[ SECRET POST #2241 ]

[case]

⌈ Secret Post #2241 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.

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Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 02 pages, 042 secrets from Secret Submission Post #320.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 1 (minorly sexual, illustrated) - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

Comments

[fscom]

01. http://oi46.tinypic.com/2nvgwms.jpg

[(Anonymous)]

It's written very similar to an opera, which can also sound chaotic and unmelodious. Sometimes you have to listen to something over and over until the melody clicks (and trust me, Les Mis actually has a lot of continuing melodies that repeat. For example, you can hear "On My Own" in Fantine's Death Scene).

[(Anonymous)]

The lyrics only tell about half the story, the melody does the rest.

Here is a very interesting analysis of some of them: http://verit.tumblr.com/tagged/les-mis-motifs (they also include the original French cast in the analysis).

And I'm sorry to say but it does have something to do with the singing. Making sung dialog sound melodious rather than clunky is not as easy as it seems. Try the Complete Symphonic Recording, you'll hear the difference.

Also the movie cut lines in weird places which didn't really help. I'm thinking specifically of "Everyday" where they cut Marius's line and a) the dialog stopped making sense and b) you can hear the glitch in the music where they cut out the line.

[(Anonymous)]

Actually, I think that's more that they took a ~90 minute original and blew it up into almost 3 hours without creating much new music. SOME of the repetitions work on a thematic level like Fantine's Death/On My Own as you mention, but others are just SUPER lazy writing, like Lovely Ladies/Turning.

[fauxkaren]

On the subject of repeating melodies, this is probably my favorite mirroring:

[(Anonymous)]

They're supposed to sing almost every line, like an opera, and it would be the same if you saw it on stage. The "monotone" parts are 'recitative' (reh-see-sah-teeve), and stand in for speaking. It's easier to emote with recitative than with a more traditional song melody, because the patterns are the same as speech so you can inflect things more naturally. It does allow some of the melodic phrases from the big songs (or 'arias') to come back at key points, which helps develop the key themes of the work.

[(Anonymous)]

Hey, thanks for putting people off opera even more. Bonus points for the condescending "this is how to pronounce a French word, because you are clearly dim" attitude.

It is possible not to enjoy a certain art form and still be quite intelligent, jsyk.

[greenvelvetcake]

whoosh

[al28894]

To be honest, I was sxpecting some "Phantom-of-the-opera" style movie with songs and dialogue mixed in, but nope! All the actors did was just sing and sing and sing... maybe that's why I felt a little bit unsatisfied when I left the theater.

[(Anonymous)]

I've read tons of people complaining about this, and I can't help to judge them.

It's a musical they sing!

[(Anonymous)]

Ugh, I completely agree with this. Did they REALLY have to sing EVERY SINGLE LINE?! I mean, it's a freaking MOVIE, for crying out loud! If it was supposed to be a musical or opera or whatever why didn't they just do that?! Jesus ...

[(Anonymous)]

Les Mis is meant to be that way. Listen to other cast recordings or, hell, see it preformed live. That's how it goes. Everything, save maybe one or two sentences, is sung.

I was in Les Mis when my high school did it. It's a whole marathon of song!

[iggy]

That's how it is in the original musical though.

And yeah, it's modeled off an opera.

[melayka]

I'm sure it makes me an ~uncultured swine, but IA. Three hours of constant singing with no breaks was very grating on my plebian ears. If I'd known it was that kind of musical (what's it called, "operetta?") as opposed to Wicked or Grease or Any Disney Movie, I probably would've gone to see something else in the theater and rented this one later.

[(Anonymous)]

I think you need to see the stage musical. Then you'll get it.

[(Anonymous)]

Actually, the fact that they kept the show almost completely sung was one of my favorite parts of the movie. I'm glad they didn't try to awkwardly change some of the music into non-sung lyrics the way some other operatic musicals have done (like the Rent movie, or Sweeney Todd), where it really REALLY shows what musical lines were not set to music. To me, that always feels like the director/crew/cast are wussing out on what makes a musical a musical- especially a super operatic one like Les Miz.
As Mel Brooks once said, "if you're going to go up to the bell, ring it."

[(Anonymous)]

So, your issue is with the musical itself, not the singing.

[eaten_by_bears]

You kind of went to the wrong movie.

[bigredhug]

Thanks for the heads up, OP! I sat through this shit one time too many with Umbrellas of Cherbourg, I'm not about to do it again.

[(Anonymous)]

I haven't laughed this hard at a secret in a really long time. Thanks, OP! *pats your head*

[(Anonymous)]

Clearly you've never seen an operetta.

[htebazytook]

You know what an opera is right?

[(Anonymous)]

I'll never understand why you have to take a good book like Les Miserables and add cheesy music in the first place.

[(Anonymous)]

I keep thinking of Amadeus. "Too many notes." I've never understood people who object to sung-through shows. I mean, you're already watching a musical. Why does the lack of spoken dialogue ruin things?

[(Anonymous)]

Nah, that's pretty much a singing. It was terrible.