Les Miserables

We screened this last week and I haven't been able to get the songs out of my head since then!!!

Here are my notes:

Les Misérables

UK 2012                      158 minutes

Director:                      Tom Hooper

Starring:                       Hugh Jackman, Russell Crowe, Anne Hathaway, Amanda Seyfried, Eddie Redmayne, Helena Bonham Carter and Sacha Baron Cohen

Awards and Nominations

• Won three Oscars, including Best Supporting Actress (Anne Hathaway) and a further five nominations including Best Film and Best Actor (Hugh Jackman)
• Won three Golden Globes (Best Film (Musical or Comedy), Best Actor (Hugh Jackman) and Best Supporting Actress (Anne Hathaway))
• Won four BAFTAs, including Best Actor (Hugh Jackman) and Best Supporting Actress (Anne Hathaway), plus five further nominations

“Like a diabolically potent combination of Lionel Bart and Leni Riefenstahl, the movie version of Les Misérables has arrived, based on the hit stage show adaptation of Victor Hugo's novel set among the deserving poor in 19th-century France, which climaxes with the anti-monarchist Paris uprising of 1832.  Even as a non-believer in this kind of "sung-through" musical, I was battered into submission by this mesmeric and sometimes compelling film, featuring a performance of dignity and intelligence from Hugh Jackman, and an unexpectedly vulnerable singing turn from that great, big, grumpy old bear, Russell Crowe.”

Peter Bradshaw

 The global success of the stage production of Les Misérables, which has been running in London since October 1985, quickly led to plans for a filmed version, with reports in 1988 that Alan Parker would direct the film, although by 1992 the production had been abandoned.  In was only after the twentieth anniversary celebrations of the show in 2005 that Cameron Mackintosh finally resurrected the idea of a film, and in 2011 it was announced that Tom Hooper, fresh from the global success of The King’s Speech, would direct from a script by William Nicholson. 

Tom Hooper brought production designer Eve Stewart and cinematographer Danny Cohen with him from The King’s Speech and also appointed Chris Dickens, who had won an Oscar and a BAFTA for his work on Slumdog Millionaire, as film editor.  The resulting look of the film, which combined both stylised and realistic views of Paris, drew its inspiration from nineteenth century French painters such as David, Delacroix and Gustav Doré, and secured BAFTA and Oscar nominations for both Costume and Production Design.

Hooper’s major innovation in filming the musical numbers was to have all the singing recorded live on set, with the performers listening to a pianist via earpieces and with the orchestration added later.  Most of the leading performers are able to sing well, with Hugh Jackman in particular having played leading roles in musical theatre.  Minor roles are played by performers who had played in various stage productions and include Colm Wilkinson (who created the role of Jean Valjean) and Samantha Barks who had performed the role of Eponine both in the West End and the Twentieth Anniversary Concert.  With almost all the dialogue set to music Hooper’s action allowed the entire cast to bring dramatic vitality to their performances.

In 2005 a BBC Radio 2 listener poll of Number One Essential Musicals placed Les Misérables at number one: in fact it took more than 40% of the vote.

 Here's te trailer:

The King's Speech

We start our new season with a somewhat inevitible choice next week.  These are my notes:

The King’s Speech

UK 2010                      119 minutes

Director:                      Tom Hooper

Screenplay:                   David Seidler

Starring:                        Colin Firth, Geoffrey Rush and Helena Bonham Carter

Nominations and Awards

• Won four Oscars (Best Picture, Director, Actor and Original Screenplay) plus eight nominations (including Best Supporting Actor, Best Supporting Actress and Cinematography).
• Won seven BAFTAs (including Best Actor, Best Supporting Actor, Best Supporting Actress and Best Music) plus seven further nominations.
• A further 56 wins and 75 nominations

“Although the film involves a man overcoming a serious disability, it is neither triumphalist nor sentimental.  Its themes are courage (where it comes from, how it is used), responsibility, and the necessity to place duty above personal pleasure or contentment – the subjects, in fact, of such enduringly popular movies as Casablanca and High Noon.  In this sense, The King's Speech is an altogether more significant and ambitious work than Stephen Frears's admirable The Queen of 2006 and far transcends any political arguments about royalty and republicanism.”

Philip French

In the early1930s the Duke of York (Colin Firth), the younger son of George V (Michael Gambon), was struggling to overcome a speech impediment with help from Lionel Logue (Geoffrey Rush), an Australian speech therapist.  George V died in 1936, and his death was followed by one of those incidents when, in Alan Bennett’s memorable phrase “history rattled over the points”: Edward VIII (Guy Pearce) abdicated in order to marry the divorced Wallis Simpson (Eve Best) and the Duke of York, who had never even seen any state papers was crowned King just as Fascism was on the rise across Europe and Churchill was beginning to warn of the dangers of German rearmament.  Logue continued to work with George V and with his help the King was able to face the challenges of both his Coronation and the public speeches his position demanded of him, including a live broadcast in September 1939 on the outbreak of war.

David Seidler had lived in London during the Second World War and had subsequently developed a stammer from the stress that he had endured.  He had been inspired by the example of George VI’s struggles with his speech impediment and, having moved to the US where he became a scriptwriter in Hollywood, he decided to write about the King.  Lionel Logue’s son committed to give him access to his father’s notes, but only if the Queen Mother consented: she gave her permission, but asked him not to do so in her lifetime.  Seidler subsequently discovered that Logue had treated one of his own uncles, and from him learnt about the techniques that Logue used in his treatment.  From this original source material Seidler produced an initial screenplay that he subsequently turned into a play script, and it was after attending a reading of this that Tom Hooper’s mother called him with a simple message: “I’ve found your next project”.

Although depicting the key historical events of the period, the film makes some changes to enhance the dramatic nature of the story: the Duke of York started working with Logue ten years before the Abdication and the improvement in his speech was noticeable within months rather than years; during the Abdication Crisis Churchill had been a staunch supporter of Edward VIII; and far from distancing themselves from Chamberlain’s policy of appeasement George VI and Chamberlain appeared together on the balcony of Buckingham Palace, an act of endorsement by the King described as “the biggest constitutional blunder that has been made by any sovereign this century”.

The film received rave reviews for its acting, screenplay and direction. Colin Firth received his first Oscar and both Geoffrey Rush and Helena Bonham Carter received Oscar nominations for their supporting roles.  David Seidler won his first Oscar in his mid-70s, and after a long and successful career as a director on TV and having only directed one other feature film Tom Hooper won Oscars for both Best Director and Best Film.

Here's the trailer: