#I was just thinking that the moment where he tells madame thenardier off

[alicedrawslesmis]

I draw Javert really big right cause it's funny that he looks like a walking brick wall

but then I was thinking. what if. cause he's her narrative parallel they're both watchdogs of society, right. What if.

What if I made Éponine be built like a brick wall

I mean she is Madame Thenardier's daughter after all. What if

[not-a-christmas-tree]

i just watched the dallas theatre company les mis here are my observations

IF YOU HAVE NOT WATCHED THIS PRODUCTION I SUGGEST YOU DO! DON’T READ THIS IF YOU DON’T WANT SPOILERS THOUGH!

so, in case you didn’t know: in 2014, Dallas Theatre Company did a modern interpretation of les mis. i just watched it on youtube (i will link it later, i promise) and took SO MANY GODDAMN NOTES so here they are!

ACT ONE 

(Look Down-WHID)

starting out strong! we got some HARSH TRUTHS ABOUT THE JAIL SYSTEM!! blatant police brutality happening BASICALLY the entire first part of the song. it hurts me. 

note on the cops costumes: they legitimately terrify me and they are dressed in like. full riot gear.

okay so,,,valjean wraps the rope from his bag around his neck at the end of WHID. this is interesting bc, a) he’s trying to find a solution as to what he should do after the Bishop and that’s a direction I’ve surprisingly seen no one take, but b) this part has the same melody as javert’s suicide, when javert is ALSO trying to figure out what he should do after his perception on life is altered. for a moment there, they both are on the same page, the page being suicide. however, only one of them takes that choice.

the above makes the lines (in both songs) “i’ll escape now from that world / from the world of valjean” ESPECIALLY interesting because. in two different ways, they did escape, but they ALMOST had the same conclusion for a brief second.

(At The End Of The Day)

in ATEOTD fantine ends up being the last one working, causing everyone to look at her with varying degrees of annoyance or frustration. She do be hardworking doe

OH SHIT KIDS IN THE FACTORY!! three little kids run up to the foreman when he’s giving daily stipends to the ladies!! (they’re also the last to be paid, giving significant sass to foreman who also sasses back)

Girl #5 mockingly calling fantine “innocent sister” when 5 is white and fantine is a WOC...that’s kind of interesting given that that can be read as SERIOUS racial profiling on 5’s part

foreman looks like bob’s boss in the incredibles but like. tall lmao

(I Dreamed A Dream)

her look of like,,shock-but-not when everyone from the factory exits and she takes off her bandana,,,that. that is good acting

her transitions from chest to head voice are so good

i’m kinda sad she isn’t younger?? or just. doesn’t look super young bc fantine is supposed to be like. early twenties. she’s not 45 and had a decently long life before she died, no, she’s young. she was taken advantage of. that’s the whole point. but that’s sUPER little like this lady is way too good

she has the perfect mix of sadness and regret plus anger and shameless hope. like. kudos to you allison blackwell you’re a dope fantine 

the cry on “killed the dream i dreamed” brb sobbing

(The Dock Scenes)

MALE PROSTITUTES I REPEAT!! MALE PROSTITUTES!! (no idea what wig he’s wearing tho. he was done dirty in the wig department) 

oh male prostitute is prostitute #1! 

oh damn there is. lady def on some bad drugs with her kid passing behind fantine on the bench. ouch.

hoo okay they did n o t censor lovely ladies!! (mini note: camera person has the camera down an AWFUL LOT on these docks scenes lmao)

there are cops on the docks. gross.

(Who Am I-Confrontation)

OH SHIT THEY HAVE A FALSE JVJ IN THE BACKGROUND OF WHO AM I 

jvj comforts not-jvj for a second!! (money note was FANTASTIC btw)

fantine being WOC and DYING in a modern hospital also is,,yeesh because. you know. racist doctors. 

jvj cries after fantine dies JUST STAB ME NOW OKAY—

confrontation is really funny when u see that javert has a GUN and jvj has A CHAIR

JVJ DID THE LIL RUN ON “live within my care” YAAAAY

(COAC-Master Of The House)

oh boy baby cosette,,so small,,so pure plus classic baby head shake when she sings I STAN

MADAME T LOOKS—OH GOOD GOD

DID SHE SPIT ON MY BABY--

cosette: “please do not send me out alone—“ madame t: “oooooh my gOOOOOD” omg 

what the fuck is thenardiers hair i—

WHAT THE FUCK IS THENARDIER IN G E N E R A L

random idea regarding thenardier’s prison tattoo: he has the same number on his chest that jvj has. Meaning he was in jail too. so why isn’t he as messed up as jvj? i wanna say maybe he was in for less time, but like. I doubt it. However, he has a whole ass gang. did the thenardier gang break their boss out of jail? please say yes 

him listing things for baby éponine to charge i love it

OH MY GOD THENARDIER FLAUNTS HIS NUMBER WHILE JVJ DOESNT!! jvj hides his past because he believes it will get him into better places (it does, he becomes mayor for god’s sake) while thenardier shows off his past with stubborn pride. while thenardier cheats his way to success, jvj lives an almost honest life where he ultimately suffers due to the stress all the hiding he does gives him

i love that éponine looks like neither of her parents,,,madame t got around huh? 

(The Bargain)

I JUST REALIZED THE STAGE HAS A CATWALK DOWN THE CENTER INTO THE AUDIENCE THAT IS THE COOLEST OMG

Instead of madame correcting thenardier on cosette’s name he asks cosette herself which prompts the CUTEST ANGRY YELL OF “it’s cosette!” I HAVE EVER SEEN

also thenardier fuckin MANHANDLING cosette i’m DYING

JVJ LOVES HER SM I AM SOFTTT

(The Beggars)

omg marius is so ADORABLE i love him

gavroche is a style icon

kid holding sign saying “my mom got laid off” POOR BB

i love éponine

that’s it that’s the note

wait a sec was that montparnasse with the prostitute earlier in beggars??

ALSO I SEE AZELMA AND OTHER THENARDIER KIDS PRESENT FOR “turn on the tears!!” THANK YOU FOR UTILIZING THAT LINE PROPERLY

why does enj have a bat?? If it;s not a bat then,,,what is it? someone please help me

marius saves cosette from bad guy gang!! 🥰🥰

bruh javert misses jvj running by like,,,MAYBE two seconds that is hilarious 

jav looks so done when thenardier is trying to get out of this lmao i love it

javert looks so cop-like it scares me

(Stars)

the line “safe behind bars” in stars kind of kills me here because as the audience you SEE the cruelty that the convicts face. you see the guy on the ground getting beaten you SEE the chains around their throats and yet. yet javert still somehow thinks that putting jvj in jail is safe? i think the thing to focus on here is not whether it’s safe, because it obviously isn’t. the focus is who it’s safer for, jean valjean or javert?

has it always been “your father” rather than “her father” when marius asks éponine to find where cosette lives?? if they changed it that is SMART because yk. jvj would be ALARMED if he found out he’d been found by éponine but he wouldn’t hurt her. he’s not the guy she has to worry about, it’s her own father. thenardier gave her a job and she’s straying from it, he’s what would endanger her.

THE PLAYFUL BOOP AND SHOVE FROM MARIUS 🥺🥺🥺

(The ABC Café)

“note-ruh daym”

hee hee pretty enjolras

pretty enjolras in skinny jeans even better

OOH we have,,,angry enjolras in this version o k a y

grantaire raises his hand before agog/aghast part omg

“i’ve never heard him ooOOOOh and aAAAAh *excited squeal*

“dan joo-wan” i love texas

bossuet spotted :)

longing gay looks NOT spotted :(

i love enjolras okay but this one is just,,,a little too aggressive. enjolras isn’t just angry all the time, he’s not that one dimensional. of course, there is more of the show to see and i hope he changes a little bit, but so far red and black isn’t doing much for me. enjolras is hopeful, not just angry.

