(

I wasn’t particularly enamoured by this first story, it was kind of boring. One of the problems I had was the fact that we never know anything about this guy in this story, and maybe that was done for some kind of effect, maybe there’s some fancy writing term that authors use to tell a story without any detail but if I don’t know someone’s name or what they’ve done why should I care about them? Compared to Les Mis where we know what crime Jean Valjean committed and why he did it it just pales in comparison, you cant just give an audience a character but then tell us nothing about him, it doesn't work! That was my major problem with the story. Also Mike is completely blank, there’s nothing to him, he has no conflict, he has no personality he is a completely dull blank slate and that’s a crap character to have in a story. 

The only time I actually agreed with Mike or felt anything towards him was when his lawyer told him he might get away with hard labour for life instead of death, but Mike decided he would rather have death, that I agree with. Fuck hard labour for life, I would choose death.

I wasn’t even moved at all when he saw his daughter for the last time, maybe it was because of the crapiness of Mike character or maybe it was just badly written but I just did not care. I really thought I would like this story but honestly I didn’t, it was boring, the character was boring, it wasn’t written that great anyway, I would say don’t read it if you don’t have too. Victor Hugo has other great stuff you can read instead.

Claude Gueux

Honestly I preferred this one to TLDOACM (Fucking hell even shortening Victor Hugo takes forever!).

Basically there’s this guy named Claude and his family is poor so one day he steals some bread and gets arrested for it and sent to prison (it’s always bread with you isn’t it Hugo, try another foodstuff sometime why don’t you). He gets sent away for five years and being that he’s a big guy he struggles with the crappy rations prisoners get and one day this other prisoner named Albin shares his food with him and they grow to be friends, (or maybe even more than friends, it was a little homo erotic if you ask me) Anyway the guards don’t like this and so Albin gets separated from Claude which makes Claude more miserable so one day he snaps and kills the guard and gets the death sentence and is sent to the guillotine where he dies.

I think i liked this story better because it's sort of based on a true story, from what I read on Wikipedia this short story is one of the first “true crime” stories ever written, and I love true crime, most of the books I own are true crime books so yeah I was more drawn to this one than TLDOACM. It still wasn’t as good as Les Miserables though.

I can definitely see how this story would have led to Les Mis being written, there are some definite similarities in the characters, Claude definitely reminds me of Jean Valjean and the mean prison guard is clearly supposed to be like Javert. And of course let’s not overlook the whole “poor people are shit upon by the government and always will be” theme that seemed to run throughout the whole story which was prevalent in Les Mis too.

Actually Victor Hugo goes on a huge rant about that at the end of the story, why didn’t he just write an essay on that if he wanted to get his point across, why did he stick it on the end of the story? Basically he’s just ranting to the government about how if you treat people like shit then that’s what you will get, and that more needs to be done to change the world for the better, if you keep the poor uneducated and treat them like crap then of course you are gonna end up with criminals, because what other choice do they have? If you can get a copy of this story then it’s worth reading just for the ending rant.

I did like that more than the story though, it really made a lot of sense to me, this was written over 100 years ago and yet nothing has really changed in terms of the rich/poor divide and how the government treats us. It’s sad to think that even though Victor Hugo tried to change things and for all his efforts nothing is any better than it was in 1834, unfortunately it doesn’t matter what anyone says, writes or actually physically does the truth is that no matter where you go anywhere on the planet no government will ever care about the poor. I seriously doubt that’s ever gonna change and I bet Victor Hugo would have been very disappointed.

You know what I haven’t really thought about until right now? I find it hilariously ironic that Victor Hugo wrote all these great works about the poor and criminals and justice and social class and yet his most famous book was turned into a fucking musical, an art form which I believe is still dominated by the middle class.  Think about it, theatre is still for the rich, movies are for the rest, I’m 26 and I’ve never actually seen a proper musical on stage, only movie versions. I’m not really sure if what I’m trying to say here is getting across properly but my point is that Victor Hugo may have tried to speak for the poor but his works have been taken over by the better off. I don’t claim to try and speak for anyone else but I’m not sure if that was Victor Hugo’s intention in the long run.

Although I don’t think he did himself any favours by making his stuff so hard to read.

Anyway that’s what I thought of The last day of a condemned man and Claude Gueux, I tried to make myself coherent but I’m not sure if I came across all that clear……..you know what, If you don’t like it then read the books yourself, why are you looking at me to explain this stuff to you, I don’t have any answers for you! I'm just a 26 year old idiot who saw a musical and thought it would be a good idea to read the book, just because my opinion is on the Internet doesn't mean i know any more than the next person. I don’t know anything! Leave me alone!!!

