#les mis french silent film/series

[for-the-love-of-javert]

I'm watching this tonight.

Well starting on it since there are several parts to it. I'm not a watcher of silent films so this will be a relatively new experience for me. Its been years since I last watched on, but there's something about this Javert, I had to see the the whole lot (that's to say every part of this series) for myself.

[l832]

happy barricades, les mis fandom!

there are countless adaptations, these are the seemingly most popular ones i can think of off of the top of my head. if you have a different one you like to watch please consider sharing in the tags!

[dis-astre]

since it's almost barricades days and i've seen new people joining our fandom, i would like to list u all some very nice adaptations i really like that u can watch (and that are better alternatives than the bbc adaptation) (and i included links!!!!!):

what to watch ?

- i feel like this is a classic, but the 2012 movie adaptation by tom hopper, obviously. while it's not the best adaptation, it is still really good (also i feel like it made a lot of us join the fandom in the first place)

- also pretty obvious but the west end musical by claude-michel schönberg and alain boublil (i'm pretty sure u can find decent bootleg on yt) + honorable mention for the 25th anniversary concert but i feel like u need to know a bit about the musical before seeing the concert

- a personal favourite, the 1982 french movie by robert hossein, it is three hours long tho, but it's worth it; the adaptation is really good, especially the portrayal of Les Amis (here's the yt link to the whole movie)

- shojo Cosette is also pretty decent, tho i've only watched the episodes with Les Amis (the barricades are heartbreaking just like we love)

- it's really obscure but the silent short film l'enfant sur la barricade (the child on the barricade) by Alice Guy. the sources diverge from whether it's an adaptation of les mis or an adaptation of a poem hugo wrote called "sur une barricade" and taking place during the commune of paris but the character could be inspired by gavroche

- Les Amis webserie, that u can find on yt, or here :

it's a web serie made by fans for fans and it's amazing

- All That's Left Of Us, another web serie made by and for fans. it's beautiful and absolutely heartbreaking. u can find it on youtube or here:

and on the overall anything that eli southern does about les mis is pretty amazing so i encourage u all to go check @thecandlesticksfromlesmis

(although i feel like u need to know a bit about the fandom before jumping right into the webseries)

- and obviously, The Brick, the original masterpiece that is Les Miserables by victor hugo; if u have the courage i promise that it's worth it

annnnd that's all ! at least for my favourite one, but there are a looooot of different adaptations for every taste i guess ! anyway have fun and take care of y'all during barricades days !

[breadvidence]

Please mind the #wineposting tag. Regardless: are you asking, "Should I watch this adaptation of Les Misérables?" I'll give you advice, though I suspect if you are reading this blog post you have watched all of these anyway (and quite possibly a few more, besides!).

'25 (Fescourt): Probably! If you are a Brick fan none of the adaptation choices will startle you, but having visuals to go with key scenes is a treat. This is a loyal piece. Toulout as Javert, Gabrio as Valjean, Milovanoff as Fantine, and Nivette as Éponine all give excellent performances. Be prepared for a lukewarm Cosette. You might struggle with silent film conventions, length, and French intertitles.

'34 (Bernard): Probably! This is a fairly loyal adaptation of the Brick that makes internally consistent choices where it deviates from its source (sometimes it has goofy continuity errors—politely ignore). Baur as Valjean and Gaël as Cosette give fabulous performances. Moments of silliness do not detract from the quality. Another long haul.

'35 (Boleslawski): Probably not. As an adaptation of Les Misérables this film is bad. That being said, Charles Laughton is a lauded actor, and you can't say he didn't put his whole laughussy into his performance. Because it is accessible and prominent, a lot of LM fans will have seen this film, and you might benefit from shared context if you're in fandom. Speaking personally, I'm glad I saw it, but I'm not sure you will be.

'52 (Milestone): No. Most likely based on '35 rather than on the book, this film is also a bad adaptation of Les Misérables. There are no notable performances. Because it is accessible, this is another adaptation many fans are familiar with, but understanding jokes about Valjean's boyfriend Robert and Javert's sentient hat probably don't justify sitting through the movie.

'58 (Le Chanois): No. Not the English dub, at least. "Bland" is the word of the day. Contemporary French audiences wildly disagree with me per Wikipedia.

'72 (Bluwal): Strong maybe. If you are an intense fan of the Brick, yes. Its use of a narrator to draw from the novel directly and its focus on the Amis makes this adaptation unique on this list. You might not end up liking it but you will have had an experience. If you have zero investment in Les Misérables but are still reading this post for some reason: no, do not watch this.

'78 (Jordan): At some point I will talk about this film and not make a gay joke but today is not that day. If you are not queer, get off my blog, you cis straight, begone. Everyone else: yes, watch this movie, c'mon. Perkins. That performance. At some point I need to make a serious post about queerness and '78 but right now all I've got is Javert's literal on-screen boner. Jesus Christ. Not a great adaptation of the novel but a virtuoso example of unintentional homoeroticism.

'82 (Hossein): No. This is an odd little adaptation without the charisma of a '35 or '78, somehow not as bad as either of those but not as good either. The GIF of the Amis walking in heavy wind is the best this film has to offer.

'98 (August): No—but I stared into my wine glass for a long, long time before typing those two letters. If we are judging adaptations by how they handle the source material, this is a disaster. As a film? I'm sure entertained. I call it bitchslap Les Mis. I should note here I am also a huge fan of Uma Thurman. Possibly I should recuse myself. I don't know, pal. IDK.

2012 (Hooper): I dwell bitterly on the fact that this is our film version of the musical. Brick fans are restless, musical fans are restless. People who first encountered Les Mis via this version are making feral noises. I'm afraid. I'm moving on.

2018 (Davies): It's really unfortunate that I am at my most drunk while commenting on this adaptation. Sure, watch it, it's one of those BBC series that has watchability sheerly because of production value and proximity to contemporary narrative/film expectations/standards. Personally I hate it. My partner is so tired of the tone in which I utter the syllables "Oyelowo".

The Musical: yes c'mon. Bootleg that good bitch.

[letterboxd]

Life in Film: Noémie Merlant.

“We don’t smile because we have to smile, because we’re ladies. No, when we smile, we really smile.” Letterboxd sits down with one of the leading women of Céline Sciamma’s Portrait of a Lady on Fire.

French actor Noémie Merlant is the audience’s guide into the world of Céline Sciamma’s devastatingly romantic period drama, Portrait of a Lady on Fire, a film that presents “a new narrative of love”, as Sciamma told us in this earlier conversation.

Merlant stars as Marianne, an artist who arrives on a remote island in Brittany to paint a portrait of Héloïse (Adèle Haenel, who also appeared in Sciamma’s 2007 film, Water Lilies). Marianne was hired by Héloïse’s countess mother, played by Valeria Golino, and the purpose of the painting is to convince a prospective husband in Rome that Héloïse is worth marrying.

Resistant to her assigned fate and recently returned from a convent, Héloïse has refused to sit for the previous artists hired for the job, so Marianne must discreetly observe her during the day under the pretense of being a walking companion, then paint her portrait at night. Marianne is initially presented as someone with a large degree of self-possession, but that composure begins to crumble as she becomes closer to Héloïse.

One of the (many) great joys of Sciamma’s film is witnessing Marianne succumb to the passion Héloïse inspires in her. She starts out as someone who thinks she knows herself, but soon realizes how much her view of the world has been shaped by the narrow confines society places upon women. Merlant conveys these complex emotions masterfully, and her chemistry with Haenel is beautiful to behold.

Dominic Corry sat down with Merlant prior to the wide American release of Portrait of a Lady on Fire (and just before the Sundance premiere of Jumbo, Zoé Wittock’s new fantasy-drama, in which Merlant’s character develops feelings for a tilt-a-whirl attraction at a theme park). They discussed Portrait preparation, Merlant’s upcoming directorial feature debut, Titanic and John Cassavetes.