A CAPELLA SECTION IN RED AND BLACK?? I think YES

the amis finding out lamarque is dead has “fuck trump just won the election” energy

okay i was hoping that enj would change his aggression thing when they find out lamarque is dead (bc that’s when most enjolrai figure out what may happen and kinda sober up yk) but. it doesn’t look like he did. there is hope for barricade scenes

OMG LIL NOTE ON COMBEFERRE GIVING OUT FLYERS TO AUDIENCE MEMBERS: that is fucking pERFECT and yk why?? because it’s a call to action!! it’s less obvious in DYHTPS because they’re mostly singing to each other but later in epilogue when the words and melody is repeated, it’s meant as a call to action! “will you join in our crusade, who will be strong and stand with me?” is a cALL TO ACTION AND THEY ARE HANDING FLYERS TO AUDIENCE MEMBERS—that’s officially the only way to break the fourth wall THANK YOU 

hey fantine doubles as a student i think!!

HARMONIES ARE C L E A N OOOOH

(In My Life-Heart Full Of Love)

okay yes i already love cosette because she plays awkward-teen-in-love-for-the-first-time PERFECTLY. 

book-ish cosette hell yes a cutie

father-daughter forehead kisses 🥺

awkward mARIUS TIMEEEEE

placing marius, éponine, and cosette in a triangle is a MARVELOUS decision thank u for that symbolism

marius checking if he looks good and ép giving him a thumbs up omg

*aggressively tries to sit normally* same cosette

*awkward curtsy* also same cosette 

(Attack On Rue Plumet)

robbery time let’s see how they do this

ooh marius and cosette run off but i can’t tell if they notice gang before running

thenardier fuckin SLICES éponine after her scream

NOOOO HER LIL WHIMPER AFTER BEING THREATENED AGAIN

(One Day More)

this lil part between robbery and one day more is interesting bc i legit have NO idea what jvj is thinking here. he keeps looking between his watch (i think it’s a watch idk) and cosette after she runs off to pack so like. what. is he doing here bc he looks like he’s choosing between two things but i don’t,,know,,what things

red berets on the amis are dope btw

i think marius is discussing what to do with éponine here, which is FUN because we all know why she goes to the barricade in the brick :’) éponine might be convincing marius to go to the barricade knowing this is her chance to die with him like in the book

omg

OMG

OMG

that stomp bit with the students was the coolest fucking thing i’ve ever seen

END OF ACT ONE

act two will be posted shortly :D

[meta-squash]

A ramble on Dallas Theater Center Les Miserables

So, 5 years late, I jumped back on the bandwagon and finally watched a bootleg of Dallas Theater Center’s 2014 production of Les Miserables.

And wow. I can’t believe I waited 5 damn years to watch it. So here’s a long rambling write up on it based on the live-tweeting I was doing as I watched (and a little bit on me skipping through the bootleg video right now). It’s partly just me summarizing scenes so I can nerd out about the little details I loved and towards the end me talking about the show as a whole and why it was so fucking important.

First of all I wanna say that I'm surprised it took this long for a professional theater company to do a "modern day" Les Mis. I know all the fans fucking love their Modern AUs fics, I've been reading them since like 2012 and I love them. But also I'm SO glad someone finally did it because Les Miserables' themes are universal and they are amazing but they're also really relevant to what's going on today, or 5 years ago (since it's only gotten fucking worse tbh).

My first big impression was how great the costuming was. You can tell the socioeconomic class of the characters just from what they’re wearing, from how they posture and interact with others. Which is easy when it’s period costuming, you just make everyone look dirty and ripped up vs not dirty, but this (aside from the Thenardiers) is a little more subtle.

Also re: the costuming, I absolutely LOVE that they modernized Javert’s costume into a cop’s uniform but managed to retain the classic Javert Silhouette by giving him that trenchcoat, so we still get the expected Inspector Javert Silhouette despite the fact that he’s a modern day cop. Also all of the other cops/soldiers being straight up SWAT was an excellent decision, not only because it shows the sheer violence of a police that isn’t supposed to necessarily be SWAT, but also because the helmets completely cover their heads, so when the soldiers sing lines, they don’t even sound human. Yet another layer.

Nehal Joshi as Valjean was great. Honestly the moment I keep thinking about is actually from the very beginning, just after Valjean is released. Joshi looks so happy, delighted, like his heart is light again. He smiles as he sings “ Drink from the pool / How clean the taste” while looking up into the sky like he’s amazed at being in the open air. Then suddenly his posture changes completely, becomes guarded and hard, his expression gets closed off, and he sings “Never forget the years, the waste” before thumbing at his nose in that tough way and grabbing his bag off the ground. It was an emphasis on a pair of lines that I’ve never seen properly emphasized before. Usually the emphasis is on the next lines, when Valjean is saying “Now let’s see / what this new world has in store for me”. But here they emphasize that despite being free, he has traumas he has to deal with, and experiences that mean he’s wary of the world. It makes his theft of the silver make a lot more sense; it’s not just opportunistic, it’s also that he straight up doesn’t trust anybody.

(Another note on costumes: Valjean’s post-prison costume is his orange jumpsuit with this weird ratty, torn up sweater thing over it. I do very much wish they’d given him a hoodie that was equally as ratty instead of a sweater because I feel like that would’ve been another interesting layer of commentary.)

Two notes I made specifically about this production’s Soliloquy: This production had Valjean rip his prison papers accidentally, while he’s in the middle of an emotional gesture, then he stares at the rip in disbelief, and comes to the realization that he could just rip it up, and so he does. I thought that was a very cool mechanic. The audience literally watches him get the idea of changing who he is. Also, when he sings “I am reaching, but I fall / And the night is closing in” he actually wraps the rope of his bag around his own neck, like he’s considering death, like he doesn’t know what to do with himself. I thought it was really interesting considering those are the lines that directly mirror/parallel Javert’s Suicide.

This production also has all the Bad People roles played by white people, which is just fantastic. The foreman, Javert, all the cops, etc etc. I thought it was an excellent decision, since all of the main characters (minus the revolutionaries) are POC.

Fantine was amazing, has an incredible voice, and her I Dreamed A Dream sounded genuinely miserable, almost frantic with the fact that not only is she a single mother struggling to pay for her child who’s living with some other family, she now has nowhere to turn for money at all, and she’s completely alone. I think she’s my favorite Fantine of any of the ones I saw.

And Lovely Ladies absolutely blew me away. This was the first Lovely Ladies I’ve ever seen that felt Real. Not just that there was sex going on (because there was, there’s people fucking and getting blowjobs etc in the background the entire time), but it doesn’t feel like something silly or shallow. The entire thing feels desperate and exploitative and miserable and painful. Most of the other characters are dressed in provocative, revealing clothes. But there are a few in just jeans and t-shirts, looking desperate and kind of bedraggled. And then you have Fantine, who is literally just in a slip and long socks, looking out of place and terrified.

The usual Lovely Ladies shenanigans do ensue, but there’s a tinge of horribleness to it that is sharper than in the traditional show. In the traditional show, the moment where the music suddenly slows, and all the women sing “Lovely ladies / Going for a song / Got a lot of callers / But they never stay for long”, it usually feels like kind of a weird and unprompted moment of introspection after so much ruckus, but in this version the reason everyone slows down is because the pimp plucks their cash out of each of their hands one by one. And then the horribleness is increased tenfold because all of the women are in a line with men behind them simulating sex, and Fantine is in the center, bent double, the Captain behind her, staring down the audience. With each thrust she grits her words out like she’s in pain in every way imaginable. And the Captain ‘finishes’ just as she hits the line “dead!” Which is just. A lot. But so good. It packs so much more of a punch than Fantine leading the Captain offstage, or to one side of the stage.

The way that Confrontation was staged was also so cool to me. In the shows I’ve seen the first part of Confrontation is Javert and Valjean facing off with Javert stage left and Valjean kind of up beside Fantine’s bed, but they’re on the same “level,” in that Valjean walks a few paces forward a few lines later and they grapple. In this version, they stood quite literally on either side of Fantine’s hospital bed, so that they’re arguing across her dead body.

