The dream that’s Les Miz

The Good Life with Eli F.J. Tajanlangit

Opening day is a good six months away, in December 2012 actually, but Les Miserables the musical movie is already creating a lot of buzz among netizens following the recent release of its trailer.

With a 1:38 minuter video of cuts from the movie, set to the haunting voice of Fantine singing the haunting “I dreamed a dream…” this latest incarnation of Victor Hugo’s classic appears headed for critical and commercial success.

The movie is an adaptation from the hugely successful Broadway musical that seems to be playing in theatres forever, with an album of music that has been on top of the charts worldwide. Just in case you missed it, this is the musical where the following songs came from: “On My Own,” “Do You Hear the People Sing?”, “Empty Chairs on Empty Tables,” “One Day More,” “Bring Him Home”, and “Castle in the Clouds.”

With emotional lyrics and stirring music, these songs have gone on to carve their own niche in the world of music, distinct from the play itself. Remember Susan Boyle’s Britain’s Got Talent performance? She sang “I Dreamed…” from this musical and went on to become the phenom that she is now.

If we go by the few cuts shown on the trailer, we are going to see a musical movie that captures the sweeping scale and the grand vision that was in Hugo’s novel about man’s fate and the road to redemption. The trailer shows us camera work that is staggering breathtaking even as it shows the wretched conditions of the French underclass in the 19th century.

And the cast is such as coup: Hugh Jackman is Jean Valjean, Russel Crowe is Inspector Javert, Anne Hathaway is Fantine, Amanda Seyfried is Cosette. I’m sure everyone will be interested to see these top movie stars sing. Already, there is a debate about the musical range of Hathaway, if in fact it rises to the demands of Fantine. Some people say she’s fantastic, others say not quiet. But almost everyone thinks she pulls off Fantine creditably.

I am most interested, though, in Helena Bonham Carter and Sacha Cohen who’ll sing their way as Mister and Madame Thenadier. Carter, of course, we last saw as the mad Bellatrix in Harry Potter; and Cohen as the inspector in Hugo Cabret – I am almost sure they’ll both do something remarkable here as the Thenadiers, especially when they crash into the “One Day More!” song and sing: “Watch 'em run amuck/Catch 'em as they fall. Never know your luck/When there's a free for all…”

As a stage musical, Les Miz is one of the most successful, if not the most successful in our time, drawing people in steadily, regularly. It is produced by Cameron Mackintosh, the guy behind Miss Saigon. It was written for the stage by  Claude-Michel Schonberg and Alan Boublil who, if I’m not mistaken, also did the Lea Salonga starrer.

Tom Hooper, the director behind “The King’s Speech” directs the movie.

“Les Miserables” is one of the greatest novels of all time, fascinating literary lovers and students and ordinary folks. Many movie and television versions have been produced, some just focusing on a character, or just a chapter – it is that big a story. Somebody said that wealthy Japan is so enamoured with the story, there have been animated versions of it coming out of that country.

So powerful and attractive is Les Miz, in fact, that one or two attempts to write its sequel have surfaced. In one of these cases, I read that Hugo’s heirs brought the writer to court for bastardizing their great-great grandfather’s original intentions. No doubt, a story that takes up the dreams of the poor and disposed, continues to enchant humanity who continues to weave dreams about it.

Me, my Les Miz dream is simple: to watch this latest version as soon as I can, so can Christmas come soon now?*

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