What have you made of the passionate reaction that Portrait of a Lady on Fire has inspired online? Noémie Merlant: We’re so excited, all together, with Céline and Adele, for this love that is shared to us. I think this movie is so important in what it says, what it shows about the world, about new experiences. To realize that people are happy to live this experience, this quite new experience, because it’s a new vision, it tells so much about the world now, I think, and so it’s great.

Marianne seems to know herself in a way that is hugely inspirational, at least in the beginning. Is that how you saw the character? Yeah. I see myself in a lot of Marianne because at the beginning, she knows what she wants and what she does, but at the same time she does this first portrait, and this portrait is not right. Because it’s a portrait that is kind of stuck in a vision of the male gaze in the society. She [doesn’t] even realize that. She is so grateful to have the chance to be a painter, to not have to be married, so she wants to respect the rules, the ideas, the conventions, as she says.

And it’s this collaboration with Héloïse and this desire and this love that grows that makes her realize that it’s not her own vision of her art. It’s not the right vision of Héloïse, but it’s even more not the vision of her own art sensibility. And so, the script and Céline’s vision is, for me, what Héloïse is for Marianne: it wakes me up. I’m in a vision of the patriarchal world and I didn’t even notice it. Really, like deeply, concretely, I didn’t even notice it. And this is a movie with—like the second portrait—with a female gaze, a new vision, a new experience that shows really an experience with women.

This film is so quiet, it’s a subtle film, and yet it has an explosive power. Was that a dynamic you were conscious of on set when you were filming? Yeah. It’s like the music: this movie is really silent, there is no music. There’s just two [scenes with] music. And so when there [is] music, it’s even more powerful and even more loud. If there was music all the time in the movie, then you don’t have the same [impact]. And so this movie is all about this, because it takes the time to build. Like, we don’t talk much and [so] when we talk, we really listen to each other. When we smile, we smile because we want to smile, because it’s sincere. We don’t smile because we have to smile, because we’re ladies, no, when we smile, we really smile. And all this slow building of desire and frustration grows the desire, more and more. I think we were really realizing that on set. Yeah. Completely.

What kinds of conversations did you have with Céline before shooting began? Could you describe the nature of your collaboration? The script is so full—everything is there in the script. We didn’t have to talk much, because her vision is clear and I understood it, like everybody [who read] it did. And so while I met her in real life for the audition, and she was watching, like looking at me and reading Héloïse’s lines, then I understood even more that her vision in the movie is her vision in life and how she wants to create the collaboration is the same as in the movie. She was in front of me, she read Héloïse’s lines, and she’s not somewhere looking at me like a director with someone else giving me the lines, no, she is here in front of me. And there was equality, and there was respect.

And that was the beginning of our relationship. It’s how she builds relationships with everybody on set. And so we didn’t really rehearse before the shooting because there is so many restrictions already. We have to follow the dialogue, the gazes, the breathing, the movement. There is the focus [pulling, which was] really complicated, because there [were] a lot of candles. All the costumes, a lot of restrictions so she doesn’t want us to cerebralize too much and rehearse too much. She wanted us keep something fresh and alive and present. I based my relationship with Héloïse as Adele and I were in parallel.

At the beginning of the movie, the dresses are tight, we don’t smile, we observe a lot, there is a lot of restriction. And then more and more we build and we start to feel our desire and follow our desire, more and more the movements are large. The smile appears. The eyes are more sparkling, you know, it’s all about details and that’s what we wanted to build on top of the mask that we have at the beginning.

You’ve recently made your directorial debut. I did a short movie [Shakira] that is not out yet, and in December I decided to do what we call a “pirate movie” without production or without looking for money, with my own money. It’s just a couple of friends and [other] people and now I am in post production of this long movie [Mi Lubita]. The short movie is coming out soon I think.

Luàna Bajrami (left) and Noémie Merlant in ‘Portrait of a Lady on Fire’.