Madame Thenardier made me think of a bizarre cross between Miss Hannigan, the mom from Matilda, and Patsy Stone from Absolutely Fabulous. She did a great job. M Thenardier is a douchey hipster pirate type guy with white guy dreads. Also they made him an ex-con as well, but he displays the numbers tattooed on his chest with pride compared to Valjean who hides them, which was yet another interesting decision.

This version of Les Mis has taught me that “My mom doesn’t let me drink” is the absolute BEST piece of spoken dialogue you could throw in before Master Of The House kicks the fuck off. 

Also this version has Eponine participating in the scams during Master Of The House: she takes peoples’ orders, carries plates, dances, etc. She’s cleaner and more pampered than Cosette, but she’s still being used.

Look Down was really interesting to me. Now, I think what I’m about to say is partly informed by costuming. That is, I think with period costuming an audience has a harder time distinguishing more subtle roles between (non-main) characters. What I mean is, in traditional Look Down, it just seems like three characters having an argument with each other, but with a modernized version the costuming makes it clear that it’s an old beggar woman, a prostitute, and her pimp. While that’s obvious from the actual dialogue, the period costuming makes it a little harder to glean the separate character types other than “beggar type”. Anyway, the roles being clearer via costuming makes all the interactions seem a lot more Real. It’s not just people all dressed alike singing lines at each other, it’s actual separate people having actual conflicts.

Also, I really really liked Mark Hancock as Gavroche. He’s older, or at least bigger, than most kids who end up playing Gavroche, and he’s not the most beautiful singer, but I think that works all the better for a production like this one. He’s not a cutesy Oliver Twist-type character. He’s a kid living rough on the streets, and he’s got a sense of humor but he is a badass.

This version also had a LOT more flirtatious behavior between Marius and Cosette. Like it’s not just one glance on the street. During The Robbery, Marius and Cosette are giving little glances and flirty waves the whole time, all shy and cute, little hand signals like “I want to talk to you oh my god” etc. Also this Cosette has glasses! She’s so cute!

Stars as a song feels very weird when it’s a Modern Day Cop singing about such a philosophical topic, and at first I was kinda ??? about it. Because you know, in a period piece, you kind of expect more elaborate language, you expect certain types of morality, etc. It sounds weird coming out of someone dressed like a pig you’d see on the street in real life. But then at the end of the song Javert takes a rosary out of his breast pocket to sing “Lord let me find him...” etc, and suddenly it actually made a lot of sense. It finally connected the religious references and morality displayed in the lyrics. Because a lot of shitty cops in real life are masquerading as Christians, so again, a good decision.

Ah, the ABC Cafe. Always lovely to hear those horns. John Campione was AMAZING as Enjolras. At first I was a little disappointed they made him a white guy, but then I thought about it and it actually makes a lot of sense. Despite his passion about justice etc, Brick Enjolras is a wealthy student; what better way to show his privilege in a modern setting than to have him be white? Anyway, I think Campione did a great job of portraying a leader who is so passionate, and so dedicated, and so intent on his cause but also kind of stressed out as the day draws nearer. (More on that later.)

Similarly, this Grantaire is a little shit. He does this hilarious like “call on me!” hand raise before “I am agog, I am aghast” which I thought was quite funny and cute. Also after “It’s better than an opera,” the Amis all laugh and clap, and Enjolras does this extremely sarcastic slow clapping before admonishing Marius with “It is time for us all to decide who we are” etc. Also Grantaire and Enjolras are actually standing beside each other for Marius lines, so that when he says “struck to the bone in a moment of breathless delight,” Grantaire looks directly at Enjolras and stays staring at him, so that when he moves downstage to stand across from Marius and sing “Red!” and “Black!” at him, it feels more like solidarity than mocking.

But then Enjolras pulls Marius further downstage for his “Marius you are no longer a child” etc lines. His body language is great here. When he sings “Who cares about your lonely soul,” he doesn’t just look like some charismatic leader man. He looks like someone who’s stressed out and a little annoyed/exasperated that this person is causing a distraction right when things are started to get important. He runs his hands through his hair, his gestures are clipped and fast, like he’s got too much energy and isn’t quite sure where to put it. It’s so good. He sings “Our little lives don’t count at all.” And then there’s a long, long moment of silence. A long one, where Marius looks around at his friends and realization that what they’re undertaking is much bigger than his emotional outburst, that Enjolras is right and he has to be with them instead of off in the clouds. And he raises his hand tentatively and then more surely towards Enjolras and sings that next “Red! The blood of angry men!” all on his own before the rest of the Amis join in. GREAT decisions there. SO COOL. (Also this is the moment when an Amis Hand Sign is established, which is important later on.)

This show uses silence in a way that I’ve never really seen another version do it. After Gavroche yells “General Lamarque is dead!” there’s usually a beat of silence before Enjolras begins to sing. In this version there is a long, long moment of silence when everyone looks around at each other, a moment where Joly tosses his pamphlet angrily onto the table and sits down with his head in his hands, a moment where Marius and Grantaire are the only two who turn away and face upstage at the news, a moment where they all process that this is fucking Real, and everything that they’ve been planning is suddenly Actually Happening. And then Enjolras begins, and his voice is so soft, and so sad, and it’s like he’s delivering a eulogy, but it’s only when he gets to “Is the sign we await!” and we get those trumpets that it changes into Enjolras The Leader, and it’s go time, and everything is Intense. Campione is fantastic as Enjolras because I think often people play Enjolras as this solid, charismatic leader who is stoney-faced and sure of himself etc. Which works for the period style (and is fairly Brick-accurate), but I think would seem a little odd in a modern day setting. This Enjolras is in it, he’s into it, he’s fucking intense and ablaze with energy. He sings Do You Hear The People Sing like he’s giving a speech, like he’s trying to convince (And “the real glory is to convince” so y’know).

And Do You Hear The People Sing as a campaigning song is brilliant. It starts out not with march, but with handing out fliers made of red paper, passing them out and getting out the word. Only then do they pull out signs and put on red caps and start marching.

In My Life/A Heart Full Of Love was so fucking hilariously cute. Marius and Cosette are both excellent levels of awkward, and there’s a lot of nonverbal flirting going on, and I just thought it was really well done.

I was told while I was live-tweeting that during One Day More the sort of dancing march they do (because it’s like a dance, instead of the in-place marching of the traditional version) is actually the Toyi-Toyi, a South African dance that was used as a form of protest during Apartheid and during other times as well. So that was a very cool addition. I’m sure there are other callbacks in this show to other protests or protest traditions like that that I didn’t even catch. The dance also reminded me of the body percussion used in A Quoi Tu Danses from 1789: Les Amants De La Bastille, so that was cool as well. We also get face paint and signs and red berets and button pins and a lot of stuff that has been seen in a lot of modern protests/movements lately.

Side note: Javert’s disguise is amazing because he retains his cop boots and trousers and crisp white shirt; he just puts a brown jacket and a red scarf over it and wears a red beret.

OKay SO. This is possibly the BEST On My Own I’ve ever seen. Now, I’m highly partial to Briana Carlson-Goodman as Eponine because the emotion in her voice is just mind-blowing. But this On My Own was so amazing. First of all, I’m amazed I’ve never seen any other production do this: when Eponine sings “pretending he’s beside me”, she puts out her hand like she’s holding some imaginary lover’s hand, like she’s genuinely imagining him walking with her, and it made her self-deception that much sadder. And this version was so good, I think because it was this perfect combination of angry and disappointed and yearning and self-deceiving. You can tell this Eponine KNOWS she’s deluding herself that Marius will ever love her, that she’s hugely disappointed and almost angry at that fact, but she still loves him and wants him and wants that love, and it just makes that self-deception all the stronger.

This version of Les Mis brings the barricade in as a flown set piece, which I think is an interesting decision. I definitely prefer the US Tour version, where the downstage scrim is backlit/lifted and both the audience and Eponine are suddenly confronted with the fully-built barricade. However, the barricade being flown in does give the Barricade Boys a moment to stand and admire their handiwork, so that’s kind of also cool.

