#2000 les mis

[shitpostingfromthebarricade]

Finally getting around to watching 2000 Les Mis.

[cometomecosette]

Once again, the three classic production photos of Enjolras comforting a crying Marius after Éponine's death.

Because every now and then, they need to be shared.

*John Herrera and Hugh Panaro (US 1st National Tour, 1987)

*Greg Blanchard and Reece Holland (US 2nd National Tour, 1988)

*Jason McCann and Niklas Andersson (London, 2000)

[its-kapi-wara]

"Don't think about it, Marius.

With all the years ahead of us!

I will never go away

And we will be together

Every day.

Every day,

We'll remember that night

And the vow that we made"

Everyday / A Heart Full of Love (reprise)

Random person - "Well, let me get this straight, you think that Marius and Cosette make a lovely couple?"

Me - "I do. And I'm tired of pretending they not."

[moonyjulian]

[milkteahoe]

World ain’t ready is my heartstopper

[demon4dilfs]

Javert’s suicide in les miserables (2000)

[l832]

a series...

[thelionandthelark]

Guys, I have been thinking and I guess we haven't hated Félix Tholomyès as much as we could...

This needs to be changed, this idiot needs to be spoken about and hated properly by this fandom!

[thatisntverycombefair]

genuinely can't remember if I posted this to Tumblr or not so Les mis exr Tumblr have some food

close ups under the cut

insta: capskneecrunchnoises

[ronniesart]

I think they’re neat

[lenievi]

Title: Unwalked Paths

Pairing: Jean Valjean/Javert

Summary: Just a few days ago, Jean Valjean had wanted to flee France. Just a few days ago, he couldn’t sleep out of fear that Javert would find and arrest him, and Cosette would learn everything. The thought of that was unbearable. To see her love change into hatred and disgust would kill him. It would kill him . . . and he was bringing Javert home.

Rating: G-T

Notes: This fic is just catering to me personally. I needed to use Javert walking into the river from Les Misérables 2000 as my starting point because it opens different opportunities, at least for the beginning. I'd be really happy if you give it a try. You don't need to know the adaptation; I'd follow the same trajectory if I were to write a book 'verse fic as well, and I'm tweaking the characterization anyway. I just had these scenes in mind and needed to get them out 🙃

[shitpostingfromthebarricade]

what are your honest opinions on Les Mis 2000

Before receiving this ask, I had only seen a little under half of Les Mis 2000 (French version). In order to provide a fair and complete response to this question, I started over and watched the entire show from beginning to end over the course of 5/6 weeks.

I will provide more details below the cut, but my completely honest opinion on Les Mis 2000?

Looking at the show as a whole, without considering adaptational value, it's scattered and confusing. A lot of storylines get picked up or dropped with little to no explanation, the characters and their motivations make little sense, and the time skips are inconsistent at best (Félix abandons Fantine when she is still pregnant, JVJ is released after Cosette is already 4yo and just being left at the Waterloo Inn/Fantine is already on her way to Montrieul-sur-Mer, Immortal Gav is 12 for ten years, meanwhile Javert undergoes a dramatic appearance change many scenes into the time skip, Cosette ages up when I assume the time skip takes place, and Depardieu [I refuse to call him Valjean] never ages until after the wedding). If you look at the context, it makes sense: they decided to (rather than dubbing after the fact) shoot everything in French and then again in English, so of course performances are going to flag, editing is going to be a mess, and the storyline is going to get lost in the changes they've made while shooting two shows at once.

Which takes me to my next point: as an adaptation, it's also incredibly weak. I don't know if I should be blaming the writer, director, or a terrible combination, but so many elements are not only not accurate to the book (fair enough, if you want book accuracy watch '25 Les Mis or '64 I Mis, or '72 Les Mis for accurate barricades specifically) but seem to totally miss the messages of the book altogether! Fantine was always in trouble before she gets fired (undermines Hugo's message that even doing everything "right" Fantine was still put in an unwinnable position), Javert gets his usual "obsessed with JVJ specifically and also treated as unusually cruel by everyone else" treatment, Gillenormand looks out for this fellow old man who was a gardener and has now been joined into his family by marriage, and Depardieu's character is going to get an entire section below. The Thénardier sex scenes are a lot but ultimately harmless compared to, say, the part where Javert cuts his hair (?) and attends law school with Marius and Enjolras as himself (?), and then later arrests the entire class for treasonous speech. This kind of belongs in the previous editing section, but a lot of the reveals (Marius knowing his neighbors are the Thénardiers, the Thénardiers recognizing the old man in the sewers, Cosette knowing her dad saved Marius, Gillenormand and Marius knowing Cosette's dad's background, Depardieu's character knowing about Javert's death) happen WILDLY out of sequence, and since they are plot-driving sequences, the motivations become confused, the choices make no sense, and you get scenes like Éponine trying to coerce Marius into having sex with her. I kind of liked the switch from jet beads to stinging nettle fabric except again, it didn't matter because Fantine's downfall was so badly done (forget that she turns to sex work immediately, only later selling TEN TEETH and her hair to make ends meet — Javert threatens to [and later does] arrest her for the completely legal profession of sex work before showing her where she can sell her teeth???) and Madeleine was so opposite from everything his character is supposed to be and show.