What was the film that made you want to become an actor? The film that made me want to become a good actor was [John Cassavetes’] Opening Night. I knew that I wanted to be an actress, but… I realized what an actress is with that movie.

What was the film that made you want to become a director? Cassavetes was one of my big inspirations, but Bergman too, I would say his Persona.

What’s your go-to comfort movie? A movie I watch when I want to feel better? I would say Pretty Woman or Titanic. It’s sad but I feel better when I see it.

What’s your guilty pleasure movie? It's more a series. I love, Peaky Blinders. And I love Girls. Girls is what I’m up to.

What film poster did you have on your wall when you were a teenager?Titanic.

What’s a film you have fond memories of watching with your parents? It’s a French movie called Le Père Noël est un ordure, with Christian Clavier and Josiane Balasko. It’s an old funny movie we watch every Christmas. What filmmaker, living or dead, do you envy, or admire the most? Well there are a lot. Cassavetes is one of them. Céline is one of them. Agnès Varda is one of them. Bergman.

Is there a movie that always makes you cry? Titanic. Remembering, like, really the first experience in cinema was Titanic for me.

Celine brought up that film when I spoke to her as well. Sometimes when we were shooting, you know when Adèle is on the stairs? We were like, “This is our Titanic scene”.

Related content

We speak to Céline Sciamma about ‘Portrait of a Lady on Fire’, Kristen Stewart, Jacques Demy and ‘E.T.’

[andtothegloriouspast]

Irma Vep 1996 Dir.: Olivier Assayas https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yLOKgmcib9I

Irma Vep is a French avant-garde retelling of working on a filmset that has fallen to absolute shit. The producers have their fingers in every part of creativity. The crew regularly belittle the director and half-arse their jobs. Even the lead actress struggles to compose herself as she is greeted with xenophobia due to her racial background and inability to speak French. As production continues (and continues) the film’s director René Vidal (played by Jean Pierre Léaud) grows far more disconnected with the industry and further alienates himself from his own work: a bdsm-inspired remake of the famous silent film series Les Vampires (1915-1916).

The final act of Irma Vep is the final cut screening of the in-film remake of Les Vampires. The stress and tears of the crew, actors and producers are rejected as they all realise the director has defiled the project, placing his own style and aesthetic physically onto the celluloid. The whole master of the film has been scratched and altered beyond repair, creating its own one of a kind piece of art.

There is catharsis to witnessing the finished film and its rejection of the cinematic. The industry of film has ruined the lives of the filmmakers, preyed on the xenophobia and misogyny thrown at the lead actress Maggie Cheung and allowed producers to suffocate creativity and art from the celluloid in favour of profit and audience.

The soundtrack in particular blends nationalistic French chanson with aggressive, rebellious punk from the West, offering criticism on how the similar industry of music has been dominated by both pop culture and an aged view of identity. The rejection of the youth and independent artists who favour individualism over the collective tradition.

It’s important to look at Irma Vep from a French perspective. France has a long tradition of celebrating the auteur, revelling in the dream of one director’s vision. René Vidal reclaims his own self through reclaiming authorship of his work. The way he does this through destroying the original vision to create something new through film preparation. This ending is so strong and punchy because we as an audience member are also waiting to see his magnum opus, but like the rest of the crew and producers, we are greeted with a mockery of that. We’re seeing inside René’s mind, his reasoning and decisions however heinous reflected as the developed images twist and turn with cuts and peels. The images create life and beauty, but also censor choices he had no part of. While René himself is not sympathetic and regularly shows his own French masculine chauvinism, we’re still given an insight into him as a character. Not through narrative or dialogue or mis-en-scene, but from the very texture of the medium itself.