Sigh…..I think I’ve exhausted myself on Victor Hugo’s works now, the next great novel I’m gonna read is The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas.

Victor Hugo Part Three

So i failed at reading Notre Dame De Paris, but I'm not done yet! Here's part three of my journey through the works of Victor Hugo, "The Last Day Of A Condemned Man and Claude Gueux" These are two short stories in one book and i read the outlines on Wikipedia and they sounded really good, this was the only copy of Claude Gueux i could find in English by the way so I'm glad i got it. I swear i will read them this weekend.

I'm not sure how to pronounce the name of that second story by the way, right now I'm just calling it "Claude Guh"

This post has no title

Remember that review of the Les Miserables musical i saw that made me want to read the book? This one!

Well there are other reviewers on that site as well and this weekend one of them has decided to review the disney version of The Hunchback Of Notre Dame.

This reviewers a bit different to the Nostalgia Chick but you should still give him a go if you're into musical movies. I'm mentioning it here because i pretty much agree with everything he says about the film, i cant stand americanised bastardised versions of great literature!

Yeah ok i'll admit i dont intend on finishing Notre-Dame de Paris, and i dont intend on ever watching this film, but i know enough about both of them to know that the film has seriously fucked over the original source matierial!!

I really hate Disney movies, why would anyone ever think that they could take a novel like Notre Dame and make it kid friendly?

More book talk

You know when i started this blog i neglected to say which version of the book i was using to form the blog, i probably should have actually because i was going by page numbers instead of chapters so if anyone wanted to read along i should have said which version of the book i was using, (Sorry about that!)

Anyway, this is the copy i used, it's the penguin classics version first published in 1982.

I'm pointing this out because when i recently bought a copy of Notre-Dame de Paris i also picked up a new translation of Les Miserables whilst i was at it, for no real reason it's the exact same book just with a few different changes in the text. it's kind of like buying a new DVD just for a directors cut of a film.

Anyway this was the new copy i bought, the vintage classics version published in 2009.

I haven't re-read the entire book by the way, Christ I'm not going through that again! I just wanted to read my favourite parts in a different translation. There's nothing really that different between the two books but i did prefer the Penguin version i read. I really thought that the Vintage classic was more simplified, when i was reading the Penguin version it felt like a proper grown up book, when i was reading i sometimes had to figure out what was going on in my own mind and i really had to think about what was going on, i liked that, i liked that it made me think really hard about what was happening, in the second version i really didn't have to think that much because it all felt too simple.

Not that there's anything wrong with simplicity, all I'm saying is that i thought the penguin classics version was a better version of the book, that's the one i would recommend to people if i was gonna tell them to read the book.

Also that version doesn't use Cosette's picture on the cover! See there are actually other characters in the book!

Notre-Dame de Paris

I made a start on Notre-Dame de Paris this afternoon and after reading the first 30 pages or so i can say without any doubt..............that i will not be blogging about this book.

Sorry but i can already tell that it's going to be boring, i knew before i started that i wasn't going to like this book as much as Les Miserables, i think it's because when i was reading Les Mis i already knew the basic story because I'd already seen and liked the musical, I'm going into Notre Dame pretty much blind, yeah i know the basics of the story from what I've seen of film adaptations over the years but to be honest the story never really appealed to me. I liked the musical of Les Miserables so i knew i was going to like the book, perhaps if there was a good musical version of Notre-Dame de Paris out there i might be more open to liking the book.

But i know there isn't, oh well!

So there will be no hilarious commentary from me about this book, sorry to let you down folks but this is something i just cannot do!

New Book!

So i bought a copy of Victor Hugo's other great novel this week....

I also bought a new translation of Les Miserables, just for fun! (Wow i never thought i would find reading fun!) I don't know if I'll like this book as much as Les Mis though, i don't really think the plot will appeal to me as much as as the other book, I'll give it a go though. Maybe I'll even blog about it here, it's called Fuck you Victor Hugo so it's not like I'm only allowed to talk about Les Mis.


I'd heard of the book Notre Dame De Paris before but until i read Les Miserables i had no idea that Victor Hugo had written it. It's as if Les Miserables was so epic that any other works he did were eclipsed by it.

In fact it's as if Les Miserables is the American Pie of novels.

Let me explain what i mean by that in case you're confused.

