#thought i'd be doing lots more soundtrack gifsets

[handonhaven]

Handon + soundtrack (part 4)

[ferociousconscience]

Hi! Hope its ok to ask, and sorry if its already been answered before: Do you have fav Les Mis adaption? Or a few?

Thank you for asking me!! I've not watched all of them, considering how many there are floating around out there and how many are sadly lost, but. I have spent this year hunting down and watching every adaptation I could. A special thanks to @ueinra for a lot of help in that regard. I recently made a Letterboxd account and a List just for Les Mis. I've plans to go through and review them properly, (Currently I only have Shoujo Cosette reviewed!) but I'd be happy to try to coalesce my thoughts on my absolute favorite for you, that being the four-part silent* Les Miserables (1925) under this read-more! Hiyah!

It's... Hard to grasp my feelings on LM1925, considering how special it is to me. These films really made me love the idea of cinema again. I had never seen a silent movie before, and frankly I thought they were one of those things that were a bit out of reach for me, but wow I am so so happy I watched LM1925. Not only is it a fantastic adaptation of LM, it's also just a fantastic set of movies (miniseries??) in general. The casting, the acting, the sets, the locations, the attention to detail, the quality of the visuals (which often are just frankly stunningly beautiful), the pacing, the atmosphere. Everything just works and is faithful to the feeling of reading the novel. (I will say I watched it without the accompany music at first, but have since gone back and listened to it overtop on a rewatch, and wow what a cool oddity it is. The Sims 1 soundtrack but with a surreal and often nightmarish twist.) I adore Gabriel Gabrio as Valjean. He really captures the idea that Valjean can both be noble, kind, and fearsome all in one. And Jean Toulout as scrunkly and lively Javert...!! I truly love him. I think them and Sandra Milovanoff as Fantine (less so as her playing Cosette, too, wish they would have cast another person) give absolutely amazing performances. This is also a great adaptation for the Gorbeau part of the book, ESPECIALLY Suzanne Nivette as Eponine, wow! What an Eponine! Probably my favorite Eponine. Same with Thenardier, both the Eponine and Thenardier in this one are tied with LM1972 for me. I also just like the... what I'll call "Theater Acting" performances I've seen in this and in the other early films I've watched since. The thick makeup. The funny expressions. The dramatic poses. All this would be considered overacting in the modern day, but to me it just feels alive. It reminds me of a lot of animations, I suppose, and that delights me. I also love love love that they didn't attempt to make big changes to the material at hand (Hell, they even touch on Waterloo in a way I thought was cool!). LM1925 and Shoujo Cosette made me realise that the longer a Les Mis adaptation is, typically the better it is to me. (with. One exception off the top of my head...) I think by the time I had watched all the other adaptations of both the novel and the musical, I had grown fatigued over the different ways films would try to condense things into 2 hours, and leave a lot on the cutting room floor (even if that usually means they focus more on the J vs JVJ aspect that I always have a weakness for), or when they try to cram everything into said 2 hours and turns it into a pacing nightmare. LM1925 avoids all that!

I feel I'm rambling on, so I'll rapid fire some stuff off. I love that they filmed in the actual msurm. I love that they kept things really grungy when the film calls for it. I love the scenes of the barricade, especially the scenes with the national guards spilling in. I love the subtle changes to the valvert side of things, it's truly one of the better adaptations for the shippers. I need to get on making some gifsets. If you love Les Mis, or just film in general, I think you owe it to yourself to watch LM1925. It's free! It's on the Internet Archive! There are download buttons or you can stream it! Please do! And tell me your thoughts on it!