The Movie Report #793, November 7, 2014

#793, November 7, 2014

MOVIES:

• Big Hero 6
  
• Interstellar
  
• Plot for Peace
  
• The Theory of Everything
  

Movie Music Monday: Les Misérables international trailer

While the same teaser for Tom Hooper's film of the wildly popular musical version of Les Misérables continues to run on screens in the States, cinemas overseas are now getting a longer trailer that reveals more beyond some scattered images and Anne Hathaway's rendition of "I Dreamed a Dream." A taste of that trademark tune does appear again here, but--owing to this film's unusual-for-movie-musicals all-live-on-set-vocals approach--in a wildly different take than has been heard in the Universal's CinemaCon reel, the theatrical teaser, or the live singing featurette; what is widely known and recognized as a powerful but pretty tune is radically transformed into something much more unpolished and emotionally raw, a melancholy lament now taken the next level as an anguished wail of raging bitterness and anger. Who knows what other surprising twists on Alain Boublil and Claude-Michel Schönberg's score lie in store in the finished film, but this trailer offers more traditional-sounding performances of other familiar songs: the gentle, lulling "Castle on a Cloud"; the rousing anthem "Do You Hear the People Sing?"; and, most revealingly, the thrilling full company act one finale "One Day More!"--offering audiences the first taste of Russell Crowe's singing voice as the piece's lead antagonist Inspector Javert. My initial gut reaction? Well, at least everyone else sounds wonderful. But, again, as I've said before, benefit of the doubt until I've seen the entire film.

Les Misérables opens in cinemas on Christmas Day.

Movie Music Monday: Les Misérables LIVE!... on film

While the announcement of any major movie musical comes with a great deal of anticipation and--in equal parts--trepidation, the forthcoming decades-plus-in-the-making big screen adaptation of Alain Boublil and Claude-Michel Schönberg's tuneful take on Victor Hugo's Les Misérables perhaps even more excitement and curiosity surrounding it. First, it assembles a wide range of A-list acting talent including Hugh Jackman, Russell Crowe, Anne Hathaway, Amanda Seyfried, Sacha Baron Cohen, and Helena Bonham Carter for one of the most wildly successful and enduring phenomenons in all of entertainment, much less the stage; second, it marks director Tom Hooper's first film since his Oscar-winning The King's Speech; and third, Hooper's rather unconventional approach to filming the material: namely, having the entire cast sing their parts live on set as opposed to miming to studio-recorded playback vocals.

Universal has wisely recognized that last point as being as much of a potential selling point as the first two, and a new four-and-a-half-minute featurette released to Regal Cinemas focuses solely on this simple yet revolutionary new wrinkle to making a movie musical, with Hooper and his cast lending insight to the creative freedom and in-the-moment emotional authenticity live, on-set vocals bring to the piece. But as enlightening and undeniably fascinating as the talking head interview segments are, what really makes this featurette (pardon the pun) sing is the taste it offers of the results. While Jackman (as escaped parolee Jean Valjean), Hathaway (as long-suffering single mom Fantine), Seyfried (as the adult incarnation of Fantine's daughter, Cosette), and big screen newcomer Samantha Barks (as tragic young heroine Éponine, a role she's played on the UK stage) are all proven singers, hearing their fresh, unpolished takes on familiar melodies is genuinely thrilling and a bit revelatory--though not as revelatory as hearing the glorious voice of Eddie Redmayne (as student revolutionary Marius), whose singing talents have heretofore been unknown. Amusingly (and perhaps tellingly?), the vocals of the biggest musical question mark, Crowe (as Valjean's obsessed pursuer Inspector Javert), are still being kept under wraps, but given the demanding acting and singing challenge Hooper has posed to all of his cast members, one is easily able to give his musical prowess the benefit of the doubt.

Les Misérables opens in cinemas in December.