Once when i was a kid i heard the song American Pie somewhere and i liked it so i asked my mother who wrote it, she told me it was written by Don McLean then she went on to explain how he was this guy who wrote one really amazing song that everyones heard of and he also wrote a bunch of other songs that no one remembers. And really American Pie is a fucking epic song, the full uncut version is 8:33 minutes long which is pretty long for a song, and every verse is so great and the whole song is so awesome and perfect.


Which is why i like to compare it to Les Miserables, everyones heard of Les Mis! it's the perfect novel, it's so epic and grand and completely perfect, why would Victor Hugo even need to write another novel after something as amazing as that? It's the same with Don McLean, why even write another song after American Pie? It's a perfect song!

That's why i think Les Miserables is the American Pie of novels, actually since Les Mis came first i should say that American Pie is the Les Miserables of songs.
I know it's an odd comparison and doesn't really have anything to do with the rest of the blog, but i just wanted to mention it because i think it's kinda cool.

Book Vs. Musical

 

(God i'm so sick of seeing Cosette's face in everything to do with Les Mis, why dont they ever use any other character!)

Earlier in this blog I said that I thought the musical version of Les Miserables was a bad adaptation of the book, and I still think that’s true, so I wanted to do a post comparing both of them. It’s actually quite difficult now I think about it to compare the two because they’re both two completely different things, but you should always try to back up your opinions and since I have nothing else to do and since I want to keep this blog alive I thought It might be a good idea to compare them both to see if either one is better than the other. (Yes I know I said that I was done with Les Miserables but goddammit I keep getting pulled back in!)

Book

 

Good: The biggest positive thing about the book for me is the detail and the character development, I don’t mean the endless backstory either I mean the characters themselves. For instance the relationship between Valjean and Cosette is done much better in the book, in the musical it just cuts straight from Cosette being rescued from the Thenardiers to ten years later and I think that sucks because a good chunk of story is lost. Now I think about it, I barely know anything about either of them in the musical, Valjean is a little bit more fleshed out but Cosette’s development is terrible.  Even though the book does portray her as an unquestioning dumbass I still appreciated the details about her life that the musical skipped.

It’s not just Valjean and Cosette who are better portrayed in the book either the student characters are a lot more detailed too, I actually got a real sense of what they were fighting for in the book and it really made me feel a lot more sympathetic to the groups of lads than I felt in the musical. And Even though I prefer Cosette in the novel I still think Eponine is one of the better characters in the book. And Fantine too, she was much better explained in the book, the book told you about her background about how she got pregnant and about how much she suffered in her life, it made me care about her more than in the musical because I barely knew anything about her there.

Bad: If you’ve read this blog carefully you’ll already know what I think is bad about this book, there’s so much pointless backstory and there’s so many detours from the plot it actually gets hard to read at some points. But that’s really the only bad parts about it; the rest of the book is awesome. Actually I tell a lie, there are some other bad things about the book, Marius is a terrible character! There was barely anything about him that I liked; he was just such a twat! And what did happen to Mrs Thenardier? I know she wasn’t the most pleasant person in the world but jeez she deserved to have her death explained at least! And don’t even get me started on some of the ridiculous scenes that this book had, I’m looking at you coffin scene! I haven’t forgotten about you you know!!

Musical

Good: Obviously one of the best things about the musical is the songs; the songs are pretty damn awesome! I’ve got the soundtrack on my mp3 player at the moment and sometimes I absentmindedly find myself singing along to the songs when I’m out and about. (Take my advice, no matter how bored you are don’t ever start singing “Lovely Ladies” on a bus full of people, you will be stared at). They are the best thing about the whole show though; “One Day More” has got to be my favourite song in the whole thing, maybe even my favourite out of all the musicals I’ve ever seen. Also the musical cuts out all that endless backstory that slows down the book so much, it flows a lot better as a show than it does as a book. Marius is even a better character in the musical, I don’t want to say I like him more in the musical, because I don’t, I just think he comes off as less of a twat. The relationship between him and Eponine is handled a lot better in the musical than the book, it worked for me better seeing the two of them as friends than having Marius completely ignore her. I actually prefer Eponine over Cosette in the musical, mostly because she has better songs, sorry but I can’t stand all that young lovers crap! The Thenardiers are better characters in the musical too….well actually I shouldn’t say they’re better, I think I just I hate them less in the musical because their songs are so damn good.

