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| Posted: 15 Dec 2012 11:04 PM PST HAVING delivered The King's Speech – which received 12 Academy Award nominations and won four – director Tom Hooper was ready to find another challenging project, something that was utterly different. He found it when he heard about an adaptation of the musical Les Misérables being developed for the big screen. Even though he had never watched the musical at that point, he was intrigued by it all the same. "A bell went off in my head," he said in an interview transcript provided by UIP Malaysia. The 40-year-old Englishman added: "I had never seen it even though my family took me to lots of musicals growing up. When I saw it, the bell rang even louder. There are three or four moments in the musical when you just get chills down your spine, which to me is a sure sign that there is something special about it. "What really attracted me to it was the power of the piece. I think if there was something I was very proud of with The King's Speech, it was the emotions it provoked in people. Going and doing that big tour (with the film) where I was endlessly introducing the movie, the most satisfying thing was how it moved people." To Hooper, Les Misérables is very much about the heart, to which he attributes the musical's longevity: "It mainlines emotion into your body, and people go back to it repeatedly because it offers the opportunity to re-experience this emotion with extraordinary consistency and predictability. As an experience, it's able to give you the emotion you enjoyed the first time, again." One of the first things he wanted to bring to his version of Les Misérables was to add realism to a film in which characters sing to project their emotions. From his own viewing experience, he noticed something artificial about singing on film and wondered if it was because the actors were miming to a playback. He figured that in order to create that realistic feel, he'd have to have his actors sing live during filming. Actor Eddie Redmayne, who plays Marius – the student revolutionary who falls in love with Cosette (Amanda Seyfried), who was raised by former prisoner Jean Valjean (Hugh Jackman) after the death of her mother, factory worker Fantine (Anne Hathaway) – couldn't agree more with his director. According to him, having to sing live removes the barrier that a motion picture musical creates between the audience and the performer, and instead makes the experience more intimate. The 30-year-old London-born actor said: "It's wonderful; I couldn't imagine it done any other way. The alternative is that you go into a recording studio a couple of months before you start filming and record an album, basically, and then you go and make a big music video in which you mime to the songs. "What one actor does in a scene affects the other actors and how they react. So if we'd already recorded the songs in a studio you can't stray from that and you are completely limited to what your choices are when you are actually doing the scene. And the reality is, we wouldn't have known our characters as well then as we do now. "So what's lovely about doing it live is that you have that variety, you have the brokenness of the voice, you have the choice to try it different ways. I think it was absolutely the right decision by Tom." All the actors wear a tiny earpiece to listen to a pianist playing live; the pianist in turn follows the tempo and the rhythm set by the actors. Redmayne sang a lot when he was younger (he was a choir boy at Eton College), earning a choral scholarship (at Trinity College, Cambridge) before he dropped out after a year. All the same, he had to re-train his voice to suit the singing style needed for Les Misérables. "I hadn't really sung for 10 years when I got the part in Les Miz. And what's great about films is that if you have to ride a horse for a part you get the greatest horses and the greatest horseman in the country to teach you to ride. "It's the same with Les Miz where I've been able to work with the very best. I've had a wonderful singing teacher, Mark Meylan, and he works with lots of the big West End stars and he's brilliant. They were very nice about my voice at my audition but I'm sure that it's improved significantly since then." Les Misérables is based on a book written by Victor Hugo, set against the political and social unrest in 19th-century France. It explores the timeless testament of the human spirit that is dragged through broken dreams and unrequited love while on the road to redemption. There is a flawed hero – Valjean – and an unbending villain, Javert (Russell Crowe). Hooper confessed that he never thought he'd be directing a musical when he decided to be a director, but he's glad he did it as it was an unforgettable experience. Hooper said: "I don't think this has been done before. We are literally reinventing the genre and the collective excitement of the team is not just because it's such an iconic, extraordinary piece of work but also because we are getting this opportunity to be pioneers in a technique, which hardly ever happens. "I'm not sure it will happen again in my lifetime where I'll do something in a genre where I can say we are the first in the way that we are here, and that's a thrill." |
| Posted: 15 Dec 2012 11:04 PM PST Les Misérables centres on despair and the destitute, yet the allure of its more hopeful themes has held millions enthralled. IN an ideal world, everyone should receive a second chance, and an act of kindness should be paid with another act of kindness. This rarely happens, unfortunately, which is nothing new these days. This stark reality is laid bare in Victor Hugo's Les Misérables, in which a man is punished again and again by both society and the law, even after he has served his time in prison. Then there is a woman who is forced to bear the brunt of a judgmental society's scorn just because she is poor and uneducated. Author Hugo came out with his huge novel in 1862 with a variety of themes that tackled the conditions men and women endured in 19th-century France, leading to a student uprising to rally against such rampant injustice. Within the pages of the book, a reader realises that if the times were harsh, people were harsher still. Hugo breathed life into many characters whose lives juxtapose, resulting in all manner of tragic events, and he invoked issues such as social inequality, gender bias, greed, discrimination, betrayal and poverty through his creations. Meet Fantine, a single parent no thanks to an irresponsible boyfriend. Although illiterate, Fantine finds honest work at a factory to support herself and her daughter. Unfortunately, she is sexually harassed by the manager at her workplace. She fends him off but her efforts come to naught when the secret of her illegitimate child is discovered. Fired from her job, Fantine has no choice but to resort to prostitution to earn some money. Consequently, her little daughter is robbed of her childhood through no fault of hers. While