(Somewhat unrelated, but throughout the show this Grantaire is a lot more still than other actors’ versions of R, but also more still than the other Amis in this show, so it’s clearly a choice. Other version of R are slumped over a table or slumped on the ground a lot, or they’re wobbly, or just generally restless and upset. This R is so still and just standing unmoved and blank it’s definitely a choice. Very much taking the “he seemed to be waiting there for a bullet which should spare him the trouble of waking” quote from the Brick and translating it to the stage version, in that he does move to shoot his gun but aside from that he’s so stock still it’s like he’s given up. Anyway. Back to the actual show instead of me just waxing lyrical about my favorite character.

When Eponine climbs over the barricade, Marius waves down all the guns just as Joly yells “There’s a boy climbing the barricade!” This kind of happens in other versions, but it seems like most of the traditional Les Mis versions all the Barricade Boys just kind of accept someone’s climbing the barricade and let Eponine over? In this one Marius like actually is waving down their guns, blatantly being like “don’t shoot, I know this person.”

And when Eponine is revealed to be shot, they don’t just let her die in Marius’ arms. The first half of A Little Fall Of Rain is sung with Eponine in Marius’ arms, but there’s also Feuilly there as a medic, pressing handkerchiefs to her wound, his hand on her with Marius’ hand on top of his and Eponine’s on top of them both. When Marius is saying “and you will live ‘Ponine,” medic/Feuilly shakes his head at him as if to say, ‘don’t tell her that, she’s not going to make it, I’m so sorry,’ but he still has his hand on her wound. It’s only when she sings “Just hold me now, and let it be” that Eponine pushes the medic/Feuilly away so she can die just with Marius. I really, really, really loved that because it seems so Right. Like, they’re fighting for a better world, they’re not just going to let an injured person die, they’re going to try their best to help her even if she’s dying and there’s nothing they can do. And I really liked that there was a medic there, but he was faced upstage, away from the audience, as if he was trying to help but also not intrude on this private moment. But when Eponine does push him away, he goes fairly easily, like he’s realized that she’s realized that she’s going to die. Also, instead of carrying Eponine offstage like a ragdoll, Grantaire and Feuilly bring over a stretcher and she’s carried off in it by Marius and Feuilly while Grantaire collects the handkerchiefs that were bloodied by her wound.

Valjean’s soldier disguise is the SWAT gear, even the helmet, although he mostly carries it in his hand rather than wearing it. It’s interesting because the difference between the SWAT gear and the suits he wears as Fauchelevent are a hugely stark difference, whereas the difference between his nice period clothes and the soldier’s period uniform isn’t quite so intense.

I noticed that during Drink With Me, Joly put his hand on Grantaire’s shoulder during “Let the wine of friendship never run dry,” which is sweet. I also noticed that aside from the moments where he was shooting his gun and the few moments he was being helpful re: Eponine’s death, Grantaire spends most of his time very very still, staring down at the floor with his shoulders slumped. He judges moments with just a shake of the head and turning away while others watch. His part in Drink With Me is sung with a bitterness that is more final than it is angry, like he can’t understand why they’ve all chosen to sacrifice themselves like this and he hates it and he’s bitter that all his friends are going to die but he’s realized there’s nothing he can do about it.

Bring Him Home is SUCH a hard song to sing and it’s actually really interesting in this version, I think. Because in traditional shows I think Valjean is played as a fairly calm person who is just always calm. Joshi plays his Valjean like he has taught himself to be calm, but inside he’s still kind of angry and traumatized and still has those instincts and still doesn’t quite know whether to believe in god or not, or something like that. So Bring Him Home is a moment where it seems like at first he’s just hoping, and then by the end of the song he’s genuinely imploring god to save Marius. Like it’s the first time he’s ever really begged a higher power to do something instead of just acting of his own power to make the good happen. I have no idea if I’m articulating myself well.

Again, Campione is a FANTASTIC Enjolras who plays him like a stressed out passionate leader who is constantly stuck between This Is Finally Real Hooray and Holy Shit This Is Too Fucking Real Oh God. In The Second Attack he portrays it really well, looking around at all the people he suddenly feels responsible for, body language like he’s trying to make too many split-second decisions. It’s just really good.

Death Of Gavroche is also great because even though this Gavroche is not the best singer, he gets shot once and keeps reaching for the bullets, and only stops when they riddle him with bullets. Also, I didn’t realize this until skipping around in the video to write this, but I think they kind of tried to retain some of the Gavroche-Grantaire relationship that the US Tour established? Grantaire goes from being kinda listless stage left to bolting over to the barricade once Gavroche starts climbing, reaching for him desperately; he gets shot in the leg and goes down and spends the rest of Gavroche’s lines up to his death with his head in his hands. Once Gavroche dies, Enjolras actually checks on Grantaire and wraps a tourniquet around his leg while Feuilly and Marius tend to Gavroche’s body.

Marius gets a thigh injury during The Final Battle (we know this because this production shows Actual Blood! Gavroche is actually bleeding! Eponine, too! And Marius! And Enjolras! Like there’s actual red and it makes it so much more intense! Anyway, Marius gets a bullet to the thigh, which frankly I think makes a lot more sense than the shoulder injury he gets in canon at least in terms of him being unconscious for so long (although I guess in canon he also has at least one head injury so meh). Anyway, Valjean sees it and immediately tourniquets him as one by one all the revolutionaries are picked off by bullets.

This Enjolras death is my favorite I’ve ever seen. We don’t get a permets-tu scene, but that’s okay because this is fantastic in another way. Enjolras doesn’t die on the barricade.

Enjolras is standing center stage, the bodies of his friends around him. He’s shot once, in the stomach, and goes down on all fours. As he’s on the floor, SWAT cops surround him, pointing machine guns straight at him. Enjolras struggles up, standing, and faces the cops and the audience. He raises his hand in a defiant fist to the air and is shot in the head.

Then there is a long, long stretch of silence. Quite literally an entire minute (I just counted) of silence, where there is no music, no speaking, nothing. Just the sounds of SWAT walking around, checking the bodies on the floor, and the indistinct sound of walky-talky chatter. Only after a whole minute of silence has passed and the SWAT leave the stage do the little plucked notes and the clarinet playing the Bring Him Home instrumental begin as Valjean stands up.

Valjean actually goes over and checks Enjolras’ pulse to see if he could possibly be alive, which I think hurts A Lot. And then there’s a moment where he looks around at all the bodies on the floor and kind of doubles over in shock, but only for a moment, and then he’s bolting back over to Marius to make sure he’s still breathing and then heaving him up into his arms.

(By the way, the bodies of the revolutionaries remain onstage through all of the proceeding songs.)

Dog Eat Dog is a boring, crap song in every production, and this one is no exception. The guy playing Thenardier is quite good but there’s really no way to redeem how boring a song Dog Eat Dog is. Also, this version cuts out the long instrumental part of Valjean walking with Marius through the sewer due to the fact that they don’t have that crazy projection thing. Instead it’s just a few seconds of him dragging Marius before encountering Thenardier and then also a few seconds before encountering Javert. Also, Valjean straight up puts his chest against Javert’s gun while he’s asking to save Marius’ life. Brave as fuck.

Okay this Javert’s Suicide was mostly really really good. Edward Watts gives Javert this sort of frantic emotion that Valjean spared him on the barricade and then is only asking to save this stranger. He looks genuinely freaked out and distressed. It’s not just confusion, it’s like actual Freaking Out. The only part I didn’t like was the actual throwing himself off the bridge part, but honestly I feel like there really is no way to do that part in a way that isn’t a little ridiculous-seeming. It’s hard to have a show where they never had any sort of fly rigs or any special types of practical effects at all and then suddenly there’s a guy flying through the air? and take that seriously. I dunno. But in any case, the rest of it is really good because the frantic confusion and questioning and anger and sadness and everything is so well done. Also, he takes his cross out of his pocket and drops it on the ground before he jumps, like he believes even god has failed him.