Bad: The biggest thing wrong with the musical for me was the complete lack of character development; if the book is better for having lots of development then the musical equally suffers from lack of it, especially when it comes to Marius and Cosette. Seriously they immediately fall in love with each other and start singing about how they’ll never be apart despite the fact that in the musical they’re only known each other for a day….A DAY! A FUCKING DAY! Love doesn’t work that way guys!! It really is a little bit stupid when you think about it. It’s the same with Valjean and Marius as well, the relationship between the two is really badly done, Valjean meets Marius and he immediately loves him like a son but the two of them haven’t even had a conversation with each other. In the musical everything seems to happen so fast and I don’t like that aspect of it. Really that’s the only thing it suffers from though, it’s probably the best musical I’ve ever seen and definitely the one I like the most.

I’m kinda glad I saw the musical before I read the book, because if I read the book first and then seen how many changes the musical made to the story I don’t know if I’d have liked it as much as I do. Don’t get me wrong I think the musical is awesome, but when I originally saw the Nostalgia chicks review of the musical (which is what made me want to read the book in the first place) she said that the musical was a close adaptation of the book, and I think she’s wrong! There’s far too much that’s changed about most of the characters and the entire story is too rushed, I think it only has a minute resemblance to the book. But that doesn’t make the musical bad, it’s not bad! It’s awesome!

I was right in the beginning of this blog when I said it’s hard to compare the two things, it really is! They’re both completely different things, it’s like comparing apples to oranges, it’s impossible to say which one is better because they’re both great in their own ways.

If I had to advise people on which to view first I would say see the musical first and then read the book.

Now I think about it I haven’t really compared the two in this post have I? I’ve just said what was good and bad about the both of them, that’s not really comparing is it? Hmmmmm, never mind it’s my blog I can be stupid if I want to be!

In my opinion I know which is the better one, it’s the book. The book totally wins over the musical in terms of story, character development and style. Really I could have just saved a lot of time and had one sentence in this post to sum up the entire thing, when it comes down to Book vs. Musical…..the book wins!

HOORAY FOR BOOKS!

Les Movies!

During this whole exciting tour of duty I got wondering if there were any good film adaptations of Les Miserables out there. Out of the literally dozens of versions there have been over the years I managed to get my hands on 4 different films, two French, one British and one American from 1958, 1978, 1998 and 2000 all with a combined runtime of nearly 15 hours.

I have literally been consumed by Les Miserables this past month; I’ve had it coming out of my ears! Here’s what I thought of the four movies, now let me move on to another project! (I’m not including the stage musical by the way, it’s not a movie and it sucks as an adaptation anyway!)

This was the oldest version I could find, it’s from 1958 and runs at 3 hours and 41 minutes (and if you think that’s long, you aint seen nothing yet!). This version was in French which I thought was cool but unfortunately the version I saw was dubbed in English which wasn’t bad it’s just that I prefer subtitles to dubbing in foreign films.  It had everything from the book in it though, and I mean everything! Like it included Marius’s backstory and also included the fact that Gavroche is one of the Thenardiers, two things that are left out of the other versions I saw.

Obviously things were shortened down quite a bit but this was a damn near perfect adaptation in my opinion. Although I don’t know if it was because it’s from the 50’s or it was because of the dubbing but I felt that some of the acting was kinda flat, It didn’t get me very hyped up at what was happening and that kinda sucked. I thought the guy playing Jean Valjean was pretty good though.

I can’t really say much more about this version because it came out way before my time and has no one in it that I know of, (I find it easier to judge films if I’m familiar with the actors) but it’s old, and old films are cool! I probably wouldn’t watch this version again though, it’s kinda long and it does drag at some points.

 This version is a British TV movie from 1978 and runs at 2 hours and 30 minutes. This one starred Anthony Perkins as Javert which I thought was so cool! It’s the guy from ‘Psycho’, awesome! The rest of the movie was only OK though, nothing to get really excited about, I thought the guy playing Valjean did a good job especially with some of the emotional stuff, but most of the other characters were played fairly bland, especially Cosette.

There was a lot left out of this version, for instance it only had one scene with the Thenardiers and no Eponine at all, you can’t leave out Eponine, she’s important! And by leaving out the Thenardiers you take a lot of the tension out of the story, Plus if you take out the Thenardiers you have to shoe horn in another way of getting Marius and Cosette together and then the story just drifts too far from the book, and that didn’t work for me.

It did have a bunch of stuff that the other versions left out though, like this one had scenes of Valjean before he went to jail and it showed his sister and her family, plus this version is the only one I’ve seen that had that STUPID coffin scene in it that pissed me off so much from the book, and I still thought it was bullshit!

