Le miserables

[Doobydoobydooyeh]

Anyone watching? Not quite the same without the songs!

It's desperately bleak isn't it. It's good though.

Fantine got very ill very quickly. Does she have syphilis or something?
Not read the book or seen the musical but gripped by this.

Olivia Coleman's accent is a bit knees up mother brown though.

She was coughing blood so I think maybe TB or something?!

I thought it was fantastic. The musical film is on More 4 now. Singing along with Fantine in bed.

Grim and sad, but totally gripping from start to finish. All the acting is so good. I was thinking "Not Olivia Colman again....." but she was excellent, as always!

That was some properly good television. Everyone of the characters are so incredibly well portrayed. Fantine’s poverty was just heartbreaking.

I read the book when I was about 15. Properly obsessed I was. I thought I remembered that Felix lived with fantine and played happy families for a couple of years after Cosette was born? Hence the pretty dresses she wore. Felix payed a little advance on the rent but swanned off with his buddies one day as a joke and never looked back. Fantine's girlfriends drifted away shortly thereafter, laughing at the joke as well. Fantine was the only one left with a child to look after and no means worth which to do so.

I could be remembering wrong, though, and don't have much desire to wade through the time again to double-check.

I haven't had a chance to watch this at all yet, but the thread is getting me very nostalgic for my teen years.

I am enjoying it so far. I hate musicals and haven't quite managed to finish the novel, will watch this until the end then give it another go.

I'm enjoying it so far, I think it's well done. I'm looking forward to the next episode.

It's so very bleak

They are selling the book in Sainsburys! Wonder how many people will pick it up, feel its weight, look at the size of the print inside and still buy it!

DH knows even less about LM than me and did not realise that Valjean was the same guy as the Mayor til he expressed confusion approximately half way through last night!!

I assume Fantine has 'consumption'. It was the illness of choice for beautiful courtesans and prostitutes in 19th century literature.

Wikipedia's entry on the novel is almost as long as the book itself. Spoiler alert: only look on Wiki if you want to know how it pans out.
Victor Hugo explained it thus:
The book which the reader has before him at this moment is, from one end to the other, in its entirety and details ... a progress from evil to good, from injustice to justice, from falsehood to truth, from night to day, from appetite to conscience, from corruption to life; from bestiality to duty, from hell to heaven, from nothingness to God. The starting point: matter, destination: the soul.

Perfect for me as I studied the book and am not into musicals at all. Really enjoying it.

It is bleak yes...last night's was, well, miserable! But yes, very well done.

.*

👋

I assume Fantine has 'consumption'. It was the illness of choice for beautiful courtesans and prostitutes in 19th century literature.

Something like 1in 6 deaths in the 19th century were from TB, at least in Britain, so it's probability more than choice.

Well les miserables is very miserable without the songs . Loving this drama saw the musical production last week it's in dublin at the moment and this is giving it another dimension without some of the whitewashing in the musical

I'm still trying to work out who the other little girl was at the inn.

Eldest with red hair was I assume Eponine, but I can't work out the younger one. Also surprised to find Gavroche in the inn.

However I did laugh out loud at the "they could be sisters" line, when the 3 of them couldn't look more different.

@IceRebel That was Azelma, the Thernadiers' younger daughter, who doesn't appear in the musical. Also Gavroche is their son but was turned into a random street urchin in the musical.

Thanks for the information, I never manged to read the book so I had no idea they had more than one child. I assume they're not his children, given the striking difference in appearance?

No they're all his as far as the reader knows. It's just that they've chosen an Asian actor for this production so they've had to make the kids biracial.

Yes bearhug, I menat more that it was exploited in literary circles for its melodrama , particularly for beautiful young people : cf Les Dames Aux Camellias/ Camille

I haven't read the book or watched any previous production. I didn't understand why Fantine had to sacrifice her child in order to work in prostitution. The amount she was sending to keep her at the Inn would have more than covered their expenses living together wouldn't it? I agreed with the translator guy.

She believed her child was living in a caring home with a decent family. She was presumably living in a horrid little room or something. She believed Cosette was having a better life with the Thenadiers.