Notes On Jean-Paul Le Chanoiss Les Misrables (1958) From French Costume Drama Of The 1950s: Fashioning

Notes on Jean-Paul Le Chanois’s Les Misérables (1958) from French costume drama of the 1950s: fashioning politics in film (2010) by Susan Hayward 

-The film was primarily funded by Deutsche Film-Aktiengesellschaft (a state owned East German film studio) and Pathé but was shot with Technicolor’s Thechnirama screen process (rather than the East German Agfacolor) -It was filmed in Berlin, except for the location shoots in Toulon, Digne, the Luxembourg gardens, and scenes along the Seine. (Some French critics thought it was “anti-national” to recreate Paris in Berlin.) -Real soldiers from Easy Germany’s army acted in the battle of Waterloo and the June Rebellion scenes. -The film was criticized for being condescending, as well as for supposedly inaccurate sets and for reusing sets (the houses in Toulon are also the houses in Digne, despite the fact that they did film on location and the dining room of the house on the rue Plumet is also in the house on the rue des Filles du Calvaire.) -Le Chanois originally planned for the film to be 5 hours and 25 minutes. The producers cut the film from four and a half hours to three. The excised footage has been lost.  -She notes how Marius and Cosette’s romance, along with Eponine slow down the movie, which I have seen said of a lot of film adaptations!  -The actor who played Thénardier (André Bourvil) was known for his roles in comedies and therefore he was hesitant to take the role. Obviously different comedians have played Thénardier in various musical productions but have there been other examples of comedians playing him in film? I feel like there is one but I’m forgetting it!  -The film included 28 different sets designed by Serge Pimenoff. She remarks in particular on the accuracy of the streets surrounding the Corinth, as described by Hugo, as well as Valjean’s homes in Paris.  -Overall, the rebellion is toned down. She places this in the context of the controversy at the time over Algerian independence. -No red flag is waved at Lamarque’s funeral, possibly to avoid censorship, but it is draped over Mabeuf, Eponine, and Gavroche. She says that a tricolor flag (held at General Lamarque’s funeral) would represent a desire to return to the republic. Is that true though? -She points to Portrait of Monsieur Bertin as a possible inspiration for Jean Valjean’s bourgeois clothes.  -This sentence about Cosette stands out: “The bouffant mutton sleeves, so popular at the time, further enhance her aura of dematerialized being.”  -She says that Mabeuf, Eponine, and Gavroche, laid out all three together under the banner “Equality to man and to woman” make there own sort of symbolic work-class family, which counter-balances Cosette and Marius’s bourgeois family.  -When the film was released in West Germany, the censor cut out the scenes with rioting.

“The reds, the reds!” retorted Bahorel. “A queer kind of fear, bourgeois. For my part I don’t tremble before a poppy, “ 

First experiment with Rebelle software (and thus belated) work for The Miserables Month Day, Week 1 Day 6, Flower!  There is. So much more I could do with this but I wanted to go ahead and post it XD I love these brushes though! (this is mostly done with oilpaint brushes, and with the pen for the face and hand! )

tagging @themiserablesmonth even though this is ghastly late, as everything probably will be at this point; thanks for getting me drawing again!!

ETA: sometimes people feel shy about commenting or leaving tags or, IDK, having tag conversations on other people’s posts? ; please always feel free to be sociable on my posts! just don’t be a jerk to anyone. 

ID: stylized image of Bahorel, a bearded man in a waistcoat, in a field of poppies. The waistcoat pattern is made of stylized poppy buds.  The picture is in green and red, with yellow highlights at the poppy centers and for Bahorel’s eyes./end ID

10 - light

he can see now

@themiserablesmonth

Someone once commented that we need more enjolras with ghibli-style fluffy hair and i thought yes actually

/ its also a part of my animation/

realised that the ‘incapable of dying’ conversation takes place with Enjolras in the street and Grantaire in the second floor window of the corinth

The Miserables Month: #16 Dark (Light)

/Feuilly appreciation week

@themiserablesmonth @feuillyweek