Andy
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| Etoile wrote: | Whatever the ending is like, I just hope that in the musical movie they don't do to Javert what they did to him in the 1998 movie.  |
What? You mean have him played by Geoffrey Rush? Or something more sinister that I missed?!
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eponine5
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I really like the idea of Valjean joining all the spirits at the end (Javert should be in it by the way) but isn't that just a little too similar to the ending of 'Titanic'?
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AndrewShatterhand
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| eponine5 wrote: | | I really like the idea of Valjean joining all the spirits at the end (Javert should be in it by the way) but isn't that just a little too similar to the ending of 'Titanic'? |
I can't recall the ending of Titanic...it's been so long.
Valjean joins all the spirits in the stage show anyway.
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Etoile
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| Andy wrote: | | Etoile wrote: | | Whatever the ending is like, I just hope that in the musical movie they don't do to Javert what they did to him in the 1998 movie. |
What? You mean have him played by Geoffrey Rush? Or something more sinister that I missed?! |
Well, that too. The way they portrayed all the characters in that movie seemed wrong for some reason. Epsecially Valjean, Javert, Cosette, and Marius.
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AndrewShatterhand
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| Etoile wrote: | | Andy wrote: | | Etoile wrote: | | Whatever the ending is like, I just hope that in the musical movie they don't do to Javert what they did to him in the 1998 movie. |
What? You mean have him played by Geoffrey Rush? Or something more sinister that I missed?! |
Well, that too. The way they portrayed all the characters in that movie seemed wrong for some reason. Epsecially Valjean, Javert, Cosette, and Marius. |
I thought Neeson and Rush were great in their respective parts. If they were cast in a faithful version they would be perfect.
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Jemibub
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| eponine5 wrote: | | I really like the idea of Valjean joining all the spirits at the end (Javert should be in it by the way) but isn't that just a little too similar to the ending of 'Titanic'? |
if you put it that way; then Titanic stole the idea from Les Mis ... but that's probably not the case...
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eponine5
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True.
But I was more thinking of the image on screen of Valjean walking to join all the other people who had previously died, and the idea that they're all waiting in the place where they hung out while they were alive.
It's interesting that no one has actually so far been able to agree on one single idea for how any song should be done.
I wonder how an official director would actually do it, considering the history Les Mis�rables has with all its disaster films.
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Jemibub
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Sorry for reviving a thread that's be dead for over a year. But, I would rather revive it than start a new one when I knew there was on here already.
For the past year since I last posted in this thread, I have been refineing my script and putting it through FINAL DRAFT 7. Though, recently, I've been more into what the look of the film would be. So, I've thought of three different version of film that could be used.
CONVENTIONAL
FILM VERSION #1
Color
FILM VERSION #2
Black and White
UNCONVENTIONAL
FILM VERSION #3
Black and White with selected bits of color
-Sunsets/Sunrises that fade into black and white ((not sure about this one yet
-Lovely Ladies Red Light District ((not truely in color; but more of darker look. A darker, more shadowed with harsh highlights of black and white; flashes of red in costumes, lipstick, and thick pastey blush))
-Flag
-Military Uniforms
-Tri color sashes
-Red caps worn at the barricade
-Those who die at the barricade, their once in color tri color sashs go to black and white the minute they die; along with their red caps.
-At the wedding: Dresses are in color. The thenardier are in full color to emphasis them being out of place.
-Finale: Those who have died are in full color.
If you have any suggestion would could be taken out of film version three or added, I would greatly appreciate it.
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NotoriousFunnt
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Jemibub! I remember you! *tackle*
I think the third version would be quite intriguing. I especially like the idea of what you plan for the Red Light district...it would capture not only the way the place really is, but the atmosphere and emotion behind it in an...I don't want to say nightmarish quality, but in a dreamlike and eerie quality which would make sense.
But I would remove the sunrise/sets fading into black and white. Seems a bit odd.
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Jemibub
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| NotoriousFunnt wrote: | | But I would remove the sunrise/sets fading into black and white. Seems a bit odd. |
It is odd to actually explain. It's one of those things you can picture but you can't really explain the way it should be explain. That's why it was optional; not exactly really important.