Also weirdly this version went for a happy ending, it didn’t end with Valjean dying it ended with the wedding of Marius and Cosette and everyone was happy. Ummmm no, you can’t end it like that, it’s called Les Miserables, you can’t end it with everyone being happy!

This version is Americas attempt at the book; it’s from 1998 and runs at 2 hours and 14 minutes. It stars Liam Neeson, Geoffrey Rush and Claire Danes as Valjean, Javert and Cosette.

This one was probably the one I liked most out of all four and yet this one was the one that had the least to do with the book, like the ’78 version this one left tons out, minimal Thenardiers again and no Eponine, seriously why does everyone hate Eponine? Also this version seemed to combine most of the student characters into the character of Marius which didn’t really fit with the Marius from the book, although I did like this Marius more than the book version. Still it took away all the passion from the other students by making it focused on just the one guy instead of the entire group of lads and I didn’t like that.

This one also went for a happy ending again like the ’78 film, well actually now I think about it it wasn’t happy or sad, it just sort of ended. Lots of things were left unanswered in this version.

I think I liked this one the most because it actually made Cosette into a proper character instead of just portraying her as a lovesick puppy. This Cosette did something that no other Cosette does, SHE ASKED QUESTIONS! She actually seemed more like a strong confident woman instead of this dumbass that went blindly along with everything that was going on around her, she actually demanded answers from Valjean and I really liked that.

I felt this version was more about the relationship between Valjean, Cosette and Marius than being about Les Miserables as a whole; it didn’t make it a bad film though it just made it a bad adaptation of the book. As a film on it’s own it works OK, It's entertaining enough, it’s something I would probably watch again, but as an adaptation of Les Miserables i think it fails.

This version is another French production, it’s a mini-series from 2000 and stars Gerard Depardieu and John Malkovich as Valjean and Javert and it runs for 6 hours in total, 6 fucking hours!!! I don’t think this was intended to be watched in one go but I did anyway (Yes I really have nothing better to do)

This version was epic! It had everything; it was in French which gave it added awesomeness, it had the majority of characters from the book included and for an adaptation of the book very little was left out. In fact I think it added more stuff than it took away. Why would you even need to add anything to Les Miserables, it’s big enough as it is! Still this version seemed to pull it off.

Every character in this version was done perfectly, the Thenardiers were exactly like the nasty scum they are in the book and even so I still was able to feel a bit of sympathy for them, Eponine was the best I’ve seen her in any adaptation, this one was properly dark and devious, plus she got to interact with Cosette a few times which I thought was lacking in the book. Javert was brilliant too, so cold and unfeeling, even Marius came off as less of a twat as in other versions.

If I had to point out some bad things about this version I’d have to say that firstly I wasn’t entirely comfortable with the relationship between Valjean and Cosette, there were a few scenes where it was bordering on creepy again, secondly there's something about Gerard Depardieu that creeps me out, not just in this film, just him in general, i don't know why. And finally at 6 hours this version is kind of long to be properly enjoyable, but if you’re looking for sheer epicness then this is the version you should definitely see if you get the chance.

 

There doesn’t seem to be a happy medium when it comes to adapting Les Miserables, they’re either gonna be long as fuck or there’s gonna be too much stuff that’s left out. Maybe there is just no good way to adapt a novel that is longer than time itself onto screen, maybe people should just stop trying!

So which version had the best characters? Which adaptation did I think was the best overall? Here are the ones I thought deserved to win.