And then the lights return and the bodies of the revolutionaries are still onstage, with police tape cordoning them off. Turning begins with women in black mourning clothes coming onstage: at first they stand behind the tape with candles and flowers and teddy bears, then someone breaks the tape and they move to sit beside the bodies and set flowers down beside them. As Turning is going on, as the women move to sit beside the bodies, Marius also enters and sits in a chair upstage.

So Empty Chairs At Empty Tables happens with the bodies of the revolutionaries lying on the floor right in front of Marius, and women in black kneeling beside the bodies, facing upstage. But as Marius sings “Phantom faces at the window, phantom shadows on the floor,” the revolutionaries rise and move downstage, looking at him. They all make their little group hand sign before exiting, until it’s just Enjolras looking at him, then he makes the sign as well and exits and Marius is left alone with the mourning women in front of him and his hand raised in farewell. It’s just SO GOOD because I think it makes it all the more real. It feels like he’s actually singing to the bodies of his friends as well as their memories, like he’s full of survivor’s guilt and he’s watching them walk away from him and doesn’t know what to do. Combining the Turning Women’s mourning with Marius’ mourning is really cool, because it shows it’s really not just Marius that’s affected by this, and essentially he’s singing Empty Chairs for himself as well as the women in mourning kneeling on the stage before him.

Side note: Dorcas Leung, who plays Cosette, is a True Fucking Soprano. Her voice is SO high. It’s wild. Like, really wild. Like, glass-breaking high but in a good way. Also she’s really cute.

Anyway, the next thing I took note of was Valjean telling Marius why he was leaving without telling Cosette goodbye. He sings “Promise me, Monsieur, Cosette will never know” and puts his hand out in a way that’s partially imploring, and partially asking for a handshake on the promise. Marius says “For the sake of Cosette, it must be so,” but pointedly does not shake his hand. He’s going to honor the promise but he’s not gonna fucking like it.

Wedding Chorale/Beggars At The Feast is mostly unremarkable except that Mme Thenardier is dressed like Cruella de Ville. Oh, and Thenardier gets a kick in the balls instead of a punch to the face from Marius. Also the actor who played Combeferre and the actor who played Bossuet are dancing together so during Beggars At The Feast when Thenardier sings “This one’s a queer, but what can you do?”, the Combeferre actor does a little wave.

I’ve always hated in the musical that Valjean goes from being perfectly healthy to straight up dying in a matter of minutes but I also understand that montages of like a year are hard to do in musical format, so I forgive it but it’s still annoying.

Anyway, this Epilogue is FUCKING FANTASTIC. Valjean does this beautiful laugh of relief and amazement when Fantine tells him “And you will be with god” like he’s still amazed after all these years that he’s a Good Person Who Deserves Heaven.

Also, Fantine sits down on the bench beside Valjean, and then when Marius and Cosette enters, Cosette runs and sits down between Valjean and Fantine, facing Valjean, and there’s a moment where Fantine smiles in disbelief and strokes Cosette’s hair like “oh my god this is my daughter!”

Finally, the fucking kicker for me: “Take my hand, I’ll lead you to salvation / Take my love, for love is everlasting.” That’s always the moment in the show when I start actually crying and this one made it even sadder: Eponine is not the only one to enter in that moment. Eponine enters singing the duet with Fantine like usual, but Enjolras and Gavroche also enter, standing behind her, not singing.

This was such a great, fascinating, unique decision, and I fucking loved it. Because with that group, you have all the types of love and belief that are Important in the Brick: Fantine, the love of a mother. Valjean, the love of a father and the faith and belief that comes from someone else suddenly believing in you and the goodness that is a result of that. Marius and Cosette, romantic love, but also love of children and chosen family. Eponine, unrequited love and sacrifice. Gavroche, not necessarily love but an innocent death, a death from the goodness that comes from wanting to help. And Enjolras, the love of the people, the belief in the people, love of patria and the belief in justice. Just all of these important symbols standing together.

Then Do You Hear The People Sing reprise starts up, and the rest of the cast enter and stand at the edges of the stage around the group at center before everyone scatters out and spreads across the stage.

So basically that was an incredible fucking show. Like, okay. Since joining the Les Mis fandom in late 2011-ish or something I've read A LOT of Les Mis fanfics, I've read the entire book, seen the show live half a dozen times plus a ton of filmed boots and movie adaptations and last year's BBC miniseries. I've got a Les Mis tattoo and I'm vaguely thinking of getting another one. I've read fanfic taking place in canon era, modern day, Mai 1968, the 90s, the 40s, and on and on. All of them are important because all of them interpret the themes differently. Basically what I'm saying is I've consumed A Lot of Les Miserables.

But this version of Les Mis is So Important. Like, it's important enough I'm really surprised they didn't give in to the call for a DVD recording back in 2014.

Because the difference between like, the traditional version of the show, and reading a modern day AU fanfiction, and this Dallas show is that this Dallas show is In Front Of You. It's important because you're used to seeing this show with 19th century clothes and 19th century mannerisms so you don't necessarily connect it to today, or you do on a surface level only.

And in fanfics you can imagine it, but it's not the same.

But this show takes the music we all know and the characters we all know and places it in front of us NOW. We get Valjean in an orange jumpsuit, posturing like we've seen people posture in real life. We get Enjolras in a denim vest and button pins. We get Fantine, a woman of color, being fired for having a child out of wedlock and being accused of prostitution, and having to actually turn to prostitution. And we get a depiction that shows so viscerally how horrible that is. We get white people as cops (SWAT, no less) while POC are abused.

Suddenly this is a show that connects on every level.

And not only that but the visuals of the actual rebellion can be connected to so many movements and protests and things that have happened in recent years. Like with the Toyi-Toyi. And all the signs and pins and face paint and weapons and clothes and even to some extent the barricade.

And the cops going from soldiers with bayonets (which, to be fair, back in the day were pretty daunting weapons with their triangular blades, but we don't see them that way) to SWAT with helmets that black out their faces and semi-automatics is a a hard-hitting message.

And I've always thought it was funny that people who see the show casually think it's about Marius & Cosette's romance. Because that’s not all it’s about, of course. But this version made me really, really realize how little that romance matters in the musical. How much the musical is about Valjean, and then in tandem about the rebellion. Because place the whole "I've known you a day and I'm in love" thing in a modern setting and you realize how ridiculous it is, and how much more important Valjean's growth is, and how much more important the movement and the rebellion is. I mean the entire book is just about the Power Of Love And Belief In All Its Forms etc etc. But I think this version pointed out better than any other how many other forms of love exist in this story, besides the romance of Marius and Cosette.

But truly I think the most important thing that this show did is what I mentioned earlier: it placed the story, its themes, its characters, its rebellion, it's Love and Belief, in the Here And Now, and made it really, truly connect with its audience and the present world. This is a show that people always say is so relevant, so important, and it is. It really is. But sometimes, for a casual viewer, it’s hard to see past the period costumes and sets. And then you transplant the show into modern dress and modern sets and suddenly it’s a story that is just as believable and hard-hitting and important now as it was then. Suddenly you can connect with these characters and you can see these things happening in real life, in present day, and you can believe that it would happen.

It just blows my mind that we have all these Modern AU fanfiction pieces, that we have multiple groups of people doing Modern Les Mis Youtube interpretations, that there’s a Spanish musical out there that’s purely about Grantaire (which, god I wish there was more info on!), that there’s a ton of music and TV adaptations and yet this is the first time I’ve seen a professional company do any sort of modern interpretation of the show. And it works SO incredibly well and is SO hard-hitting and just took my breath away.

Uh so yeah such massive praise to the Dallas Theater Center for having the courage and imagination and awesomeness to finally do a modern version of this story because they knocked it out of the damn park and made an already important story even more important.

[bbclesmis]

Director Tom Shankland: From Punisher to Period Drama

The BAFTA and Emmy-nominated director talks about keeping Zen whilst battling a storm on Les Misérables and his chameleonic approach to genres

This month saw director Tom Shankland’s epic six-part BBC adaptation of Les Misérables draw to a close. Featuring an all-star cast including Olivia Colman, Lily Collins, Dominic West, and David Oyelowo, the songless adaptation breathes fresh contemporary relevance into the 19th century tale. No stranger to painting vivid worlds and bringing timeless stories and characters to life, Tom is responsible for directing high-profile feature films and series such as The Punisher, House of Cards, Luke Cage, The Missing, and WΔZ.

