#but it is multiple paragraphs and may feel a bit harsh so opting out after seeing the tldr .gif is totally fine

[shitpostingfromthebarricade]

what are your honest opinions on Les Mis 2000

Before receiving this ask, I had only seen a little under half of Les Mis 2000 (French version). In order to provide a fair and complete response to this question, I started over and watched the entire show from beginning to end over the course of 5/6 weeks.

I will provide more details below the cut, but my completely honest opinion on Les Mis 2000?

Looking at the show as a whole, without considering adaptational value, it's scattered and confusing. A lot of storylines get picked up or dropped with little to no explanation, the characters and their motivations make little sense, and the time skips are inconsistent at best (Félix abandons Fantine when she is still pregnant, JVJ is released after Cosette is already 4yo and just being left at the Waterloo Inn/Fantine is already on her way to Montrieul-sur-Mer, Immortal Gav is 12 for ten years, meanwhile Javert undergoes a dramatic appearance change many scenes into the time skip, Cosette ages up when I assume the time skip takes place, and Depardieu [I refuse to call him Valjean] never ages until after the wedding). If you look at the context, it makes sense: they decided to (rather than dubbing after the fact) shoot everything in French and then again in English, so of course performances are going to flag, editing is going to be a mess, and the storyline is going to get lost in the changes they've made while shooting two shows at once.

Which takes me to my next point: as an adaptation, it's also incredibly weak. I don't know if I should be blaming the writer, director, or a terrible combination, but so many elements are not only not accurate to the book (fair enough, if you want book accuracy watch '25 Les Mis or '64 I Mis, or '72 Les Mis for accurate barricades specifically) but seem to totally miss the messages of the book altogether! Fantine was always in trouble before she gets fired (undermines Hugo's message that even doing everything "right" Fantine was still put in an unwinnable position), Javert gets his usual "obsessed with JVJ specifically and also treated as unusually cruel by everyone else" treatment, Gillenormand looks out for this fellow old man who was a gardener and has now been joined into his family by marriage, and Depardieu's character is going to get an entire section below. The Thénardier sex scenes are a lot but ultimately harmless compared to, say, the part where Javert cuts his hair (?) and attends law school with Marius and Enjolras as himself (?), and then later arrests the entire class for treasonous speech. This kind of belongs in the previous editing section, but a lot of the reveals (Marius knowing his neighbors are the Thénardiers, the Thénardiers recognizing the old man in the sewers, Cosette knowing her dad saved Marius, Gillenormand and Marius knowing Cosette's dad's background, Depardieu's character knowing about Javert's death) happen WILDLY out of sequence, and since they are plot-driving sequences, the motivations become confused, the choices make no sense, and you get scenes like Éponine trying to coerce Marius into having sex with her. I kind of liked the switch from jet beads to stinging nettle fabric except again, it didn't matter because Fantine's downfall was so badly done (forget that she turns to sex work immediately, only later selling TEN TEETH and her hair to make ends meet — Javert threatens to [and later does] arrest her for the completely legal profession of sex work before showing her where she can sell her teeth???) and Madeleine was so opposite from everything his character is supposed to be and show.