[revisetapop]

Révise Ton 2017

Moyenne du chart : 3,52/5 - Mis à jour le 6 juin 2017, prochaine màj vers le 25 juin 2017 (- RETOUR AU SOMMAIRE - )

Playlists liées : Révise Ton 2017 version essentielle Révise Ton 2017 version normale Révise Ton 2017 version chuis curieux

Fleet Foxes - Crack-Up - Chamber Folk Progressive Folk

Mount Eerie - A Crow Looked at Me - Singer/Songwriter Indie Folk Contemporary Folk

Richard Dawson - Peasant - Avant-Folk Progressive Folk

Perfume Genius - No Shape - Art Pop

Max Richter - Three Worlds: Music From Woolf Works - Modern Classical

Le Ton Mité - Passé Composé Futur Conditionnel - Roots Rock Jazz-Rock Indie Rock

Trio Mediaeval & Arve Henriksen - Rímur

1982 - Chromola - Free Improvisation

Le fruit vert - Paon perdu

Bing & Ruth - No Home of the Mind - Ambient

坂本龍一 [Ryuichi Sakamoto] - async - Ambient

Spoon - Hot Thoughts - Indie Rock Alternative Dance

Slowdive - Slowdive - Dream Pop Shoegaze

The Magnetic Fields - 50 Song Memoir - Indie Pop

Father John Misty - Pure Comedy - Piano Rock Singer/Songwriter Chamber Pop

Thurston Moore - Rock n Roll Consciousness - Alternative Rock Noise Rock

Memories Are Now - Indie Folk Singer/Songwriter

Raoul Vignal - The Silver Veil - Contemporary Folk

Lætitia Sadier Source Ensemble - Find Me Finding You - Art Pop

The Flaming Lips - Oczy Mlody - Neo-Psychedelia

Kid Koala featuring Emilíana Torrini - Music to Draw to: Satellite - Ambient Pop Ambient

Sun Kil Moon - Common As Light and Love Are Red Valleys of Blood - Singer/Songwriter Progressive Folk

Mark Eitzel - Hey Mr Ferryman - Singer/Songwriter

Rosalía - Los Ángeles - Flamenco nuevo

The Caretaker - Everywhere at the End of Time - Stage 2 - Turntable Music Ambient

Sodastream - Little by Little - Indie Folk

The Feelies - In Between - Jangle Pop Indie Pop

Jesu & Sun Kil Moon - 30 Seconds to the Decline of Planet Earth - Singer/Songwriter

Mac DeMarco - This Old Dog - Singer/Songwriter Indie Pop Folk Pop

Laura Marling - Semper femina - Singer/Songwriter Chamber Folk

Joep Beving - Prehension - Modern Classical

Spinvis - Trein vuur dageraad - Chamber Pop Singer/Songwriter Nederpop

La Féline - Triomphe - Synthpop French Pop

Saagara - 2 - Jazz Fusion

Juana Molina - Halo - Folktronica

Roger Waters - Is This the Life We Really Want? - Art Rock

Peter Silberman - Impermanence - Slowcore Dream Pop

Arto Lindsay - Cuidado madame - Art Pop

Daniel Pemberton - Gold - Film Score

Gu's Musics - Happening - Chanson

Babils - Ji Ameeto

Jacaszek - KWIATY - Ambient Electroacoustic

Timber Timbre - Sincerely Future Pollution - Art Rock

Kendrick Lamar - DAMN. - West Coast Hip Hop Conscious Hip Hop

Tinariwen - Elwan - Tishoumaren

Shannon Wright - Division - Art Rock

Shackleton & Vengeance Tenfold - Sferic Ghost Transmits - Progressive Electronic Tribal Ambient

Gas - Narkopop - Ambient Ambient Techno

Homeshake - Fresh Air - Hypnagogic Pop

sonder - Within Essences - Electro-Industrial

Stormzy - Gang Signs & Prayer - Grime UK Hip Hop

The Mountain Goats - Goths - Singer/Songwriter Indie Pop

Saint Etienne - Home Counties - Synthpop Indie Pop

Imelda May - Life Love Flesh Blood - Singer/Songwriter Blue-Eyed Soul

(Sandy) Alex G - Rocket - Indie Folk Singer/Songwriter

Do Make Say Think - Stubborn Persistent Illusions - Post-Rock

Orchestra Baobab - Tribute to Ndiouga Dieng - Wolof Music

Tzusing - 東方不敗 - Industrial Techno

Julie Byrne - Not Even Happiness - Contemporary Folk Singer/Songwriter

King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard - Flying Microtonal Banana - Psychedelic Rock Garage Rock

