#sir that’s my emotional support les mis adaptation

[imsorryimlate]

the homoeroticism of inviting your sworn enemy to watch and enjoy your execution

[breadvidence]

'34! The Les Misérables adaptation which asks "What if these characters talked straightforwardly to each other?" Quick top notes on part III only:

I felt catharsis from all the other version of these goddamn characters while watching Cosette and Valjean openly discuss Marius and the barricades. The dynamic here is believable and well balanced: Cosette is angry and afraid and a little hurtful with it, but still seeking comfort from her father (and comes across very much sixteen—as one might imagine, given Josseline Gaël was herself only seventeen); meanwhile, Valjean looks a little helpless (I am reminded of the novel dwelling on how unprepared life left him to raise a daughter) and very pained. Valjean hurts his own feelings asking Cosette if she loves Marius above all else, which gets the predictable answer that anyone would understand does not actually mean she wants to abandon her papa utterly, but which you can clearly see him interpreting as precisely that. All in all, this portrayal makes them much more normal, particularly Cosette, while still retaining the kernel of Valjean's profoundly damaged understanding of his role in Cosette's life. Not shoddy work for ten or so minutes of film.

Harry Bauer's strange hand flaps when he protests "I have my own reasons for emigrating!"—why are you being so relatable, sir?

Is Harry Bauer a fucking beast or did they use wires to help support Jean Servais' weight? Bauer tippy-taps his way around the streets and sewers as if he's not fifty-and-change with a grown-ass man sprawled over his back. You get a sense throughout '34 of Valjean's strength and imposing physicality even though Bauer is on the surface kind of dumpy looking, which I found impressive.

I am also impressed by the intensity of Bauer's "fuck this!" expression during the shit quicksand sequence. Later, he will refer to a "wound"—I never actually saw him acquire such a thing (probably due to Criterion's glitchy playback), so I'm left to think he's referring to the psychological/emotional damage of this moment.

Harry Bauer gives Marius a little pat after dragging him through the sewer, which for me echoes Gabrio, and just as in '25 I find the gesture very sweet and gentle. Bauer is a somewhat cantankerous Valjean—very growly—and moments like this balance him out.

Javert also picked up clear communication skills in this adaptation and writes a straightforward suicide note to his superiors, who proceed to cross his name out of a big book?? I laughed, I'm sorry, why is there always an element of comedy to these suicides?

Further catharsis: Valjean's attempt to gaslight and push away Cosette is strangled by a combination of Marius' equanimous reaction to his confession and his own inability to reject Cosette's need for comfort. I prefer the book—I'm here for the emotional agony that is this idiot character's idiot self-martyring—but I am nonetheless here for '34 going "that will take too long (and is too fucking sad)".

The final lines are giving me fits (bad). Namely: "God is just. It is man who sometimes is unjust." I might be going off harebrained on this, but it seems to me that Les Misérables is (among other things) about change, and this is a statement that proposes a kind of stasis, a things-always-are-thus. It isn't even particularly meaningful or thematically pertinent in the context of '34 taken as its own work. It's particularly galling me because I imagine it is riffing poorly off Valjean's "Parce que les choses déplaisent [...] ce n'est pas une raison pour être injuste envers Dieu"—which is a very clever line, meaning something entirely different, and doesn't deserve this treatment.

Irrelevant to Les Mis as such but occasionally a certain camera angle on Jean Servais' face would remind me how gay I am, while other times he has fuckboy vibes?

Overall: a solid film, not quite on par for me with '25, but I'll doubtless rewatch. In particular I appreciate that it deviates from the source material in ways that are consistent and meaningful (though I will say—god, does this movie ever have its silly moments; I forgive/applaud it for them).