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yakalskovich) wrote2013-10-19 10:40 pm
yakalskovich) wrote2013-10-19 10:40 pm
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Les Misérables -- 2000 French TV miniseries -- Part 4
- Oh hello student doctor -- that must be Joly?
- Say sorry, but Gavroche's death isn't as heartbreaking as it could be; perhaps it is because he's not as little as he could be.
- How does Javert know that the soldiers shot Gavvroche?
- Now, Valjean gets a pistol and a Javert.
- Couteau, not surin, for the knife!
- He cuts Javert free, and then? The revolutionaries would totally notice the lack of dead police spy. Only not, because they're all dead in a minute. Also, not enough bluescreen from Javert here, I think.
- And why is Fauchelevent in uniform on the wrong side and gets shot now? They wouldn't recruit an old man as a volunteer and put him there that fast.
- And off we go into the sewers, through a narrow grate.
- Rivers of eurgh, with rats swimming in it.
- Why are there soldiers randomly shooting around in the sewers?
- Okay, now we are chest-deep in the really nasty, and here is Thénardier, of course...
- And he takes what Marius has and unlocks the sewere.
- Oh hai, Javert. He knew exactly where Valjean had to come out with Marius.
- Javert helps him with Marius and takes him in his own coach to M. Gillenormand -- that is brick canon, I think.
- What? The grandfather will be content with the corpse of Marius?
- Gillenormand's butler is fun.
- Javert and Valjean actually talking to each other peacefully about things.
- And Gillenormand shouts at both of them and shouts at them, and not even Javert doesn't contradict him.
- "Non. Oui." Oh Javert.
- Ooops and here are the two silver candlesticks, suddenly turning up again on their living room table, having been there all the time. We apparently just weren't shown them. And now, he locks her in and leaves.
- Javert is gone.
- Ooops, Javert takes pity on some guy with a wife without legs and lets him go.
- And here he writes his pathetic list of You're Doing It Wrong, and doesn't listen to the guy telling him that he's not like everybody else. Interesting way of doing his final conflict.
- He's shackles his hands behind his back. And it's raining. June, this is not.
- And we have no parapet, he simply walks deeper and deeper into the water, WITH his hat. And now, the hat drifts away on its own...
- Nope, I think Javert not literally falling leaves something to be desired.
- Valjean tells Gillenormand about Javert killing himself, and then hands over Cosette's dowry. In turn, Gillenormand allows them to marry.
- Thénardiers, and Azelma, in front of a --church? Stealing from people waiting to see Marius and Cosette to come out.
- Cosette wants Valjean to live with them and brought the candlesticks -- aww. And then, he leaves.
- And here he returns to Rue Plumet, and Toussaint is gone, leaving a cryptic note. Valjean, though, goes to Cosette's former room, smells her pillow and kisses her doll. How very sad...
- Valjean tells Marius everything because Javert is dead and nobody else knows who he is? Er, what?? He claims he loves Cosette, not like a father but -- eurgh, what a pervy idea! Or does he simply claim it so Marius stops pitying him? Why does he keep wanting Marius to hate him and be strict to him? Does he want a replacement for Javert somehow? What is this even?
- And now, he comes to see Cosette ages later with white hair and gets sent to the kitchen, and Marius secretly comes to see him there, being very cold and distant.
- And now Thénardier comes to save the day unwittingly yet again? Nope, not yet.
- Valjean fakes letters from Egypt -- what? And the Gillenormand butler brings him things in a sack. Oh, his candlesticks. And Monsieur Gillenormand sends a doctor.
- And Marius sends Thénardier to America as punishment, with 30.000 Francs to start over! ROFLMAOPIP!! That is why some Americans are so horrible -- they're descended from the Thénardiers!! **giggles**
- Valjean is living in Cosette's former room, huddled before the fire, dying...
- Cosette lights the candlesticks and comes to him carrying them. How very odd.
- 'Misérable' -- that was probably the last title drop because Valjean is dying.
- He sees lots of light, then Marius blows out the candles in the chandeliers, and the last episode is done.
Goodbye, Jean Valjean. I still think you weren't really served well by being played by Depardieu, but otherwise, the series wasn't bad, the casting was excellent, the historical things and places were quite detailed, and Malkovich makes a very interesting, snarky, wordy Javert miles away from musical!Javert, let alone Crowe!Javert, who is quiet and prim and dour.
