10. It Doesnt Look Like A Musical Because Of The Microphones Les Miserables
Les Mis was a great film if you enjoyed the stage musical and a monotonous one if you didnt; five good songs in a film of that length doesnt give a good ratio. One thing that director Tom Hooper did that was interesting was shooting the film totally against the medium. Whereas when watching a musical at the theatre its all from one point pretty much a mid-length shot Hooper filled his film with close ups of the actors (most memorably in Anne Hathways I Dreamed A Dream) and awe inspiring wide shots of the action. There were also some CGI pans, but they were so clearly in a computer they stood out worse than Russell Crowes inability to sing. Many critics praised Hooper for this decision, saying he finally succeeded in making the musical cinematic, but it was less an artistic choice and more one made out of simplicity. Unlike many screen musicals Les Mis used on set performances in the soundtrack (normally the actors mime to pre-recorded tracks) to give an extra layer of authenticity. The easiest way to avoid the microphones used to achieve this was to, you guessed it, shoot close up when the microphone was out of shot or far wide when the audio had already been captured.