Posted on 12/29/2018 5:54:25 PM PST by Simon Green
Edited on 12/29/2018 6:08:36 PM PST by Jim Robinson. [history]
If you were adapting a story that has already been turned into a colossus of a stage musical and a triple-Oscar-winning Hollywood film, you might be expected to be slightly overawed by the task.
The actors and producers of the latest iteration of Les Miserables – a six-part BBC take on Victor Hugo’s 1862 novel – are suitably diplomatic about the stage show seen by 70 million people in 51 countries, giving verdicts that range from “perfectly good” to “brilliant”.
$5 says it’s “dreamers”-based.
What a surprise.
The version that I regarded as a real classic was the 1935 film with Fredric March as Valjean and Charles Laughton as Javert. (Even though Laughton was that way inclined, he showed no attraction towards Valjean when in character.)
Are they going to cast it with Negro characters, homos, lesbians, transsexuals? They’ve ruined just about every other “modern” day offerings.
I’ll stick with reruns of Minder and The Sweeney.
You can forget about it right there
His masterpiece.
The generally considered opinion is Hugo’s poetry overshadows his prose work.
He is the greatest French poet, period.
Instead of stealing a loaf of bread, with Jean Val-Jean utter a racist comment?
If I have to choose a nineteenth novel, its War And Peace.
The “gaying up” and “blacking up” of period things like this is such egregious, unbelievable pandering that gays and blacks should feel insulted.
I read the book.
Twice.
Great book.
In this version, Jean Valjean is forced into transexual prostitution by the muzzies who have taken over the country, but hey, at least he didn't have to go to jail or pay interest on the money his masters used to reimburse for the stolen bread.
So long as there shall exist, by reason of law and custom, a social condemnation, which, in the face of civilization, artificially creates hells on earth, and complicates a destiny that is divine with human fatality; so long as the three problems of the age—the degradation of man by poverty, the ruin of women by starvation, and the dwarfing of childhood by physical and spiritual night—are not solved; so long as, in certain regions, social asphyxia shall be possible; in other words, and from a yet more extended point of view, so long as ignorance and misery remain on earth, books like this cannot be useless. -- Victor Hugo
SPOT ON AND THEN SOME!
Re the musical ( play and movie ), the play and staging owes VERY MUCH INDEED, to the 1985 London stage play "THE SCARLETT PIMPERNEL" and the 1960 ""OLIVER" for the staging!
1934 The Scarlet Pimpernel Leslie Howard & Merle Oberon Harold Young
(both links claim “full movie”, but they’re different lengths, haven’t tried viewing them yet)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nfZo07fEktU
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KmCbKQqLyI4
and I think I went to school with Lester. Kinda quiet. Kept to himself.
Josh Groban - Bring Him Home [OFFICIAL MUSIC VIDEO]
https://youtu.be/fXnRf3TQcpk
I have always wanted to read it - en Francais...
But I was told by a French doctoral student that it would be almost impossible, being loaded with idiomatic language and vernacular that would need explanation...
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