bleakness and tragedy do occupy most of the pages in Les Misérables (well, it is about The Miserable), hope and love shine through in places. Meet Jean Valjean, a man who served 19 years in prison for stealing a loaf of bread for his sister's starving child. Through Valjean, Hugo shows the journey of a man who decides to change his ways after a kindly man treats him as more than an outcast of society. The bitter Valjean is put back on the right path, offering compassion and strength to others. But every step he takes on that road is marred by fear and doubt because of the relentless lawman Javert, who is after him for violating parole. Nonetheless, he does find salvation in the end – providing Les Misérables with a sliver of light in a very dark tunnel. Fans wax lyrical Declan Cashin is a 31-year-old journalist working in London who admits to being a history nerd with a fascination for that era in France. He shared a theory as to why Les Misérables remains a part of the popular culture. "(It's) a point when the course of world history and of human social relations really did change on a profound, fundamental level," he said. "I think it might also tap into my, indeed all of our, suppressed revolutionary spirits – in an era when we can feel quite powerless to effect change or exert agency over powerful forces and institutions, seeing this story about a popular revolution allows us to rebel and fight in a kind of Sims/Second Life way!" Like many from today's generation, Cashin's introduction to Hugo's story began with the songs from the hit musical Les Misérables. Although it seems unlikely considering the source material, two French songwriters came up with songs based on the novel. In 1985, an English version of these French numbers became a musical production at London's West End (where it's still playing). In 1987, the material travelled to the United States, where it became an even bigger deal, winning all sorts of awards for the Broadway production, and played for 16 years. The right notes For Rick Bollinger, a 61-year-old retired marketing executive in San Francisco who saw the musical on Broadway in 1997, it is the music that is the high point of the Les Misérables. He said: "I listened to the music over and over again on CD – (they are) so quasi-operatic and full of wonderful stories and messages." One song that keeps cropping up outside of the Les Misérables scenario is Fantine's lament I Dreamed A Dream. It probably received the most applause when a woman from Scotland named Susan Boyle amazed the world when she sang it on the TV show Britain's Got Talent. Philharmonic Society of Selangor chairman and choir director Cheryl Teh commented that the song was very suitable to Boyle's voice, making it that much easier for people to relate to the performer and the song. "Susan sang from the heart (with) each and every lyric. With the opening lyrics of I Dreamed A Dream, it felt like the song was written for Susan, especially in the setting of a talent show," Teh said. She added that another song from the musical that could work in a modern setting is On My Own – "It could almost be a post break-up song!" – sung by the character Eponine after she realises that the man she loves is in love with someone else. It was the songs that captivated Mai Tatoy, 42, a communications professional in Singapore. She saw the musical twice when the production comprising a cast from the United States, Australia and Canada visited Singapore. She first fell in love with the music thanks to a friend who gave her a cassette tape containing all the songs. When she finally saw the musical, she fell in love again with what she was watching and also the musical numbers. She then sought out the book. She shared: "The themes in Les Misérables are timeless, the struggles (personal and political) are still relevant. I think the mini-plots – the story of Cosette, Eponine and Darius, the revolution – all shaped and made Les Misérables more compelling. "It's a complex read in that sense, and it's because of the sheer talent of the stage production team that they made it so true to the book. I think it also resonates because it's a story of hope. And stories of hope always tug at our hearts and never get old." Tatoy finds it appealing the way Valjean and Javert are two sides of a coin – one is a forgiving man while the other is vindictive. She noted: "I understand Jean Valjean's struggle to do good in a world that may not always be fair and forgiving. I admire him for staying the course, following his conscience, doing the right thing, especially when (it could cost him his) freedom and possibly, an easier life." This is echoed by Daphne Wathanasin, a homemaker in Kuala Lumpur who went to school in England. Although she didn't relate to anyone when she watched the musical in London, she "wept like mad". "It was just a wonderfully told story and I felt for Fantine – so sad to go through so much and sell everything including herself – and for Valjean, who can never really get a break although deep down inside he is a good guy," she said. "Also, everyone came from such poor backgrounds and had to claw their way to a normal life. It makes us all think how much we take for granted and how lucky we are today." Screen presence The enduring pertinence of the material is what made director Tom Hooper (The King's Speech) decide that the time was right to make Les Misérables into a movie. Hugo's story has been explored in film before – the book has been adapted for cinema many times; the most recent saw Liam Neeson and Geoffrey Rush in the leading roles – but never as a musical. In making the film of the musical, Hooper recruited a group of talented actors who sing as well – Hugh Jackman as Jean Valjean, Russell Crowe as Javert and Anne Hathaway as Fantine, among others. Understandably, there are some concerns that some of the magic of the stage production will be lost in translation (for every Chicago, there are several misfires: think The Phantom Of The Opera, The Producers, Evita, Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber Of Fleet Street and Nine). Well, there is a massive amount of love for the world's longest-running musical, which reportedly has been seen by more than 60 million people worldwide, meaning the scrutiny is going to be intense. The good news is, despite the tonnes of expectation piled upon Hooper, the film version is already generating Oscar buzz and just earned five Golden Globe nominations. At least one fan is not too worried. An optimistic Tatoy concluded: "From the trailer, the quality we expect seems to have carried through to this medium. I think that says a lot about how beloved Victor Hugo's masterpiece is. Everyone who gets to participate in recreating it knows they are involved in something special, moving and worthwhile. So it's always had a certain quality and calibre. I'm sure the film version will be of the same standard." Les Misérables opens in cinemas nationwide on Dec 25. |
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