The one problem I have been having with the third version is that it might screw up eyes and cause headaches. ((and in extreme cases cause temporary color blindness))
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Monsieur D'Arque
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I've been thinking about if stars belong in this movie- I think some of them do.
Hugh Jackman could be a great Valjean or Javert. Ewan McGregor, if they can make him appear young enough, could be a great Marius or Enjolras. And of course, musical alumni Jason Alexander or Jim Broadbent as Thenardier.
One final question- do Les Miserables characters (in a movie) have British accents just because "that's how you tell foreign-language-speaking Europeans in an English-language movie?" Or would it be done without accents? This has always puzzled me in Phantom and Les Miserables, both onstage and on film, when it's done.
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Orestes Fasting
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What would you prefer, American accents? *cringe* I never even notice the accents on London recordings; they parse as neutral (in singing, not speech). American accents are jarring.
Or were you talking about the Cockney accents? I always interpreted that as a way to show the same social distinction that the use of argot would, without the headache of having to translate slang.
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Monsieur D'Arque
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I'm not sure- they do parse, but it always seems slightly odd when I think about it that in American productions, if a character speaks a foreign language, they have an English accent, regardless. I wouldn't mind, just for fun, hearing a Les Mis production with French accents- just to see how it worked, mind you. I wouldn't call it canon.
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Orestes Fasting
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The Broadway company use American accents. (Have you ever heard Drew Sarich?  )
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Jemibub
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If how a character sounds was TRUELY important; they'd be singing IN french.
The only thing that truely matters when it comes to accents is wether the thenardiers, or any other possible character that might have a relation to another character, have about the same accent. You wouldn't want a Cockney Thenardier signing with a Mme. Thenardier who sounds like she would fit better in Country Opera; with a daughter who has a Paris accent.
Varied accents would convey the feeling of the characters coming from different areas of France. It might not be accurate, but it is what I feel would happen with varied accents.
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The Very Angry Woman
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| Monsieur D'Arque wrote: | | I'm not sure- they do parse, but it always seems slightly odd when I think about it that in American productions, if a character speaks a foreign language, they have an English accent, regardless. |
What body part are you talking out of? I don't think it's your mouth.
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The Pirate King
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As an American, I must agree with the sentiment that the use of a blatant American accent is completely jarring in such a distinctly European show as Les Mis. A trans-Atlantic Cary Grant type accent may not be bad, but Drew Sarich as Javert is just completely unbelievable with his thick American dialect.
I've never understood people grieving about characters such as Thenardier having Cockney accents--it's an attempt to explain and interpret the difference in class and culture to viewers in the Anglosphere.
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dcrowley
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| Jemibub wrote: | If how a character sounds was TRUELY important; they'd be singing IN french.
The only thing that truely matters when it comes to accents is wether the thenardiers, or any other possible character that might have a relation to another character, have about the same accent. You wouldn't want a Cockney Thenardier signing with a Mme. Thenardier who sounds like she would fit better in Country Opera; with a daughter who has a Paris accent.
Varied accents would convey the feeling of the characters coming from different areas of France. It might not be accurate, but it is what I feel would happen with varied accents. |
Which is why I was not a fan of CSR... It was tooo international... Especially Kaho Shimidala (Sp). It was so jarring to hear her very thick Japanese accent in the midst of Australian, American, and British accents.
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The Very Angry Woman
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| dcrowley wrote: | | Which is why I was not a fan of CSR... It was tooo international... Especially Kaho Shimidala (Sp). It was so jarring to hear her very thick Japanese accent in the midst of Australian, American, and British accents. |
You know, her name is not hard to Google.
Her accent doesn't even sound Japanese. It's a mixture of a bunch of things.
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kittengoespop
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| The Pirate King wrote: | As an American, I must agree with the sentiment that the use of a blatant American accent is completely jarring in such a distinctly European show as Les Mis. A trans-Atlantic Cary Grant type accent may not be bad, but Drew Sarich as Javert is just completely unbelievable with his thick American dialect.
