A few monts back, someone mentioned to me the BBC was planning on a
Three Musketeers tv series.
The cast and something about the content has now been announced, and I am... cautiously optimistic? I mean, there is still a godawful hangover from the horrid 90s Disney version in the form of D'Artagnan wanting to avenge his father (his father is perfectly alive and well in Gascogny, damm it!), but everything else sounds actually Dumasian. Constance is actually a) married, and b) not a lady-in-waiting or in any way a noble. Aramis, played by our ex-Lancelot from
Merlin and ex-Isaac from
Heroes, is described as "Aramis has an effortless charm which leads him in and out of love. Despite this, he is a shrewd pragmatist who is a ferocious in battle and commands a key place in the brotherhood", which should be nice for Santiago to perform. D'Artagnan himself is played by Luke Pasqualino, who was Paolo in
The Borgias, but let's face it, my main interest in any Musketeers version are Milady and Monsieur le Cardinal, and here's what the BBC has to say about them:
Cardinal Richelieu (Capaldi), while striving to achieve his vision of a thoroughly modern France, is a shadowy character who will stop at nothing to achieve his objectives. Milady (McCoy) is the Cardinal’s secret weapon, the most mysterious and beautiful of villains whose motives are often concealed.First of all, hooray for Peter Capaldi as Richelieu! And huzzah for a Richelieu who sounds as if he's actually a cross between Dumas and history for a change instead of a Hollywood Evil Vizier who wants the throne for himself (did I mention yet I hate and despise the stupid stupid 90s movie which intented this? As for the most recent versions,
see this post). "Wants a modern France" and "stops at nothing to achieve his objectives" both are totally true and should make him a good antagonist. And I don't think I've seen Maimie McCoy before, but "mysterious motives" sound as if she's allowed to have layers (I mean, I love Dumas' splendid villainess, and I've come to loathe Athos and the way he treated her over the years, but it would be nice she got to have her own agenda beyond being a good agent for the Cardinal and wanting vengeance on D'Artagnan in the later stages of the story.)
Speaking of media versions remotely based on novels by 19th century French novelists, I've now seen the film version of
Les Miserables. Obligatory background announcement: I've read the novel once, decades ago, in German; have seen the musical on stage only once as well; do have the original English production CD, but no other; have however heard Philip Quast because
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andraste is a fan and included his version of
Stars in a B5 or Alias soundmix, I can't remember which one. Oh, and I have seen a French film version starring Lino Ventura as Valjean. So, I know my main characters but am not by any means an expert or even a well read/heard fan. Anyway, as for the film, Anne Hathaway did deserve her Oscar, I thought Hugh Jackman was excellent as Valjean, too, the Thenardiers looked as if they'd wandered in from a Tim Burton movie, which clashed with the film otherwise trying for a more realistic look, their daughter Eponine likewise had a weirdly stagey costume only in her case it was the corset that smacked of artificiality, everyone else's costumes were fine. I appreciated they included Javert trying to resign/getting fired when he thinks he accused M. Madeleine/Valjean unjustly in the film, because that's such a key scene in the book and I found it weird the musical had omitted it. Apropos Javert, yes, Russell Crowe was not made for singing, but I've heard worse. The whole approach of casting actors and using their actual voices instead of going for singers (except for the supporting parts) reminded me of the
Buffy episode
Once More With Feeling, and that's not a negative observation. Let's see, what else? Cosette is such a thankless role, but Amanda Seyfried and the kid made the best of it and actually Valjean repeatedly telling her to come inside suddenly reminded me of another Hugo father and daughter pair, Rigoletto and Gilda. The revolutionaries were young and pretty and not easily distinguishable without having read the book. Eddie Remayne. really made Marius less self involved than many a Marius, even though the musical gives him less reason than book!Marius has for his behaviour towards Valjean post sewers. (In the book, Marius assumes, and has every reason to believe, that Valjean has just killed Javert and robbed the unknown "Monsieur Madelaine"'s money until he learns otherwise, so it's not just the deepset snobbery of "convict? Ew!" that causes him to agree Cosette should see less to nothing of Valjean.) Most importantly, he delivers what is the one song in this musical which makes me cry every time for personal reasons, "Empty Chairs on Empty Tables". (Nothing to do with French revolutionaries. Like I said, it's personal.) Oh, and because time has to fly in a musical, we get Valjean's decline and death happening superfast instead of the longer time the novel allows him; it occurs to me that the whole dying of a broken heart thing usually happens to female characters in 19th century novels, so is it gender bending Valjean does it? (Not a serious question.)
So, as a non-Les Mis fan: I enjoyed watching, won't buy the soundtrack or the dvd, but may tune in if I catch it on tv in a few years. Wouldn't reccommend it as a must watch to other people, but if you like movie musicals and grand emotion, you'll enjoy it more likely than not.
Lastly, a sudden thought: has anyone ever written a Count of Monte Cristo/Les Mis crossover? Because I have this image of Edmond Dantes/The Count and Valjean looking at each other, taking each other's reactions to imprisonment and sudden money afterwards in and saying simultanously: "Seriously?"