Grandaddy - Last Place - Indie Rock

Quercus - Nightfall

sonder - About a Blinded Corridor - Dark Ambient Ambient

Alexandra Savior - Belladonna of Sadness - Indie Pop Singer/Songwriter

The Radiophonic Workshop - Burials in Several Earths - EAI Electronic

Forest Swords - Compassion - Ambient Dub Downtempo Neo-Psychedelia

Spectres - Condition - Noise Rock

Austin Wintory - DeFormers - Video Game Music

Barock Project - Detachment - Progressive Rock

Chris Bathgate - Dizzy Seas - Singer/Songwriter

Renaldo & Clara - Els afores - Indie Pop

Emel - Ensen - Arabic Pop Art Pop

Orchestre National de Jazz - Europa Oslo - Progressive Big Band

Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs - Feed the Rats - Stoner Rock

Edda - Graziosa utopia - Indie Rock

The Moonlandingz - Interplanetary Class Classics - Neo-Psychedelia Noise Pop

Jr. Adelberg - It Happens Too Briefly to Know - Midwest Emo

Joan Shelley - Joan Shelley - Singer/Songwriter Contemporary Folk

James Murray - Killing Ghosts - Drone Ambient

Guillaume Stankiewicz - Les Années

Albin de La Simone - L'un de nous - French Pop

Carsten Jost - Perishable Tactics - Tech House Microhouse

RAYS - RAYS - Post-Punk

Heroin in Tahiti - Remoria - Neo-Psychedelia Tribal Ambient

Tigran Mansurian - Requiem

Swordfish - Rodia - Midwest Emo

Jarvis Cocker & Chilly Gonzales - Room 29 - Chamber Pop Piano Rock

Little Hurricane - Same Sun Same Moon - Americana

Japan Blues - Sells His Record Collection - Sound Collage Tribal Ambient

David Arnold & Michael Price - Sherlock Series 4: The Final Problem - Television Music

David Arnold & Michael Price - Sherlock: Music from Series Four - Television Music

David Arnold and Michael Price - Sherlock: The Abominable Bride - Television Music

Dominic Miller - Silent Light

Boliden - Surfaces - Ambient

Pshycotic Beats - The Black Sea

Carter Burwell - The Founder - Film Score Film Soundtrack

Ramin Djawadi - The Great Wall - Film Score Film Soundtrack

This Winter Machine - The Man Who Never Was - Progressive Rock

Harry Gregson-Williams - The Zookeeper's Wife - Film Score

Danny Elfman - Tulip Fever - Film Score Film Soundtrack

[for-the-love-of-javert]

For anyone who would like to watch Les Mis 1982 here is the link.

This is a long one, over 3 hours and it's French but with English subtitles (I had to have the subtitles on for this one). As I said in my review there are some deviations from The Brick but for the most part it does stay true to the canon story.

I love all the actors in this. At some point over the next few days though I'll do some comparison posts of the French actors in this film and other actors who look loke them. There are some scenes in this (the sad ones) that gave me so many feels I also had goosebumps on my goosebumps. There are other scenes that are dealth with more delicately than in other film adaptations, Javert's Suicide being one but I actually thought it was a really nice touch how they handled that. Again everything in the French adaptation is captured beautifully. But you wil notice Javert has blonde/strawberry blonde hair and no sideburns. That aside he acted the part very well.

Watch out for the final scene, I was not expecting what happened but I liked it. So far this is my second favourite film adaptation of Les Mis with the 1925 French silent film being my No1. I don't know which one I'm going to watch next. But either tomorrow or Monday I will be watching one of the ones I haven't seen yet. When I've watched all the other film adaptations I'll watch the 2012 musical again just so I can review it. After that I'll watch the BBC TV Mini series and review that too.