Which brings us to our next point: yes, in both the English and French versions, Depardieu's performance falls flat, but more importantly, there is an inherent misunderstanding of who and what Jean Valjean is at each phase of his life. I'll be honest, there was a lot going on when he was in prison with Javert tormenting JVJ for fun and the fire that Cochepaille needed saving from and Myriel announcing that he was buying JVJ the same way Judas sold Jesus and Cosette already being with the Thénardiers, so I don't have much feedback about JVJ's characterization or the paper that was yellow like sunshine at that point, but (ignoring the fact that Fantine apparently shows up in Montrieul-sur-Mer with no established factory in sight) then he becomes the most corporate businessman possible, with no regard for the wellbeing of his employees or town who spends all of his time running numbers? The hospital is underfunded, he only rubs elbows with other government officials/bankers, he is painfully out-of-touch with the people of his town, and apparently he doesn't even pay enough for Fantine to be making ends meet even before she is fired. A big part of what JVJ goes through in the book is that he feels like he cannot safely express his feelings about the system to anyone, leading him to act like a scared animal after Petit-Gervais, living in constant fear of being kicked ( @secretmellowblog has a great post about this here), but this Madeleine is CONSTANTLY venting and complaining to anyone who will listen. Not only that, but after he leaves M-sur-M, the police admit to Javert that they knew who he was and just decided to ... leave him be? This isn't a man who's living in fear, and this isn't a man who has to make hard choices in order to do good and help his fellow man. For some reason, Sister Simplice seems to be like 85% of his morality? (and we are very much skimming over the romance subplot that was going on there) So it doesn't even feel like he helps Fantine altruistically, it feels like Sister said "Please help" and Depardieu sighed and went, "Fine, I'll see if I can't pull some strings." When he gets Cosette and begins taking care of her, it feels ENTIRELY self-serving and creepy, and he later confirms with his own words from his own mouth that his feelings for her are not fatherly. He cares about prison reform because he experienced it, not from any sense of altrustic human kindness, and Toussaint ends up robbing him for having taken a chance hiring an ex-convict? (because ofc this Toussaint is a mute manservant, not a maid who can actually help Cosette, because all of Depardieu-Dad's choices are to serve himself, not to keep Cosette safe or happy). By the time Marius is sending Depardieu's character away, it's the only only adaptation that you're cheering on Marius, because this man calling himself Cosette's father who bought her for 1500 francs and still sometimes shares a bed with her and locks her in various rooms and has just admitted his love is not fatherly needs to LEAVE.

Finally — and I will freely admit that this is the pettiest section — the historical accuracy is in shambles. Electricity in the 1820s? 1840s fashions in the 1830s? The hair and makeup are given as errors, but how do you have accurate men's shirts and repeatedly let them wander around without cravats? And no one, not a single person, thought to check 1800s French currency? Sending Cosette off to buy bread with FIVE FRANCS (~$100USD)? Leaving one hundred thousand francs for the funeral of someone who canonically doesn't even have a marked grave? Even the part where Fantine sells her teeth: these were simple numbers they could have checked (two teeth, one napoléon aka twenty francs each — not ten for four each). All of the prices and amounts were in the book. It is not that hard to call the imaginary coin being passed between two characters a sous instead of a franc: we couldn't even see it.

I spent a lot of time thinking about how I would respond to this ask before finally answering, but ultimately, I was asked for my honest opinion, and this is it: it missed the mark for me in every way. I'm sure there are some people who enjoy it, and I am happy for them, but it is not an adaptation that I would recommend to anyone looking for a good Les Mis adaptation or a well-executed show.

#I try very hard to be objective under the cut in my reasons for this opinion #but it is multiple paragraphs and may feel a bit harsh so opting out after seeing the tldr .gif is totally fine #answers and shitposts #salieri27 #les mis 2000 #les mis

[yourflixfix]

Lilia Cuntapay, Keeping it Reel

Written and directed by Antoinette Jadaone is a 2011 film Six Degrees of Separation from Lilia Cuntapay which is starring Lilia Cuntapay portraying the role of herself. When Lilia Cuntapay got multiple supporting roles after her debut in the 1990 film Shake, Rattle & Roll 2, she turned out to be far too well-known for being in horror movies that other people would opt to not hire her because of it. And that is why for a very long time, she was bound to constantly play as a bit-player or an extra. Despite being stereotyped as the actress who took on characters such as ghouls, ghosts, and all scary roles of that sort, Lilia Cuntapay managed to have her name be known and not just her face, for something she so loved and worked hard for. This mockumentary spiraled around the behind-the-camera life of a bit-player like herself, and emphasizing its harsh reality too which is not something everyone knows.