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Oh, good God, do they not explain that he was following Thenardier to begin with? That would just make no sense at all, otherwise. Total deux et machina.
Javert helps him with Marius and takes him in his own coach to M. Gillenormand -- that is brick canon, I think.
Yep, completely.
Was it Javert who thought his grandfather would be satisfied with the corpse? I think that's a product of him being completely sure Marius would die, which is also canon.
doesn't listen to the guy telling him that he's not like everybody else
Oooh, explain further, please?
Valjean tells Gillenormand about Javert killing himself, and then hands over Cosette's dowry. In turn, Gillenormand allows them to marry.
...but how does he know? Unless this is noticeably later on, after he reads about it in the paper (and also apparently hears about it through word of mouth, though Hugo never expands on where, or from who. Which drives me nuts.)
Valjean tells Marius everything because Javert is dead and nobody else knows who he is? Er, what?? He claims he loves Cosette, not like a father but -- eurgh, what a pervy idea! Or does he simply claim it so Marius stops pitying him? Why does he keep wanting Marius to hate him and be strict to him? Does he want a replacement for Javert somehow? What is this even?
CAN I PUT MY SLASH GOGGLES ON NOW, PLZ!?
But seriously, whaaaaaat? I mean, the bit with J. The bit with the way he loves Cosette is a bastardisation of something Hugo said - I re-read it the other day, and there's a very interesting line in there I can't get my head around, but whatever - and...yeah, I don't think Hugo meant it quite so oddly as all that.
But Marius is definitely a total prick to him for a while.
Huh. So. I...yeah. I'm glad it's good on the whole! There are definitely some things that are making me scratch my head, but idk, I'll have to watch it to see if they make more sense in the flesh. *learns French*
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No, it's the butler who opens the gate. Valjean and Javert go 'We brought M- Gillenormand's grandson', and the butler says, 'He has no grandson', and they show him the note 'Please deliver my corpse to my grandfather, at that address' and the butler says 'Oh, if it's his corpse, M. Gillenormand will be content.' The butler plays quite an important role -- his name is Lorain, does he exist in canon?
doesn't listen to the guy telling him that he's not like everybody else
Oooh, explain further, please?
Oh, that is an interesting thing. Javert walks into this police station to write his pathetic list of You're Doing It Wrong, and there is this man they arrested who pleads to be let go because his wife has no legs due to an accident in a factory, and the constable he talks to sneers and says, 'Who'd want to marry a woman without legs, so you clearly must be lying', and then Javert, in passing, orders him to let the man go and sits down to write his list, and the man comes and thanks Javert and explains that, even though his wife has no legs, he loves her, because she has the most wonderful smile and he loves her, which makes all the toil worthwhile, and he's glad Javert understands it, and it's clear Javert is not like everybody else there. But Javert just dismisses what the man says because he's concentrating on his list. But I found it an interesting idea that, after doing what Valjean had asked of him not once but twice (first taking Marius to his grandfather, and then allowing him to say good-bye to Cosette, which is the part with 'Non' **slight eyeroll** 'Oui' that I mentioned, but without the eyeroll, I think) he has sort of got the hang of treating people better already. There is this painful feeling of a near-miss here: if only he had listened to the husband of the wife with no legs instead of concentrating on his list, he might have realised that he himself was changing, people can change, and it might be interesting to see what he might become. He seemed so close to opening his eyes on these possibilities, it was positively painful. Compared to that, his actual death was anticlimactic.
...but how does he know? Unless this is noticeably later on, after he reads about it in the paper (and also apparently hears about it through word of mouth, though Hugo never expands on where, or from who. Which drives me nuts.)
Yes, that part. He's heard it, in a general way, that Javert's corpse had been found under the boat of some washerwomen, and he had clearly committed suicide. He doesn't say the name, though -- even though both Marius and M. Gillenormand knew Javert! The curtain lecture M. Gillenormand held Valjean and Javert was remarkable, by the way: - they just stand there and say nothing, perhaps not wanting to further enrage the old man in his grief (he still thinks Marius is dead), which shows remarkable restraint, especially for this Javert! Perhaps that was already a sign of how he was changing: not contradicting him and going 'I am an inspector of the police' etc.-
CAN I PUT MY SLASH GOGGLES ON NOW, PLZ!?
