Les Mis (again)
Jan. 24th, 2013 01:49 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
tealinDisney screens Best Picture nominees for employees every year, and yesterday was the turn of Les Miserables. Despite being underwhelmed the first time I saw it, I thought seeing it at the back of a small theatre with the best possible projection and sound would warrant giving it a second chance, and boy am I glad I did!
It still has cinematography issues, and major editing flaws which I didn't even notice the first time around thanks to being preoccupied with the shot choices, but seeing it smaller, and louder, and for the second time, so directorial decisions weren't surprising ... I really really really really liked it.
If my first reaction to the movie was this:
Then last night it was more like this:
The oddest thing was feeling like I was watching a completely different performance from Russell Crowe. Can't even begin to explain that, but I'm not complaining.
This comes as something of a relief, because I listened to my favoured recording of the musical last week, and found myself constantly reflecting upon how much better I liked the movie, musically and dramatically. This was no small surprise, let me tell you, because I love my Complete Symphonic Recording and I do not let go of beloved things lightly. I was worried I was in an untenable middle space in which I was not satisfied to listen to my soundtrack, nor to watch the film, and would have to wait until it came out on DVD just to listen to the film ... but that has been happily resolved.
Then again, I may have been more receptive than otherwise because I was keyed up on Hamlet [unrelated story]. But that was merely an effective counter to the people sitting behind my friend and me, one of whom would mutter audibly about the characters every so often, and the other would sometimes make a noise somewhere between a snore and a grumbly off-key humming-along, which would have been annoying if it hadn't sounded so hilarious, especially during "Bring Him Home." I tried picturing what that noise sounded like and got a bad attack of the giggles.
It still has cinematography issues, and major editing flaws which I didn't even notice the first time around thanks to being preoccupied with the shot choices, but seeing it smaller, and louder, and for the second time, so directorial decisions weren't surprising ... I really really really really liked it.
If my first reaction to the movie was this:
Then last night it was more like this:
The oddest thing was feeling like I was watching a completely different performance from Russell Crowe. Can't even begin to explain that, but I'm not complaining.
This comes as something of a relief, because I listened to my favoured recording of the musical last week, and found myself constantly reflecting upon how much better I liked the movie, musically and dramatically. This was no small surprise, let me tell you, because I love my Complete Symphonic Recording and I do not let go of beloved things lightly. I was worried I was in an untenable middle space in which I was not satisfied to listen to my soundtrack, nor to watch the film, and would have to wait until it came out on DVD just to listen to the film ... but that has been happily resolved.
Then again, I may have been more receptive than otherwise because I was keyed up on Hamlet [unrelated story]. But that was merely an effective counter to the people sitting behind my friend and me, one of whom would mutter audibly about the characters every so often, and the other would sometimes make a noise somewhere between a snore and a grumbly off-key humming-along, which would have been annoying if it hadn't sounded so hilarious, especially during "Bring Him Home." I tried picturing what that noise sounded like and got a bad attack of the giggles.
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Date: 2013-01-24 10:37 pm (UTC)