Which brings us to our next point: yes, in both the English and French versions, Depardieu's performance falls flat, but more importantly, there is an inherent misunderstanding of who and what Jean Valjean is at each phase of his life. I'll be honest, there was a lot going on when he was in prison with Javert tormenting JVJ for fun and the fire that Cochepaille needed saving from and Myriel announcing that he was buying JVJ the same way Judas sold Jesus and Cosette already being with the Thénardiers, so I don't have much feedback about JVJ's characterization or the paper that was yellow like sunshine at that point, but (ignoring the fact that Fantine apparently shows up in Montrieul-sur-Mer with no established factory in sight) then he becomes the most corporate businessman possible, with no regard for the wellbeing of his employees or town who spends all of his time running numbers? The hospital is underfunded, he only rubs elbows with other government officials/bankers, he is painfully out-of-touch with the people of his town, and apparently he doesn't even pay enough for Fantine to be making ends meet even before she is fired. A big part of what JVJ goes through in the book is that he feels like he cannot safely express his feelings about the system to anyone, leading him to act like a scared animal after Petit-Gervais, living in constant fear of being kicked ( @secretmellowblog has a great post about this here), but this Madeleine is CONSTANTLY venting and complaining to anyone who will listen. Not only that, but after he leaves M-sur-M, the police admit to Javert that they knew who he was and just decided to ... leave him be? This isn't a man who's living in fear, and this isn't a man who has to make hard choices in order to do good and help his fellow man. For some reason, Sister Simplice seems to be like 85% of his morality? (and we are very much skimming over the romance subplot that was going on there) So it doesn't even feel like he helps Fantine altruistically, it feels like Sister said "Please help" and Depardieu sighed and went, "Fine, I'll see if I can't pull some strings." When he gets Cosette and begins taking care of her, it feels ENTIRELY self-serving and creepy, and he later confirms with his own words from his own mouth that his feelings for her are not fatherly. He cares about prison reform because he experienced it, not from any sense of altrustic human kindness, and Toussaint ends up robbing him for having taken a chance hiring an ex-convict? (because ofc this Toussaint is a mute manservant, not a maid who can actually help Cosette, because all of Depardieu-Dad's choices are to serve himself, not to keep Cosette safe or happy). By the time Marius is sending Depardieu's character away, it's the only only adaptation that you're cheering on Marius, because this man calling himself Cosette's father who bought her for 1500 francs and still sometimes shares a bed with her and locks her in various rooms and has just admitted his love is not fatherly needs to LEAVE.

Finally — and I will freely admit that this is the pettiest section — the historical accuracy is in shambles. Electricity in the 1820s? 1840s fashions in the 1830s? The hair and makeup are given as errors, but how do you have accurate men's shirts and repeatedly let them wander around without cravats? And no one, not a single person, thought to check 1800s French currency? Sending Cosette off to buy bread with FIVE FRANCS (~$100USD)? Leaving one hundred thousand francs for the funeral of someone who canonically doesn't even have a marked grave? Even the part where Fantine sells her teeth: these were simple numbers they could have checked (two teeth, one napoléon aka twenty francs each — not ten for four each). All of the prices and amounts were in the book. It is not that hard to call the imaginary coin being passed between two characters a sous instead of a franc: we couldn't even see it.

I spent a lot of time thinking about how I would respond to this ask before finally answering, but ultimately, I was asked for my honest opinion, and this is it: it missed the mark for me in every way. I'm sure there are some people who enjoy it, and I am happy for them, but it is not an adaptation that I would recommend to anyone looking for a good Les Mis adaptation or a well-executed show.

[seesboy]

fine. FINE. i guess it's time to formally introduce you guys to the ambiguously late 2000s enjoltaire au that's been stuck in my brain for like a week now. i have ideas for the rest of les amis + others but only had the energy to draw these two losers

oh yeah and there's a fic that goes along with this but it's nowhere near finished at the moment -_- though it's currently sitting at 3.4k words if that's anything

bonus (just a small doodle):

[boa1729]

I wanted to do a 2000s au of Cosette being emo, but but he doesnt even look like Cosette, just a random emo (┬┬﹏┬┬)

Bonus:

(These drawings have weeks apart of being made, i have'nt draw for some time lol)

[afolksongs]

[you-must-me-think-me-mad]

i feel like I'm the only person that actualy likes Les Mis 2000 while everyone in the fandom hates it

i feel isolated and left out

should i stay in the fandom or should i leave