#adaptation talk

[melancholyarchivist]

les misérables film adaptations are one of the most interesting things to study, because you can really see where the writers have changed the text to further their ideas depending on context. Of course Dallas, but between 1909 and 1929 it was one of the most popular western properties to remake and set in Japan for a statement film too. Both Indian 50’s adaptations set it as a fight against British colonialism with Javert as a class traitor, and both end redeeming a previously bad guy(Felix and Thernadier) to unite in the fight. 1955 Indian Les Mis even includes real protest footage. The 2007 Sudan Les Misérables by Gadalla and Sara Gubara was made after his film studio was confiscated and he was blinded by police(some scenes are allegedly filmed in the jail he was held in), where he intentionally left out any references to the revolution. The soviet 1937 one shifts focus entirely to Gavroche versus the Monarchy.

But then we also have censorship. 1935 Hayes code les misérables which is scrubbed so clean of anything so unseemly as a single mother or an unjust system it loses all meaning, or the 1951 one which has the same problem and instead becomes about entrepreneurship, prospering in capitalism and the American Dream. The spanish ’71 version made Javert nicer and a Good Cop (I suspect) not to stir trouble with the fash regime at the time. I mean hell, I’d argue BBC les mis is as copagandic as a modern Les Misérables gets, with One Bad Cop who has so many cool cops trying to stop him idk:/ — and it’s the one gay person, and a black man. All of this to say, Les Misérables is some of the most revealing media to adapt, because of its length and themes it has near universal appeal, and it tends to reveal a lot about the context they were made and persons behind it. Is the state unjust, or a friend? Is the Catholic church always good? Do you think Javert is one sole bad actor? Is Fantine a single mother? Is she a sex worker?

Hugo said stories as this one must be told, but what is it about, really? Is Les Misérables about redemption, revoltion, the infinite, Christianity— or economic growth?

[pilferingapples]

I want every Les Mis adaptation to have novelizations  I am so serious  about this 

I want to see the variations in characterization explored in text! I want incidents that didn’t make it onscreen, or were mentioned and not shown, explored in wordy leisure! I want Robert’s backstory! 

imagine the one for Shoujo Cosette. Imagine working Chou Chou  into a novel. 

What would you even do for the musical? are people still singing? Do you convert the lyrics to prose? 

 I want the novelization of Arm Joe  

the potential is so vast and so underexplored , stop releasing New Movie Tie-In editions of Les Mis and just write a wild new version ,  come on, production companies

[rosesutherlandwrites]

Meanwhile, in other adaptations, in other fandoms

I’m merrily trucking along with Outlander, an adaptation of an absolutely sprawling series of books, which is nearing the end of its 4th season (one book per season!) and you know what? I have never been salty with this show. I mean, they’ve changed stuff, and i have liked and disliked things along the way about some of the choices they’ve made in the adapting of it, sure, but at the end of every single episode, it has still been true to the heart of the story. I have always felt like I was seeing Outlander. I have always felt like Claire is Claire, and Jamie is Jamie, and that the characters on the screen are the characters I read about. They’ve pulled this off for FOUR SEASONS.

Davies couldn’t do it for four episodes.

[pilferingapples]

how do you feel about productions like dallas or thé 1995 film that places les mis in a different époque..? bises

I love them! Obviously not every new attempt is going to be wildly successful, but I think they’re a great idea-- a good way for an adaptation to bring out or focus on a particular aspect of the story  through the framing of the new setting. It’s also a great way to get a little room to rearrange and alter parts of the story without having to fight as much against the pull of the novel’s canon, or the expectations created by other adaptations (..okay, the musical, which is definitely the most popular image of LM in particular.).  A new era or setting makes it obvious that things are now going to be different and resets expectations in a potentially useful way.  And it can help a creator think of an old story in a new way, too. 

Shakespeare’s been doing radical reimaginings for ages, and other classic stories get them all the time; I think the bones of Les Mis are sturdy enough to hold up to some major setting shifts, too. I love these  and wish we had more of them!

[pilferingapples]

out of curiosity, what's your favorite les mis film adaptation (in french)?

In French? The epic 1934 adaptation from Raymond Bernard, starring Harry Baur as Jean Valjean-- remarkably complete, wonderful distinct visual style, and Baur is my all time favorite non-musical Valjean.

I’m not going to say it’s perfect--just really really really good,  and ...geez, now I want to watch it again! Anyway, Nonny,  that one!

[pilferingapples]

Hi! Love your blog. I just watched BBC Episode 2 (and have..... a lot of thoughts) and was hella excited to see My Boi Gavroche, but when I slogged through The Brick I got the sense that Gavroche was a name he picked for himself? Did I read it wrong or did Davies just do another “missed the entire goddamn point”? I also realize it might just be so viewers who didn’t read the book can recognize him later, but I wanted to hear your take :D

It certainly does come across in the book like Gavroche is a name he picks (or is given) because his parents can’t be bothered to, or in argument with them! Which is a sad and telling point.But it’s also one that I think falls entirely into the drawer of Reasonable Adaptational Changes. Gavroche is a character who changes in appearance a LOT from the time we see him with his parent to the time we see him in Paris (because kids are like that!) , and since his parents don’t acknowledge him by name...ever, it’s kind of tricky to make it clear to viewers that the Paris gamin and the little boy who doesn’t get any lines in the inn (and often isn’t even spoken to) are the Same Kid.  The main point of his name being given by others (or claimed for himself) is that his parents mistreat and abandon him, and there are, sadly, many other chances to show that. So allowing it for clarification doesn’t cost much, narratively. 

..that is a long route to say “ it doesn’t bother me”  , but: it doesn’t bother me. XD

[pilferingapples]

I may have some issues with the way Shoujo Cosette makes Little!Cosette living with the Thenardiers a Morally Pure Perfect Child instead of the reasonably wary, lying-to-survive kid she is in the book, but man it really did right by Fantine. She makes massively bad calls about who to trust or not, mismanages her finances,  loses her temper at the worst times from a practical standpoint-- but her reasons for it all are always obvious (maybe actually more than in the book, since SC explains some of her choices a little more than Hugo thought he had to, going more into things like her leaving Cosette with the Thenardiers .)  It’s one of the reasons I love the series.