• Best Adaptation: Even though I liked the ’98 version more than the others, in terms of adapting the book this has to go to the ’00 version. The sheer epicness of it helps make it one of the better versions. It’s modern so the acting is well done and its French which gives it added authenticness and almost nothing is left out in the entire 6 hour run. It’s definitely one of the best adaptations I’ve seen.
• Best Valjean: I think I’m going to give this to the ’58 Valjean, not really because of the character but mostly because he looked like what I imagined Valjean in the book to look like. All of the Valjeans in the films were pretty good but I think I liked the ’58 one most of all.
• Best Javert: I’m gonna give this to the ’78 version purely because he was played by Anthony Perkins, the ’98 and ’00 ones were fairly cool too but I’m gonna just be totally biased and give it to ’78 because of the awesomeness that is Anthony Perkins. (Shut up it’s my blog I can do what I want!)
• Best Cosette: There’s really no contest here, for me it has to be the ’98 Cosette. She was everything I wanted Cosette to be like in the book, she asked questions and had actual depth to her instead of just being a silly little lovesick girl, in the ‘98 film she finds out about Valjeans past and she’s totally OK with it, in fact she chooses to stay with Valjean of her own free will instead of brooding about Marius all the time. Plus at one point she gets to point a gun at Javert, which was awesome. Even though this Cosette was pretty much the exact opposite of the book version I still liked her more than the others because she actually felt like a proper character rather than just a plot device.
• Best Thenardiers: This isn’t too hard to judge since they only really appeared in two of the versions I saw, this one has to go to the ’00 Thenardiers, they were portrayed exactly like the horrible abusive vile scum that they are in the book but at the same time you really got to know them as people instead of just monsters. Also in that version Mrs Thenardier doesn't die which I liked because that felt like such a cheat in the book, plus i actually thought Mrs Thenardier was kinda hot in that film. (Don't judge me I'm only human!)
• Best Eponine: Again this is not too hard too judge since she only appeared in two versions, this one definitely has to go the ’00 version again. This Eponine had an edge to her, she was really dark and yet still sympathetic at the same time, and she got to interact with Cosette which was interesting because i had wondered what that would have been like in the book. I think Eponine is a very underrated character in film adaptations, there's so much you can do with Eponine so it's a shame so many films decide to leave her out. Also this one had probably the best death scene since the Eponine from the musical.
• Best Marius: FUCK MARIUS! Fuck him in the ear! Sorry but none of the Marius’s really left that much of an impression on me to be honest. OK I suppose the ’58 one was what I imagined Marius to look like, and the ’98 version was nice enough, but I don’t think any of them were better than the others. Sorry Marius, but you suck!
  
  In case you're wondering why i haven't judged any of the Fantines, well it's simple, none of the Fantines ever really appear on screen for enough time for me to form an opinion about them, all of them are very much the same, they all show up and then die quickly! I pretty much forgot that Fantine was even a character by the end of each movie. Poor Fantine, she's so unloved.
   
  So that’s finally it, I am now officially DONE with Les Miserables! My life can now move on to another project! (At least until January when the new movie comes out)
     

Les End! Pages 1193-1201

IT IS FINISHED!!!

I finally finished Les Miserables! Holy crap that took forever.

So what happened in the end, Well...... Cosette and Marius arrive to see Jean Valjean as he's on his death bed, I still don't actually know what he's dying of? I reckon he caught some infection from crawling through the sewers. He cant be dying of old age yet, he's got to be only in his 60's surely. The book says that he's in his 80's but the book is wrong, WRONG! He cant be! he was 55 when he rescued Cosette from the Thenardiers and only ten years has passed since then which was stated very clearly in the book, so he cant be in his 80's, he cant! You fucked up Victor Hugo!
By the way if he is dying from a broken heart, that's really stupid. I don't just mean because it's a ridiculous plot device either, i mean because it's so stupid that he's dying from a broken heart because Cosette left him. First of all Cosette didn't leave him, she got married!! She's not dead Valjean she's still gonna be around you daft prick, also it's his own fault that he's got a broken heart because he's the one who deliberately cut himself off from her.
If a character is dying then at least make it a proper death, not a stupid plot device that was the characters own fault anyway! Fuck You Victor Hugo! 

Anyway, Marius begs Valjean to forgive him for keeping him from Cosette which he does and Valjean promises Marius that the money he left for Cosette was made honestly so he shouldn't feel guilty about using it. Valjean tells Cosette he wants her to have the candlesticks that the Bishop gave to him and that he hopes that the Bishop is pleased with him, he reminisces about Cosette when she was a child for a while and then tells Cosette her mothers name........WAIT!!!!!! TEN YEARS HAVE PASSED AND YOU NEVER TOLD COSETTE HER MOTHERS NAME?????? What the flying fuck??? Surely that should have been one of the first things you told her when she was a kid, how did you never bring it up in all those years? Didn't Cosette ever ask! Sigh................why am i even surprised by this?

So then Valjean asks to be buried in a plain grave and he takes one last look at Cosette and dies happily with his daughter and son in law.

Hmmmm......well that was sweet, a bit underwhelming but sweet. To be honest i think i preferred the ending in the musical. I liked the fact that Fantine appeared again as a kind of angel when Valjean was dying so i was actually a bit disappointed that it wasn't like that in the book. Although i still don't get why Eponine appeared with Fantine as well, Valjean never even had anything to do with Eponine! Still this ending worked just as well, at least Valjean died happily and got to see Cosette one last time, surely that's all we can ask when we die, to be able to be happy and to see our loved ones for the last time. I think Valjean had done all the good he could do, i think he had nothing to feel guilty about anymore, I'm glad he was forgiven and got to make amends with Marius and I'm glad he got to die with Cosette with him. Still i think it's sad that he couldn't live out the rest of his days with her.