For so many years, degree of separation is an idea that researchers are trying to account for, that it actually stretches back to a 1969 study by researchers Stanley Migram and Jeffrey Travers. The idea of degrees of separation being a theory is known to contend that all people are linked to each other one way or another. This concept was said to be popularized by the 1990 play by John Guare which was turned into a film after a few years. It may seem impossible that we are chained by acquaintances with someone else we do not think that we are ever going to cross in our lives with, but it is in fact, quite possible. Later on, this idea has been taken up to a notch in 1994 by students at Pennsylvania Albright College who invented the game Six Degrees of Separation with Kevin Bacon, in which the context was to associate every film actor to Kevin Bacon in six cast lists or less. We cannot disagree with that the thought actually makes sense. In connection with the film in focus, Six Degrees of Separation with Lilia Cuntapay, degrees of separation has been a recurring idea in the totality of the film itself. This made me think that it is the bare bones or the so-called referential meaning of the film. The title of the film heavily suggests it too! The film made reference to degree of separation linking Lilia Cuntapay to Filipino actors and actresses, and to Kevin Bacon himself.

“In the end awards don’t really mean anything.” These words coming from someone as renowned as Peque Gallaga proves a point. Through the days leading up to a fictionalized awards night, Lilia Cuntapay spends most of her time getting things ready, renting the perfect dress, and asking for help and advices for her to come up with the perfect speech to deliver as she was a nominee for the Best Supporting Actress award for the first time in three decades of her acting life and imagining winning it. With this, I came up with the point that I think the film is trying to teach or tell its audience that an award is just an award. I find myself relating to the film and to the life of Lilia Cuntapay trying to seek for approval, most of the time. Nobody in life wants to do something without being recognized or for once, being in the spotlight. After so many years, Lilia Cuntapay for once, can in fact, have a chance and be in the spotlight but for me, this thought contradicts itself and tries to come across that indeed, award is just an award. It may be the reason why one can have a higher talent fee, it may be the reason why one can demand more in terms of his or her working conditions, but it can never sum up to how good a person is in what he or she is doing.

 The more abstract and underlying message that I have constructed while deep in the film is dreaming big. This might seem a reversing idea with the paragraph before this but it is not. Stating that an award is just an award is different from not having big dreams. In the film, the dream of Lilia Cuntapay to win the Best Supporting Actress award is not an impossible dream to have because she knows that she worked hard enough for her to bag the said award.

 It is undeniable that both the explicit and implicit meaning of the film worked together to express the role of a form of approval and dreaming big in an actor’s life even he or she is just a bit-player. Lilia Cuntapay believed that people like her can win an award or even just be nominated alongside well-known artists even when faced with constant rejections, discriminations, or even living in the harsh reality of being a bit-player. In her case, a familiar but unnamed face in the Philippine film industry. Her name and her face, seemingly, six introductions away from each other.

Delving into the film, I see myself empathizing and relating with the main character which a person would probably not, if the film is not that much realistic at all. The sense of empathy and relating to a character of a film is further supported if and only if it feels real. There is a blurred line between what is real and what is not, in this film. Reality can take on so many forms, and it is believed that a mockumentary is not one of them, however, Six Degrees of Separation from Lilia Cuntapay proved us otherwise. The film treated fact and fiction the same way which resulted into it being a unique piece of work. With that being said, for me, the film met the realistic criteria.

The film overall gave a casual but engaging and heartfelt feel to the audience all throughout the 1 hour, 33 minutes, and 24 seconds of watching. I find myself laughing and crying as the film progresses. The film has a comedic aspect but develops into an emotional and dramatic setting and this for me, highlights the smooth transition of the film. Antoinette Jadaone made a spotlight just for Lilia Cuntapay and the harsh reality of the industry that everyone seems to just see as glitz and glamour. We finally know who Lilia Cuntapay is and how she kept it real.

#film analysis #lilia cuntapay #sixdegreesofseparationfromliliacuntapay #antoinettejadaone #2011film #mockumentary #yourflixfix #bysamc