I've never understood people grieving about characters such as Thenardier having Cockney accents--it's an attempt to explain and interpret the difference in class and culture to viewers in the Anglosphere. |
I don't like the Cockney accents because it takes the show and makes it too distinctly British. The way I see it, when the slight British accents are done in a show like this, it takes us to "Europe", and when you add the Cockney, it takes us to "England". Am I making any sense?
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The Very Angry Woman
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| kittengoespop wrote: | | The Pirate King wrote: | As an American, I must agree with the sentiment that the use of a blatant American accent is completely jarring in such a distinctly European show as Les Mis. A trans-Atlantic Cary Grant type accent may not be bad, but Drew Sarich as Javert is just completely unbelievable with his thick American dialect.
I've never understood people grieving about characters such as Thenardier having Cockney accents--it's an attempt to explain and interpret the difference in class and culture to viewers in the Anglosphere. |
I don't like the Cockney accents because it takes the show and makes it too distinctly British. The way I see it, when the slight British accents are done in a show like this, it takes us to "Europe", and when you add the Cockney, it takes us to "England". Am I making any sense? |
You're making total sense, and I hate it when there's the one British accent in a show which has nothing to do with England. Hence, why Nick Wyman, and, to an extent, Gary Beach, drove me up the wall.
You don't need to affect a foreign (yes, it's foreign) accent to denote lower class in a country where there the distinction between classes isn't communicated via accents.
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Gargamel
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If I can add another point of view, I think they should have virtually no accent. I mean, the accent of the contry where the show is staged.
As for Thenardier: The way he acts should be enough to show his class!  It is a matter of acting, not a matter of accent to me.
The only accent that could be in the show would be in a french production, as people from Montreuil sur Mer shouldn't have a parisian accent, or Eponie and Gavroche couldn't have southern accents!
In any other language, it doesn't make any sense to me: they should all have the accent of the contry they are performing in!
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Orestes Fasting
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| Gargamel wrote: | If I can add another point of view, I think they should have virtually no accent. I mean, the accent of the contry where the show is staged.
As for Thenardier: The way he acts should be enough to show his class! It is a matter of acting, not a matter of accent to me.
The only accent that could be in the show would be in a french production, as people from Montreuil sur Mer shouldn't have a parisian accent, or Eponie and Gavroche couldn't have southern accents!
In any other language, it doesn't make any sense to me: they should all have the accent of the contry they are performing in! |
The problem, though, is that it's impossible to have virtually no accent in English. There's no widespread equivalent of Hochdeutsch or Parisian French, since there's this massive split between British English and its proliferation of regional accents, and the fairly uniform American accent. The only 'standard' accent in English is Received Pronunciation, which is distinctly British.
There are a couple reasons I'm in favor of using a British accent for Les Mis. The first is that, for several phonetic reasons, it's easier to sing in a British accent and sound neutral. The other is that American, much more than British, implies regionalism--if you're using an American accent, it gives the impression that the show is taking place in America, while a British accent doesn't come off as European so much as detached from any particular setting. It's, well, neutral, as far as any accent in English can be.
(I have no real opinion on the use of Cockney accents for the Th�nardiers, I was just trying to explain it. I don't think they're necessary, but I don't mind them.)
By the way, I'm curious to know if the 1991 Montr�al company used quebecois or parisian accents. But alas, nobody seems to know much about that production. And since I'm really bad at noticing accents in French, I can't even really tell whether Robert Marien, Louise Pitre, and St�phanie Martin have accents on the Paris revival recording.
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Gargamel
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| Orestes Fasting wrote: |
The problem, though, is that it's impossible to have virtually no accent in English. There's no widespread equivalent of Hochdeutsch or Parisian French, since there's this massive split between British English and its proliferation of regional accents, and the fairly uniform American accent. The only 'standard' accent in English is Received Pronunciation, which is distinctly British.
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I then agree with using a quite neutral "Received Pronunciation" british accent... The more neutral is the best...
There is a "neutral" prononciation in french, a there is also some "parisian" accents, and they are not neutral, even if most parisian won't admit it.
I will remember all my life when I moved from the north of France to Paris and hear my new shool mates say "Oh that's funny, you have an accent" with a terrible parisian accent!!!
| Orestes Fasting wrote: |
(I have no real opinion on the use of Cockney accents for the Th�nardiers, I was just trying to explain it. I don't think they're necessary, but I don't mind them.)