 

So that's it! I'm finally finished reading Les Miserables!!!! WOO HOO!!!! This has been the greatest, saddest, most exciting and most awesomely frustrating book I've ever read in my life. Sure there were bits of it that were completely pointless, there were bits that's were mind numbingly boring and that were bits that were fucking disgusting but the rest of it was absolutely brilliant. I'm really glad i read it and surprisingly i actually remember the majority of what happened in it, and i never remember novels so that's really cool. I recommend this book to everyone, everyone should read it at least once in their life.

Thank you Victor Hugo for bringing this book into the world, thank you and FUCK YOU!

Pages 1173-1192

You know the more i think about it the musical version of Les Miserables is a terrible adaptation of this great book, too much is changed and too much is just left out entirely. It's still good for what it is but i don't think it does much credit to the source material.
I think this is the first time in my life I've actually preferred the original book!

So....Marius is still angry at Jean Valjean who is slowly dying from a broken heart after losing Cosette, (Can you really die of a broken heart? you dont see that plot device so much anymore do you? I guess modern medicine really is working!) Meanwhile Mr Thenardier shows up again at Marius's house claiming to know that Valjean is a thief and a murderer and he wants payment for this information.
Apparently at some point since the Thenardiers were arrested by Javert and now Mrs Thenardier died in prison......From what?.....FROM WHAT????? Oh you're not actually gonna tell us what she died of Victor Hugo? Gee I'm so friggin shocked!!!! We get 13 pages about shit but you're not gonna tell us what happened to one of the main characters? Fuck you Victor Hugo!

Sigh.....anyway, Thenardier doesn't know that it was Marius that Valjean was carrying through the sewers when he helped him escape and he tries to convince Marius that Valjean murdered someone by showing him a bloody piece of jacket that he took off the body that day, unfortunately for him Marius kept the jacket and matches the two things. He also shows Marius a newspaper clipping that says that Javert killed himself which finally clears Valjean of any wrongdoing in Marius's mind.

So then basically Marius tells Thenardier that he's a dumbass and that Valjean is a good man, and then he gives Thenardier money in thanks for saving his father at Waterloo which clears him of any debt he owed to Thenardier, then he tells Thenardier to fuck off and never return! HOORAY! Marius finally grows some balls!

Oh and just to round off Thenardiers role in the book we find out that he later moves to America with Azelma to become a slave trader. Uggggggh, as if his character couldn't get any more despicable. (Surprisingly enough that little bit of info was left out of the musical!)

Marius FINALLY realises that Valjean is a good man who always put others before himself and saved his life at the barricades and he tells Cosette that he was wrong to keep him away from her and they rush to go find Valjean before it's too late.

I really fucking hate Marius! Yeah he's finally admitted he was wrong but it's too little too late, he's caused to much damage to Valjean already and now he's gonna die. I hope you're proud of yourself Marius you twat!

Pages 1145-1172

I'm so close to the end of the book right now, Oh My God what am i going to with my life after I'm done?????.......Fuck i forgot about that!

So quick plot update........Jean Valjean reveals who he really is to Marius who is horrified by the news, Marius reluctantly allows Valjean to keep seeing Cosette even though he'd rather have nothing more to do with him but he's being nice to keep Cosette happy, Valjean asks Cosette for her to stop calling him father which she does only after protesting at both her men. Valjean comes for visits every evening but eventually stops coming alltogether, i think he's supposed to be dying from a broken heart or something.

Ugggggh, Marius is being a twat again. I really don't get what his problem is when he finds out who Valjean really is, if he's trying to keep him away from Cosette because he thinks he's too dangerous for her then how dare he try to take the moral fucking high ground! Ummmm Marius, shall i remind you of the incident recently where YOU TRIED TO BLOW YOURSELF UP! Neither of you should be allowed near Cosette in my opinion!
I really don't think Valjean should be taking any of Marius's crap, he's been living right longer than Marius has been alive and he's been looking after Cosette for longer than Marius has even known her, seriously why is he putting up with all this? Is it just to keep Cosette happy? Even ex-cons are entitled to some happiness you know.

Marius has no right to be angry with Valjean, nobody should be punished their entire lives for a petty crime they committed when they were young, and Marius has no right to try and keep Valjean from seeing Cosette. OK so there is the whole deal where Marius still thinks Valjean murdered Javert but like i said before Marius has no right to be angry about that. Marius was the one fighting in the student revolution where i assume he must have shot people, if you ask me he's just as guilty as Valjean is.


