Les Miserables - The 2013 Film Fest Begins!

Well, the film going of 2013 is underway.  Discounting The Hobbit (since it came out last year, really!) it began yesterday with Les Miserables.  It seemed too good to be true that our local cinema would have it from the release date, I love musicals but I couldn't imagine that the majority of our small local community would feel the same.

How wrong I was!

Sunday night is not really prime time at the cinema, not like those big Friday or Saturday nights, or the weekend matinees.  Sundays are still very much a quiet time for many  people here, but the cinema was well over half capacity and we were fortunate to get decent seats.  Before the film Clemency and I posed beside the poster - Clemency with the half that was Hugh Jackman and me with the half that was Russell Crowe - but the magic had certainly not kicked in at this point!  I really went along to support a musical in the local community’s cinema (and hear Russell Crowe sing!) but having coached several people through the singing of these songs, the music from Les Miserables didn't really hold a fascination for me!  Les Miserables songs tend to become party pieces for people and I've heard some performances of them that have caused me to shrink in my seat - not from my students, I hasten to add!!!

I knew the storyline vaguely, it isn't up there with my favourite musicals and not one that I would be desperate to go and see - perhaps because living up here live theatre is not something that is readily available! - I knew it was a life story of this guy and the lives that intertwined with his, but it didn't speak of anything beyond what I would have expected from any other run-of-the-mill musical.

How wrong I was - again!

Perhaps given my degree subject of theology, something that now I just delve into for interest and development, I was encapsulated in the story the moment that the bishop told Jean Valjean that he had saved his life for God.  If the struggle with diction in the first song - only in the chorus parts, mind - had put my back up a little, it didn't last.  The solos were delivered incredibly well and with such songs as “I Dreamed A Dream”, a song I loathe after hearing so many abysmal takes on it, seeing it here in the film not being sung perfectly but being delivered with an overwhelming heartfelt empathy, it fitted so well.  I noticed that the BBC today had a story on their entertainment news about whether Anne Hathaway or Susan Boyle sang it better.  That’s like trying to compare Lesley Garrett with Adele, an impossible task that should not be undertaken for one minute, the song may be the same but the genre and the setting is totally different.

I didn't cry when Fantine died.  I comforted Clemency who did and I could hear snivels from throughout the whole cinema, I’d stake a day’s pay that some of the sniffles were coming from the men, too!  I don’t cry at films, I haven’t done for about 15 years and even then it was only one film.  And I certainly don’t cry in public.  There was nothing this musical could hurl at me that I wasn't prepared for.  I knew Fantine died, I was expecting it.  Perhaps my eyes would glisten but I would not allow a single tear to spill!

How wrong I was - yet AGAIN!

I was not disappointed in Russell Crowe’s singing - it was, after all, one of the major reasons that I’d gone to see it.  I thought that Eddie Redmayne delivered his songs with almost all the pointers and precisions I would set my singers on to, I was even impressed by the female singers, not something that I generally find when watching musicals.  Sacha Baron Cohen was worthy of note, and I'm fairly surprised not to find more nominations for supporting roles appearing for the awards ceremonies.  Having listened to Howard Keel and the fabulous Alfie Boe singing "Bring Him Home" - one of the only songs I actually would choose to listen to from Les Miserables - I felt a little affronted when Hugh Jackman began singing and it seemed so raw, but as he continued I really got wrapped up in that raw emotion and here I shed a small tear, confident that no one would notice!  It really was heart wrenching in its delivery.

So having sneaked a tear at "Bring Him Home" I felt quite content that my crying was done, but oh no! when we reached that final scene, I wept.  I've taken 24 hours to try and comprehend why I found it so emotional.  I've watched films in the past which had a similar conclusion and never shed a tear, and besides I knew this was a life story that would inevitably end in death, but here my faith and theology kicked in.  Here was someone who life had wronged but God had rewarded, but moreover here was someone who knew the order of things and accepted them with an overwhelming faith   Without turning this into a lecture on divine truth or something vaguely resembling a transcript of a sermon, it made me realise a few home truths about those things that should be more important - most especially the safety and wellbeing of our fellow men - and those we should worry less about.  I could write a whole thesis about the theology that runs through the film, and almost certainly would have done if it had been made eight years earlier while I was doing my “Theology on Film” module, but I’d just recommend you go and watch it and draw from it whatever you can.

I couldn't talk at the end, I sobbed and sobbed, but was not quite as inconsolable as one poor girl who was crashed out on a sofa crying!  The film got a round of applause from the audience who were so engrossed by the end that it might have been a stage performance, for the barrier of the screen was definitely broken down.  Before we went to see it Alex had commented that he’d seen someone say that the film had left them feeling a part of something, although they weren't sure what.  I think that each person who went into that cinema screen felt exactly that and, when they emerged, it was as a slightly different person.

Thanks for a tremendous feat of filmmaking - you all carried us along with you and gave us something to take away from it (aside from the admission ticket smudged with tearstains!).

Good job well done!