In this interview, the director, who is represented by Great Guns for branded content, reveals how he and his committed cast conquered a myriad of challenges to bring the colossal project to life, and how he changes gears from sledgehammer gore to period masterpiece. 

Q> Your most recent work - the BBC adaptation of Les Misérables - stars an impressive British cast including Olivia Colman, David Oyelowo, Lily Collins and Dominic West. What was it like working with them?

Tom> Victor Hugo’s story features some of the most iconic characters in literary history. I always wanted our version to dig deep into what made these characters tick, whilst also making their world feel as viscerally real as possible. I didn’t want anything too stately or ‘chocolate-box’-y, it absolutely had to have grit and soul - something only possible with a cast who were prepared to go to some extreme places.

I vividly remember filming the sewer scenes on a freezing night in Belgium; Dominic West [playing Jean Valjean] hurling himself into the mud, rain and river, whilst carrying Josh O'Connor [playing Marius Pontmercy] on his back. They were a tough couple of days but Dominic looked so epic in those shots.

Similarly, Lily Collins [Fantine] told me that she was really up for being pushed - words every director loves to hear! With that instruction, as soon as she arrived from sunny California to our -10℃ set, I had the location staff switch off every heater in Fantine’s set so Lily would really feel the cold and the camera could pick up her breath.

Olivia Colman [Madame Thenardier], one of the loveliest people in the world, was virtually in tears every time she had to do a scene where she beat Cosette. Whereas Lia Giovanelli, who played little Cosette, loved every minute!

Every actor dug incredibly deep every day and I marvelled at the way they shed all ego and completely disappeared into their characters and the world we were creating. They were the best bunch of people to have alongside you; I really could not have hoped for more from everyone who came on this adventure.

Q> This was a huge production with so many different variables. Did you encounter any interesting challenges during the process?

Tom> There were many, many challenges of shooting Les Misérables: the battles to protect the resources for the epic revolutionary scenes; coping with a monsoon storm in the middle of the day when shooting the Waterloo sequence; figuring out a way to write into the narrative a reason why our Enjolras had a hand injury when the actor, Joseph Quinn, arrived on set having nearly lost his finger the week before, to name a few.

Generally, I like to think that we found ways to overcome and even make virtue of some of the challenges. I love the shots of the rain at Waterloo that the editor worked into the sequence and how we gave Enjolras a heroic side story to explain his injured hand. There was one day I remember though (with a slight shudder), where we couldn’t find a way around it. The little girl playing child Éponine just could not be persuaded to come to the green room to be filmed running around a tree, no matter what we tried. A brilliant little actress and truly such a sweet girl - it was just one of the days you can have as a six-year-old. We lost half a day’s filming and a massively important scene lay unfinished. Thankfully, two days later she was far jollier and the scene was completed - happy days! That was definitely the day I heard the First AD muttering 'Happy place! Happy place!' under his breath. All you can do in moments like that is be Zen.

Q> You’ve directed shows such as Marvel’s The Punisher, chilling-murder mystery The Missing and now Franco-period drama Les Misérables. How do you transition between such vastly different genres?

Tom> I love directing different types of material; partly to push myself as a director and also because I love being a perpetual film student. Fundamentally I ask the same questions of the material: how do I make this moment convincing; how can I make the audience care about the hero; what’s the most cinematic way to build this character’s world; where is the tension in this scene; and what am I trying to say? In that sense, it feels easy to move from one genre to another because the most important questions are always the same.

In some ways, the differences between The Punisher and Les Miserables are only superficial. The audience who love The Punisher want Frank Castle to explode into brutal action at some point but when Valjean unleashes hell in Les Misérables, I would be less likely to go in for big close-ups - whereas The Punisher fans would be furious if they didn’t see the gory results of a sledgehammer attack!

Q> You’re represented by Great Guns for branded content. What are the benefits of production company representation as an established industry figure?

Tom> I love being represented by Great Guns because, for me, it’s important to be somewhere where the people know much more about short-form filmmaking than me! I can bring my point of view and filmmaking experience but I love working with people who can help me be very forensic about every detail in a frame - something that is absolutely crucial for short-form. I love this medium, and like all filmmaking adventures, you need the right gang around you. I do wish the auteur theory was entirely true, but, alas, it’s only partially true.

Q> What has changed most in the industry since your debut?

Tom> At film school, me and most of my fellow film school brats wanted to go out and make indie films; TV didn’t seem like a very exciting place for a filmmaker to express themselves. High-end commercials seemed exciting and exotic with their vast budgets and such opportunity to express cinematic flair. They also had a great track record of supplying visually interesting directors to Hollywood, of course.

Cut to the present and these days a ‘commercial’ could be a ten-minute slice of somebody’s life shot on a smart-phone; bingeing a great TV series could be much more artistically and narratively fulfilling than 10 trips to the cinema; and maybe the best film of the year, Roma, was made for Netflix!

All of these changes are revolutionary and a massive tectonic shift for all three industries. I’m sure there are downsides too but I’m a glass half-full kind of person; I tend to think all these changes open up lots of new possibilities for different kinds of storytelling.

Q> Between genres, periods, and styles, you’ve built up a versatile portfolio... Where do you draw inspiration from?

Tom> I’ve been very lucky to have had the chance to work across very different genres; a conscious quest I’ve been on since film school. I arrived at National Film and Television School obsessed with Ingmar Bergman and convinced that I was going to be a writer-director of angst ridden art films. Yet somehow, I ended up leaving film school having made a super-violent five-minute horror film and a ‘true crime’ murder story as my graduation film - both of which got me lots of attention and interest. I did get to do my ‘personal’ film in the second year and it was absolutely one of the least successful things I’ve ever done; whereas the filmmaking in the two-genre shorts was much better (and confusingly, felt more personal).

This got me thinking about my childhood love of Westerns, musicals, thrillers, comedies, and classic Golden Age Hollywood entertainment made by directors like Howard Hawks and Billy Wilder, who jumped between genres all the time. You can see and feel the personalities of these directors in each of those different styles, even though their agenda was just to entertain the audience. I really think there is something liberating and joyous about not trying too hard to be self-consciously personal.

To be frank, I love losing myself in whatever story I am telling. Wherever you go, there you are...

https://lbbonline.com/news/director-tom-shankland-from-punisher-to-period-drama/

[lawisnotmocked]

BBC Les Mis Episode 1

As promised (a few days ago ^^’) my review/analysis/thoughts on the first episode of the new bbc miniseries!

Warning for spoilers ahead! And it got really long so uh! Warning for that too!

Oh my god it’s 2000 words that's longer than some of the essays I submitted for uni good luck lads :,3

I’m just going to start with a few quick thoughts! 

Antagonists like Tholomeys, Thenardier and Gillenormand are all awful scumbags and perfect to hate! So great job there! 

Less of a great job with the font! Which was frankly an awful choice! Who's idea was that! 

The transitions were a little weird too. Switching straight from beautiful scenery and kissing scenes to Toulon threw me off a little ^^’  

Tholomeys sure did piss on a tree though huh :,) somehow that was vitally important and needed screen time :,) Didn’t need to see a nude Felix either :,)

I would die for Georges and little Marius Pontmercy though. Georges.... is handsome.... and baby Marius is so precious omg! ‘Scoundwel’! I die!

Fantine was so sweet and precious it broke my heart :,)

The scenery was beautiful too! 

Oh and there were lots of animals featured too and I will talk about some of them later but I loved all of them especially the goats!

Just look at these little stars :,)

Right! Now all of that’s out of the way I’ll talk about what you were probably actually interested in if you follow me: Valjean and Javert!

I love Oyelowo’s Javert. He’s an incredible actor and he clearly understands Javert’s character and motivations. Plus..... hhhh sexy voice...... handsome.....