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Well I don't really care either... As I said, it is more a matter of acting that a matter of accent. If the actor feels like having a Cockney accent to get into the character, then it's OK to me!
| Orestes Fasting wrote: |
And since I'm really bad at noticing accents in French, I can't even really tell whether Robert Marien, Louise Pitre, and St�phanie Martin have accents on the Paris revival recording.
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The singers in both Original concept album and Paris revival had virtually no accent, with maybe a slight parisian accent for Gavroche in the concept album and Thenardier in the revival.
H�las! I have never heard the 1991 Montr�al version! 
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Orestes Fasting
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| Quote: | | There is a "neutral" prononciation in french, a there is also some "parisian" accents, and they are not neutral, even if most parisian won't admit it. |
Aaah, I didn't know Parisian wasn't the neutral pronunciation. Funny. (And I was told before going to France that the Parisians mock everyone's accents equally and the only sensible thing to do is mock back--but most of the people in Paris were quite nice. Nicer than I would've been if I had to constantly deal with tourists who expected me to speak English to them.  )
| Quote: | | H�las! I have never heard the 1991 Montr�al version! |
Most people have no idea it ever existed, besides some vague notion that once upon a time Montr�al had a bilingual production that scheduled half its performances in English and half in French. It was actually the first French-language production since the 1980 Palais des Sports version; not only did it predate the Paris revival, it sent its best performers--Marien, Pitre, Martin, and perhaps a few ensemble members--to join the Paris cast.
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Jemibub
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I need your advice guys, lol... write now I am putting THE ROBBERY/JAVERT'S INTERVENTION into official script format. And I want to portray, through writting, a relationship between Marius and Eponine that's a mix between musical and book. She thinks he's her bestfriend (and obviously more); while, on the other hand, he thinks she a "relatively" harmless annoyance. So, they don't exactly see eye to eye.
MME. THENARDIER
These bloody students on our street
Here they come slumming once again
Our Eponine--
[Watches Eponine eye Marius from the corner she stands on. She sneaks up on Marius]
MME. THENARDIER (CONT�D)
would kiss their feet
She never had a scrap of brain!
[Marius nearly jumps out of his skin when he turns his head and sees Eponine an inch behind him; staring at him, smiling, with her hands behind her back folded. He smiles nervously]
MARIUS
Eponine, what's up today?
---I haven't seen you much about---
[Eponine stands on her tippy toes. Smiling still]
EPONINE
Here, you can always catch me in.
[Marius backs up slightly-she follows inch for inch]
MARIUS
---Mind the police don't catch you out!
[Eponine takes his books from his hands and holds them behind her back]
EPONINE
Here, what�cha doing with all them books?
[Eponine looks at the books upside down]
EPONINE (CONT�D)
I could have been a student too!
Don't judge a girl on how she looks...
[Eponine hides the books behind her back as Marius tries to grab them]
EPONINE (CONT�D)
I know a lot of things I do!
[Marius shakes his head. Taking his books back as she gives them back]
MARIUS
Poor Eponine, the things you know
You wouldn't find in books like these--
[Eponine reaches a dirty hand up and manages to pet his hair; twirling her finger in a small ringlet]
[Marius freezes thinking her hand is diseased on it�s own. But relaxes, knows she means no harm]
EPONINE
I like the way you grow your hair.
[Marius laughs nervously; removing her hand.]
MARIUS
--I like the way you always tease--
[Eponine playfully knocks the books from his hands.]
[Marius shoulder slumps as he subtly rolls his eyes. He kneels to pick them up.]
[Eponine looks at him longingly.]
[Eponine thinks to herself]
EPONINE
--Little he knows--
--Little he sees--
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Jemibub
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Sorry for the double post--but, last night I finished putting LES MISERABLES through final draft 7 (a program to turn something into script format) 214 pages.
And this is the basic outcome (the strutcture)
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javertim
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In a screenplay, there are never brackets or parentheses around action. Also, the names shouldn't be bold. I'm not trying to be snippy, just letting you know.
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