But seriously, whaaaaaat? I mean, the bit with J.
Yep, seriously, it seems as if he misses Javert -- Javert at least knew who he really was. They spent quite some time together in Montreuil, Javert often being there in the background and commenting on things, and even though that is explained by Javert investigating the mayor's doubtful finances (the part where he has no account with any bank anywhere), they do seem to see eye to eye more often than not. There is something there, some rapport, some way they might connect and understand -- it's so close, they miss it by a hair's breadth. Of course Valjean grieves for Javert without even realising he does it.-
And yes, despite the head-scratchers and the less-than-stellar Depardieu, I can really recommend this version.
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There is this painful feeling of a near-miss here: if only he had listened to the husband of the wife with no legs instead of concentrating on his list, he might have realised that he himself was changing, people can change, and it might be interesting to see what he might become. He seemed so close to opening his eyes on these possibilities, it was positively painful.
THAT IS WHY THE WHOLE THING IS SO SAAAAAD. I mean, obviously the brick doesn't have a dude with a no-legged wife, but it doesn't need it for illustration, the way I imagine a TV series might. But yeah - the whole tragedy of his death is that he had turned the corner. He understood. But because he doesn't have love - Hugo is not subtle on this point, when you compare his arc to Valjean's - he can't take the final step, and allow it to happen. Which is why VJ is the natural character to help him complete his redemption, hence why they get slashed so much. (Also, the animosity and hunting adds to that.)
But, yeah. Hugo's all about 'Valjean experiences kindness and finds the capacity to love from Cosette, and grows from it, and questions things, and lives by his conscience' whereas Javert questions nothing, thinks nothing, lives by external rules alone, so does not grow - and when he makes the discovery Valjean did, he is on his own...so cannot complete the transition. If there had been anyone with him, or anyone he could fall back on and talk it through, he would have got there - but Hugo's making a point, of course. So...
...sorry, I'm metabarfing. But yes. There is tooooonnnns of stuff out there that says exactly what you did. He was so close, and still fell. It is heartbreaking.
they just stand there and say nothing, perhaps not wanting to further enrage the old man in his grief (he still thinks Marius is dead), which shows remarkable restraint, especially for this Javert!
Augh, I wish there had ever been a meeting between J and the old man in canon. They would have got along pretty well, I think. Apart from the fact the old dude is a fairly despicable old lech, who needs to be castrated. But their Royalist views would have been something to bond over. :D
They spent quite some time together in Montreuil, Javert often being there in the background and commenting on things, and even though that is explained by Javert investigating the mayor's doubtful finances (the part where he has no account with any bank anywhere), they do seem to see eye to eye more often than not.
The Montreuil years kill me dead. I think it might be one of the few fandom tropes I actually enjoy more than the brick. Because, as in this version, it's so easy to have them actually find some common ground in those years, to go along with identity!angst from VJ. But in reality, Javert is nothing but suspicious of him for the entire time, apart from the twenty-four hours where he believes he has wrongly denounced him, and gone crawling with his tail between his legs. On the other hand, most of J's years there are not gone into with any depth at all, so there may have been occasions where they got on OK. Always with suspicion on J's part, clearly; Hugo had him actively watching him at all times, and then avoiding him after the incident with Fantine. But it's nicer to think they might have got on well in running the town.
ANYWAY. I will shut up. And will definitely watch this. \o/ Thanks so much for taking the time to take notes. <33
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Utterly heartbreaking -- so I don't really understand why they didn't have him literally fall. That would have been much more dramatic than just this wading-in with shackled hands. They should have been able to find a river with a parapet somewhere in all of the Czech Republic, and also some stunt people to fall from them in a badass longcoat! The place is famous for all the movies that are made there.
Anyway, yes, Javert's end is heartbreaking on so many levels. There is that moment when he calls Valjean 'vous' again instead of the rude assymmetrical 'tu' afforded a criminal, and Valjean remarks on it, and they keep talking and dealing with that extreme situation together which is such a near-miss of a connection made, you can almost hear it scrape. But I will shut up as well now -- I should go and sleep.
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I've just found, and bought, the edited three-hour version of this they made in English. So I will watch that first. And then, without a doubt, go and get the extended French edition too.
Anyway. Yes! Go and sleep! I need to go do that too. <333
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You'll have to tell me what parts the three-hour version kept!
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