West is also a great actor and plays Valjean brilliantly, however there’s a few things Davies has done to Valjean’s character that I’m not too pleased with :/ But! I’ll talk about that next!

This is.... also definitely a valvert adaptation. If they keep up like this it might be even more of a valvert adaptation than 1978!

I’m going to talk about specific scenes now! And the first one I’m going to address is one that takes place in Toulon early on and has already been discussed a lot!

So. Does Valjean try to kill someone??

I mean. What happens is an intentional action. He sees a guard telling off another prisoner, waits until the guard stands underneath him and then keeps checking on him to make sure he’s still there before he drops a fuckton of rocks on top of him. Was the intention actually murder? Maybe?? He smiles afterwards but he also smiles knowing that the guy isn’t dead and is only injured? So I’m not sure ^^’ He goes down to help lift the rock off the guard afterwards, but it seems more like at this point there’s some sort of threatening/showing off directed towards Javert, who was watching the whole thing, in a ‘look what I can do you think you have the power here but I can hurt people too and the decision to save this man was in my hands’. Anyway I kind of like that? And kind of really hate it because it’s really out of character. As a nonverbal exchange between prisoner and guard, I love it. As Jean Valjean purposefully perhaps trying to kill someone, I hate it. Because that’s not Valjean. Angry Toulon Valjean is sulky and hateful, not violent. So anyway that’s my Hot Take on that scene!

So the next Toulon scene I took notes on is also a valvert scene! Javert has a guard take Valjean to what seems to be some sort of torture room and has him restrained (sounds like a fanfic opening I know I promise this happens) then the guard leaves them alone together. This scene seems to be Javert ‘correcting’ the power balance after what Valjean did earlier and it has so much potential to be an incredible scene! If the dialogue wasn’t so clunky! Javert’s entire backstory is just dumped into the interaction and all it leads up to is a joke. Hey Davies there’s this thing called buildup and using this incredibly important information about Javert’s character for something dramatic! Come on! Flashbacks! Shouting! Using it to suddenly make everything make sense! Not casually having him say it in the first episode it doesn’t mean anything to anyone at that point! Please watch Shoujo Cosette and take some inspiration from them! Even the musical drops the information at a Dramatic Moment! Wasted opportunity! Dsfsfsf anyway ^^’ despite the limitations of the script Oyelowo did incredibly with it and I’m so excited to see more of his Javert!

Oh yeah and Valjean strips in front of Javert did I mention that? (I mean. I’m not complaining about the Valjean butt 👀 and muscular shoulders 👀👀) Did I also mention that there’s implied interest from Javert? I’m actually... not liking this because I don’t trust Davies.... like, Toulon era is the least healthy way to do valvert which is fine in fandom where we understand that and do it anyway with that understanding, but in a real adaptation? Where that understanding isn’t established and it’s real popular representation and Javert is implied to be a predatory gay man? I don’t like that too much. But we’ll see it’s only the first episode maybe it’ll get better as we go along. Still not complaining about the Valjean butt uwu Also! “Monsieur 24601”! So there is some good dialogue after all! Just do that with the other scenes!

Dsfsfsf just found “Was Valjean putting his head under a water fountain entirely necessary? No. Did I appreciate it anyway? Absolutely.” in my notes without any context too lol

Uhhhh Myriel scenes! Myriel is perfect and I adore him Valjean is still too aggressive it doesn’t feel like him :/ The scene when Myriel gives Valjean the candlesticks was too creepy too I didn’t like that what’s with the creepy music Davies it’s a nice good scene :,3

Petit Gervais sings! No singing allowed! Illegal!

Didn’t like what Davies did to the petit Gervais scene though!! Valjean intentionally stole the coin knowing what he was doing. It was supposed to be unintentional and unconscious that’s what makes it emotional and that’s what breaks him goddamn it! Of course I was very happy to have Petit Gervais included but I still feel like this scene had so much potential that was almost reached but just wasn’t quite!

But. It’s only the first episode. I still have hope that Valjean’s characterisation might improve later on! Please for the love of god let’s not have a repeat of 1998!

So far I would say the miniseries is enjoyable enough and definitely still worth watching! No les mis adaptation is perfect and this certainly isn’t a bad one as of the first episode!

So now you’ve read the part you actually wanted to read it’s time for me to talk about (potentially unintended) animal symbolism >:3 Look I had the decency to put it at the bottom at least! Could I have made it a separate post? Yes. But I didn’t die mad about it.

Hugo’s animal symbolism in the Brick is clearly something Davies has picked up on and decided to incorporate aspects of into his own adaptation. I don’t know how far or deep he intends to go with the symbolism but from the beginning there’s a fair bit of animal imagery in speech, mostly in relation to Valjean, but it’s also once used with Tholomeys when Favourite says “he looks as if he wants to eat you Fantine!” Hugo used imagery of predators (and of eating people :,3) to indicate individuals as dangerous so this is very fitting with that line of symbolism. But Sirius! You say, a comment like that doesn’t automatically mean intentional animal symbolism! Not on its own no, but alongside everything else it looks more likely that it’s intentional!

As I mentioned, the majority of animal imagery in speech in this episode is in relation to Valjean. The first example is when a guard calls a prisoner a ‘filthy dog’ in one of the Toulon scenes. The prisoner isn’t Valjean but Valjean is watching. The next example is also in reference to dogs when Valjean asks Myriel “how can I love my fellow man when he treats me worse than a dog?” I’m pretty sure this is a reference to the line “I am not even a dog!” from the Brick which I got very excited about! As a brief summary of the symbolism of dogs in les mis, Javert is a dog. He’s a social outcast like Valjean but he chooses to protect society as a policeman, making him a domestic dog and not a wild beast. Valjean is ‘not even a dog’ and ‘treated worse than a dog’ because even though they’re both social outcasts, Javert’s position gives him some sort of status, while Valjean is left with a yellow passport and nowhere to sleep. The final reference to dogs is... actually not the final reference and comes before Valjean talks to Myriel but I’m talking about this out of order lol. 

Valjean goes into a building looking for somewhere to sleep and instead finds a dog who barks at him and chases him off. This is a reference to one of my favourite scenes in the Brick which includes this quote: “I went into a dog’s kennel; the dog bit me and chased me off, as though he had been a man. One would have said that he knew who I was.” Javert is a dog. This scene is foreshadowing for the relationship Javert has with Madeline in M-sur-M. I really hope Davies takes the symbolism this deep by giving us a scene in the future that links Javert with dogs in this series! He probably won’t ^^’ But I’ll still be looking out for it!

Here’s a post with links to more analysis I’ve done on dogs in the brick if anyone was interested!

Moving on to the other animal symbolism used with Valjean! Yeah that’s right I’m still not done! After Valjean takes off with Myriel’s silver, Madame Magloire calls Valjean an “ungrateful beast” and then tells her brother off for “letting a wild beast like that into your house”. There is, of course, also the scene when Valjean (to quote my notes) ‘roars like a beastie’ before running away after Myriel gives him the candlesticks. The symbolism of ‘wild beast’ is also something used by Hugo in the Brick and the meaning of that symbolism is described surprisingly unsubtly: “the peculiarity of pains of this nature, in which that which is pitiless–that is to say, that which is brutalizing–predominates, is to transform a man, little by little, by a sort of stupid transfiguration, into a wild beast; sometimes into a ferocious beast.” 

That’s all I have to say about Valjean but!! I’m still not gonna shut up!! Because now I’m gonna talk about Cosette!!

In her room, Fantine has a bird in a cage.

Look it even gets a shot to itself! 

This bird is also shown at the end of the episode when Fantine is holding Cosette.

There they are! This file is saved as birbsette on my laptop lol.

Anyway, I’m fairly certain that this is a reference to Cosette’s Hugo Assigned Symbolic Animal being a songbird, specifically a lark. Of course it could be that the bird in a cage is actually associated with Fantine but we’ll have to wait until future episodes to see if the use of birds is continued and who they’re linked to if it is!