Cosette's acting like a dumbass during these pages too, i think i liked Cosette better when she didn't say anything at all, it's preferable to what she's like right now. Although to be fair to her it's not really her fault since neither Marius or Valjean are being honest with her so it's understandable why she acts like she has no idea whats going on around her.
Why don't they just tell her the truth? I think Cosette is smart enough to see the good in people and not solely judge them by their past. She's not bothered by the fact that Valjean isn't even her real father so why would one more thing make any difference!

You know what, fuck it all! I'm too close to the end of the book to keep questioning things. Let it end Victor Hugo, just let it end! Let me move on to another project! Just end my torment!
I'm just joking I've really enjoyed the book actually.

Pages 1110-1144

Marius is alive........Forgive me for not rejoicing but I'm stymied by a lack of caring about him.

Anyway he's alive after months of recuperating from gunshot wounds and i imagine all kinds of infections from being dragged through shit, once he's fit enough he's finally reunited with Cosette and thenValjean and Marius's grandfather agree to their marriage.

This is a little problematic at first since Valjean is still an ex con and if he reveals this then Cosette would not be able to get married to Marius (I'm so glad all this bullshit about social status isn't relevant nowadays), but Valjean is still a smart guy and he manages to fake some documents for Cosette so she's able to get married.
This by the way does FINALLY reveal to Cosette that Valjean isn't her real father, and does she question this? NO! OF COURSE NOT! Cosette, what the fuck girl? You've been calling this guy your father for ten years and when you find out he's actually not you don't even bat an eyelid? What the fucking hell is wrong with you?........Oh why am i even bothering to ask, she hasn't questioned anything before so why would she start now!

I'm gonna skip quickly through the wedding stuff in these pages because there's a lot going on and most of it's not that relevant, Basically Marius and Cosette get married and everyones happy, Mr Thenardier spots them all on the way to the wedding (Les Coincidence!) which is an important bit of info that will come up later. Valjean gives all his money to Cosette and Marius and the two of them move into Marius's grandfathers house and Marius is also obsessed with finding out who saved him from the barricades not realising that it was Valjean all along! Ummmm Marius.....Who the hell else could it be? you and Valjean are the only people who survived the entire thing and you cant figure out it was him who saved you! What the fucking hell is wrong with you! In fact, why hasn't Cosette figured out it was Valjean who saved him either? When Valjean came home all covered in shit that time didn't Cosette wonder why that was? Did she just assume he had taken a detour home through the sewers for fun? This isn't that hard to figure out people! What the fucking hell is wrong with you!

I really feel bad for Valjean during these pages, he goes to such extremes to ensure Cosette's happiness even at the expense of his own, and the stupid girl is too obsessed with Marius to even notice! He fakes an injury to his arm so that he wont be able to sign any wedding documents (because it would be illegal for him to do so since he's been using a fake name for years) which also means that he cant give Cosette away at her wedding. That is so fucking sad! The poor man is trying so hard to make sure Cosette never knows who he really is that he cant even bring himself to walk his little girl down the aisle, i challenge anyone to not find that utterly heartbreaking! Even i thought that was sad, and I'm dead inside.

Things get even more sad after the wedding when during all the festivities Valjean feels like he doesn't belong there and makes an excuse to leave, which Cosette barely notices! Shame on you Cosette, SHAME! This is your father, he's been looking after you for ten years and you barely notice his absence at your wedding, WHAT THE FUCKING HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU!

So whilst Marius and Cosette are busy "getting it on" after their wedding (which thankfully Victor Hugo describes in euphemisms because i really didn't want to read about that!) Valjean goes back to his house where he walks around the empty rooms for a while being all sad and mopey, then he opens up a box he's kept for years which contain the clothes he bought for Cosette when he rescued her from the Thenardiers and he lays them out on her bed and starts crying into them.
At first glance i thought this scene was going to start getting into creepy territory again, but actually..........This was the saddest fucking thing I've ever read in my life! Oh My God i feel so bad for Valjean at this point, his hearts completely broken at losing Cosette! I just wanted to reach into the book and give him a big hug. And i know I've said before that Valjean seems abnormally attached to Cosette but believe me when i say that this part of the book was genuinely sad.

Still i hope not all parents react like that when their children leave home, I especially hope mine didn't! Ugggggh, now that would have been creepy!