"King's Speech" director to take on "Les Miserables"

[Vanyel]

I think they may be downplaying the music for the trailer. The music may be brought up in mixing once the film is finished.

It does look good.

[nvek86]

That is a great trailer. Can I see the film right now, please?

[Vanyel]

They removed the trailer from youtube, but you can find it here.

[nvek86]

^I can still find several uploads.

On another forum someone noted that I Dreamed A Dream seems to have been moved back a bit in the story. I wonder if they moved other songs around as well.

[Vanyel]

nvek86 wrote:

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^I can still find several uploads.

On another forum someone noted that I Dreamed A Dream seems to have been moved back a bit in the story. I wonder if they moved other songs around as well.

Yes, but the original link posted is not there, so I posted a new link.

They may have moved other songs. It may make more sense in the way the movie is being filmed to move songs around. A famous example is West Side Story. In the play Cool is sung before the gang fight and Gee, Officer Krupke after it. The movie moves them and they flow better that way, IMHO. Several songs are moved actually.

Although the movie The Phantom of the Opera, did not move any songs, it did move the chandelier falling into the stage to the end to add to the tension of the movie. I did not like that move as much as the stage production, but it made sense in the movie to that to the end.

[CaptainCanada]

Vanyel wrote:

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A famous example is West Side Story. In the play Cool is sung before the gang fight and Gee, Officer Krupke after it.

In that instance, that was how Sondheim intended it to be in the stage version, but in the chaotic production phase Jerome Robbins had already planned out the staging with the idea that they would be in the order they ended up being in, so he said that if they did a movie, they'd switch them to how Sondheim originally wanted (the famous alteration of "America", likewise).

In this film, no doubt they're going to have to streamline the story a good bit in order to get it into a manageable film length, so moving the song toward the end probably heightens the impact of it while saving time.

[Kestrel]

Link didn't work, but here's another:




Looks and sounds fantastic!!!

The instruments seemed a bit toned down at first, but then seemed to pick up - and the song cut away before a chance for one of the "big moments." Overall though it seems from the brief glimpse like they're going for a slightly toned down, quieter and more pained version of the song... which, you know, makes sense since it looks like they're setting it (part of it?) after "Lovely Ladies."

ETA: In fact who knows, maybe they'll cut "Lovely Ladies" entirely?

[Vanyel]

Kestrel wrote:

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Link didn't work, but here's another:




Looks and sounds fantastic!!!

The instruments seemed a bit toned down at first, but then seemed to pick up - and the song cut away before a chance for one of the "big moments." Overall though it seems from the brief glimpse like they're going for a slightly toned down, quieter and more pained version of the song... which, you know, makes sense since it looks like they're setting it (part of it?) after "Lovely Ladies."

ETA: In fact who knows, maybe they'll cut "Lovely Ladies" entirely?

Lovely Ladies may survive the cut. There is brief shot of three woman coming out of three doorways. Lovely Ladies does tell of Fantines fall into despair after she's fired for, ironically, not being a lovely lady. Then again there could also be a Directors Cut that's closer in length and libretto the stage production.

[nvek86]

I haven't watched a lot of musicals, but is it common for film versions to tone down the instruments a bit (compared to the stage versions)?

Vanyel wrote:

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Yes, but the original link posted is not there, so I posted a new link.

Ah, sorry, I misunderstood you.

[Kestrel]

Vanyel wrote:

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Lovely Ladies may survive the cut. There is brief shot of three woman coming out of three doorways. Lovely Ladies does tell of Fantines fall into despair after she's fired for, ironically, not being a lovely lady. Then again there could also be a Directors Cut that's closer in length and libretto the stage production.

Good point, yeah.

[Vanyel]

nvek86 wrote:

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I haven't watched a lot of musicals, but is it common for film versions to tone down the instruments a bit (compared to the stage versions)?

Ah, sorry, I misunderstood you.

As far as I know, no it's not common. Usually a full orchestra plays the music in a movie, while in a stage production, it's a much smaller ensemble. Then again, the music could still be done by a full orchestra but the music arranged differently. If I remember right the movie version Buenos Aires is much more up tempo than the stage version.

[CaptainCanada]

It's not customary, but this movie is doing live recording, which hasn't been attempted by any major movie musical before. That might factor into it, but given what they can do with sound now, perhaps not; they just seem to be going for a more low-key sound, at least for the one song we've heard.

[nvek86]

Ah, interesting, thank you.

[The Borgified Corpse]

CaptainCanada wrote:

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It's not customary, but this movie is doing live recording, which hasn't been attempted by any major movie musical before.

IIRC, Paint Your Wagon also recorded all of its songs live on set.

[Vanyel]

No nothing new on Les Miserables, except that there is a website for the movie. There is also a Facebook page and twitter account, both links can be found on the website.

Oh and here's my favorite version of Paint Your Wagon.