So! In summary! Davies has actually set up the basis for a lot of animal symbolism in the first episode and I’m very excited to see how far he decides to take in in further episodes! And we also learnt that Sirius has a hyperfixation! Thanks for getting this far folks and as always feel free to add anything on to or correct any mistakes in my ramblings!

[designsbyporcelain]

I NEED YOU NOW ⇄ KLAINE

TAGGING ➝ Blaine Anderson & Kurt Hummel

LOCATION ➝ Kurt’s apartment.

TIME FRAME ➝ Late evening, July 4th.

WARNINGS ➝ None as of yet.

NOTES ➝ After being devastated by a letter from his ex-boyfriend, Blaine doesn’t know what to do with himself or where to go, and he soon finds himself at Kurt’s doorstep.

Blaine was enjoying his night watching the fireworks, surely he was alone but watching it from the roof of his apartment building. The fourth of July made him think about his ex boyfriend who was off in the military. He sighed, drinking his wine cooler, swirling the last half in his bottle. After the show was over he went down towards his apartment and he came to see a box there and a gift basket with things Blaine loved. Blaine took it inside and knew it was from his ex. He went to open things and then seen a letter, Blaine read it and he felt his heart break, he was getting married to a man he met in boot camp, apparently they were childhood friends and the letter was asking for Blaine to be the best man. He was completely devastated and he couldn’t attend his wedding so he immediately texted him telling him thanks for the offer but he couldn’t make it. Blaine didn’t know where to go, it was late enough that Kurt was probably home so he went to the boy he was always fond of, someone he enjoyed being around, he was hating to bother Kurt but he sat in front of the door and just waited for Kurt to show back up to his place.

Kurt sighed heavily as he pulled into the parking lot of his building, putting the car in park and shutting off the engine. Today had been the longest day ever. It had started off easy enough, with Kurt dropping Fiyero off at Cody’s ranch for the day; the ranch was far enough away that he shouldn’t have been affected by the fireworks too much. The problematic times had started when he got to the theater. Not long into their first dress rehearsal, during the “Master of the House” performance, the man playing Thenardier had stepped on the dress of the woman playing his wife and managed to completely rip the skirt off of the dress. Kurt wasn’t even sure how he’d done it, considering just how tight his stitches had been, but of course he had. So now he had to completely fix the costume while the choreographer had to spend extra time on the blocking so it didn’t happen again. It didn’t help that he also had to fix Eponine’s costume. The woman playing Eponine had quit at the last minute, and Vanessa had volunteered to take the role since they didn’t have an understudy for her. Kurt was thankful for that, but now he had to fix all of Eponine’s costumes by Friday night. It was safe to say that he had a lot to get done in the next few days. Grabbing his things and the fabric pieces that used to be Madam Thernardier’s costume, Kurt pulled himself out of his car. “Come on, Fi,” he remarked, watching with a smile as his dog hopped out of the car. At least the day had gone well for someone. Getting to his apartment too a little longer than normal - Fiyero had gotten distracted a few times along the way since Kurt hadn’t put him on a leash - but soon enough he was on his floor and heading down his hallway. He hadn’t even noticed someone was in front of his door until Fiyero went bounding down the hallway. “Fiyero!” he called, a dominant tone in his voice that made the dog stop at Blaine’s feet, though his tail was still wagging excitedly. Even from halfway down the hallway, Kurt recognized Blaine standing in front of his door. It was almost as if Blaine’s presence alone had made him forget all about how stressful his day had been. “Hey gorgeous,” he said with a smile on his lips, though it quickly faltered as he got closer and saw the state the other man was in. “What’s wrong?” he asked with furrowed brows, juggling his things to free one of his hands in order to grab his keys and unlock his door.

Blaine was in his own world he didn’t even hear Kurt shout for his dog who was happy to see him, Blaine smiled, petting the dogs head, “Hey Fiyero, who’s a good boy,” he smiled softly, but the smile didn’t last long remembering why he was here in the first place. “I just, hey Kurt, I got some news that- well that I honestly wish I didn’t have gotten.” Blaine entered Kurt’s apartment and went to go sit down on the couch, he’s been over at least a dozen times since moving here six months ago. “He’s getting married… Jeremiah is getting married and he-he wrote me a letter and wants me to be the best man… we’ve only been broken up a little more than six months ago. He sent me gifts and I read the letter and my heart just felt like it shattered.”

Kurt opened his front door and let Blaine into the apartment, listening as he spoke about what was wrong while Kurt put his things down on the table and kicked the door shut. “He’s…wait,” he paused for a moment, stopping in the middle of the living room area. “You’ve been broken up for six months, and he’s already a) getting married and b) wants you of all people to be his best man? Seriously?” he asked with a flabbergasted look on his face. “Like, I get that you guys are best friends…or-or used to be, but things change when you take that kind of friendship to the next level. He can’t honestly believe that would be something you’d be okay with doing?” he asked, moving to sit down next to Blaine.

Blaine nodded, his face falling into his hands as he let out a soft sob, mainly out of frustration. “They were childhood best friends who reunited in boot camp, it’s like a love story Kurt, people would love to fall for their friends they’ve had a past with. I just, how could he think him inviting me was a good idea, he was sweet and I just, it broke me Kurt, I thought I was done with the past but there’s always something that comes back to bite me in the ass.” When Kurt sat down next to Blaine he couldn’t help but throw his arms around Kurt’s neck, “Why would he do this to me?”

Kurt frowned as he watched Blaine partially fall apart. Instinctively, he really wanted to just wrap his arms around Blaine protectively while also yelling at Jeremiah. How in the world could Blaine’s ex think that this would ever be a good idea? He listened as Blaine spoke about Jeremiah’s relationship with the man he was marrying, but listening as Blaine spoke about how this had broken him pushed Kurt forward. Almost as soon as he sat down next to him, Blaine’s arms were suddenly thrown around his neck, and Kurt stiffened just a bit before relaxing and wrapping his arms around Blaine in return. Running his hand down Blaine’s back in a comforting manner, Kurt nuzzled his nose against the side of Blaine’s neck for a moment before shaking his head a bit. “I don’t know, hun,” he whispered in response. “He obviously wasn’t thinking.”

Blaine kind of just melted in Kurt’s arms, he was good at this comforting thing, he felt a little embarrassed coming to Kurt about his past relationship when he was feeling whatever it was he was feeling for the Hummel boy. Blaine just rested his head on Kurt’s shoulder feeling like nothing else was going on, he felt like he was calming down in Kurt’s arms, like he was the most comfortable pillow Blaine ever needed. He couldn’t help but felt a shiver run down his spine when Kurt’s nose nuzzled against the side of his neck. “He wasn’t, but it’s okay, because I have the one thing he will never have again, and that’s my heart back, I can give it to someone who deserves it, you know?” he moved out of Kurt’s hold and wiped his eyes, “Do you have any kind of beverage, what a hell of a fourth of July, this is one of the first holidays I’ve had to spend alone in what feels like forever.”

Kurt smiled a bit to himself as he felt Blaine starting to relax in his arms, calming down the longer Kurt held him. If he thought about it, he could really get used to this. Not the whole Blaine being hurt thing, but having Blaine in his arms. Normally, Kurt loved being the one who was being held, but in this instance he really didn’t mind. He loved the way Blaine just sort of melted into his embrace. Nodding in response to Blaine’s comment about how he still had his heart, which he could give to someone who really deserved it, Kurt smiled a bit as Blaine sat back, out of his grasp. “That’s what matters. You deserve to be with someone who can actually appreciate what they have, even if they’re not in the same place as you. Someone who’s not stupid enough to let you go,” he said with a light smile, sitting back against the couch for a moment. When Blaine asked for something to drink, Kurt nodded a bit before pulling himself up off the couch. “Of course,” he said with a smile. “Do you want a regular drink - water, soda, et cetera - or do you want something stronger?” he asked as he walked into his kitchen. “I’ve got Diet Coke, Sprite, water…even some tea if you don’t mind waiting a little bit. And when it comes to something stronger I’ve got wine coolers, vodka, and about six different bottles of wine,” he said with a laugh.