Five Academy Award Nominees in Five Days

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Originally Posted by cinemabon

Tab, I would agree with you to certain extent on the use of camera technique to create visual tension. However, in the case of this particular musical where you have a scene shot in tight quarters with a "wide" lens on a steady-cam, the effect when enlarged on a big screen is amplified by a factor of ten or more. This gives the scene that rolling motion, as if you were shooting on the deck of an oceanliner. Some shots require forethought and planning. While I like hand held scenes for dramatic tension in fights and car chases, when a woman is singing about her inner feelings, I don't like the idea that camera movement should draw attention to itself. That's a distraction and the reason so many critics and other people have complained about it.

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This is a great observation for me that didn't occur and impact me when I saw Les Miz, but it really makes a lot of sense. I may have been so caught up in the scene and Ann Hathaway's performance that she was able to out perform the distraction for me. But that's a tribute to her performance, not the quality or lack of the cinematography itself. I will need to take more time and experience the movie again with this new insight before I can make any reasonable response. Opened my eyes here.

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Originally Posted by cinemabon

Of course, Judy Garland, the little girl with the big sad eyes, probably set the standard for the "wistful" melody in "Over the Rainbow." But she sang many torch songs in her career. Here, she pines over the good looking young man next door... looking as wistful as ever.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aUB4XcQYq9A

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I've attempted to sing Judy's Over The Rainbow and have watched this scene numerous times. My singing however leaves much to be desired. When I compare this scene to Ann Hathaway's scene I was much more moved by Hathaway's performance though I don't know how the camera work might have contributed or detracted from her performance. The dramatic content of Hathaway's lyrics may have more to do with the emotive resonance than how it was sung or it just the biting lyrics that brought out such resonance from Hathaway than from Garland.

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Originally Posted by cinemabon

One of the most original and creative talents of my generation, Madonna is a singular phenomenon who is unlike anyone before her or after. She made her mark on the Andrew Lloyd Webber musical, "Evita" that many felt fell flat, but did not blame her. Here she sings the best song from the show and gives one of the finest performances of her career; directed by Academy Award nominee Alan Parker.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TA1QHtFkH48

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When I watched Madonna in "Evita" when it came out, up until then I didn't care for Madonna, a seemingly slutty girl. But her performance in "Evita" made an indelible mark on me and my respect for Madonna was never waivered since.

I haven't had a lot of opportunities to experience professional quality musicals, but of all of the one's I've witnessed, Chorus was the most moving and memorable. When I went to see the movie version, my expectations were so high that I was devastated by how disconnected the movie was from the live performance.

I remember in 1975 when I took acting at the University of Utah, Sonny, my instructor recommended that I must sit within the first fifteen rows. So when I had a chance to go to Los Angeles and the Shurbert Theatre I made sure I was near the front. Apparently I was told that Chorus Line was created with the idea that the audience experienced the musical from the perspective of the director who likely sat near the front. This authentic, in the immersive sense was never translated well as a movie and the absence/or substitation of some of the most memorable songs also was a horrendous mistake in my mind. The best way to have made an adapted movie unlike Les Mis was to recreate an intimate theater-like atmosphere and maybe just maybe try to use a reality video cam documentary like cinematographic approach to the shots outside the theater as if the audience were just transplanted outside of the theater.

Had Richard Attenborough shot "A Chorus Line" the same way it was presented in the theater, the film would have made good theater but bad filmmaking (the show doesn't really lend itself to the film medium anyway). As you recall, we never see the director in the play, only hear his voice. In the film, Attenborough turns the camera around and we see every reaction on the director's face (Michael Douglas) to every actor's story. This has the effect of taking away our reaction, of robbing us the chance to experience our own feelings (which was the point of the play).

"Les Miz" is not so much the poor effort of great actors as it is more like "A Chorus Line" spoiled by the techniques used by an over-indulgent director who wanted to experiment. In this case, we differ. I feel he failed. You feel he succeeded. I feel his use of experimental techniques gets in the way of the storytelling, especially since the basis for the medium is that it is a musical, or was at one time. I do not, will not, and cannot take away the efforts of quality actors who gave it their all, singing on the set without the benefit of proper conditions (a set is not a sound studio that has different accoustic properties).

When I starred as Charlie in the off-Broadway production of "Where's Charlie?" I sang live before an audience. The acting level in a stage musical is not nearly as important as is the singing voice. However, unlike the film "Les Miz," I benefited from the presence of a full pit orchestra that included two harps, not the playback of some tape synched to cameras rolling. As an actor having to concentrate more on performance than song delivery, I feel my songs would have suffered. I would have found it even more difficult to deliver a good singing performance with a camera inches from my face (not that I couldn't deliver a performance, just that I couldn't hear myself singing). We could go back and forth on this day after day, week after week. In the end, you liked "Les Miz" and I didn't for different reasons that have nothing to do with my abilities as a critic, my age, or my preference. I don't believe the criteria add up. But you have repeatedly demonstrated your personal feelings in this regard and I respect them because you well educated, thoughtful, and have the right to express your opinion. That doesn't mean your argument is sound, just that it is preferential.

cinemabon's perspective on perspective and Chorus Line (the Broadway stage and film) shines an important light on how we better experience these art forms. He has captured the dissonant problems with the movie version of Chorus Line (which I up until now struggled to understand) and which I hope film producers and directors will have by now incorporated into their essential list of must dos and must avoids.