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Notre Dame de Paris
See, when I had only the soundtrack to go by, I thought this was a beautiful and heart-wrenching musical*, but after watching it on DVD I have realised that it is actually HILARIOUS AND CREEPY. Its female characters are handled dreadfully (not helped by the fact that I wanted to stab the actress singer playing Esmeralda IN THE FACE), there is zero logical continuity, and the whole thing is like a Mary Sue gone terribly wrong (every single male character in it is irresistably drawn to her! unfortunately -- but logically enough -- this is NOT ACTUALLY A GOOD THING).
However, I was mostly too busy being amused by the staging to care about this. Phoebus has his big IT'S NOT CHEATING IF WE'RE NOT MARRIED YET, RIGHT? song while surrounded by writhing almost-naked men (Fahye: ummmmm) and half the scenes involve the male chraracters randomly chillaxing together on the steps of Notre Dame.
Frollo: So, dude, where's your wife?
Gringoire: Ah! My one true love, the muse of poetry, is as fickle and as fleeting within my thoughts as YOUR true love, the Church. Let us forget these cruel female metaphors and serenade each other about printing presses some more! Because that wasn't gay enough the first time we did it!
Frollo: ...you know, when I said wife, I meant the woman to whom you are married.
Gringoire: Oh, right. The one you're totally stalking, you mean?
Frollo: *coughs*
Clopin: Hey, Gringoire! Where's yourbeard wife?
Gringoire: NOBODY APPRECIATES MY ARTISTIC SOUL!!!! Or my luscious curls and my eyeliner. SOB.
Other redeeming features: the sets are fantastic, THE DANCING IS AMAZING, and Gringoire's curls are overshadowed only by the awesomeness of Clopin's dreadlocks.
*Look, I understood MOST of the lyrics, but not ALL. ("'My fourteen summers are for you?' OH. OKAY THIS IS EVEN CREEPIER THAN I THOUGHT.") Definitely enough to know that the subtitles are often...wrong.
However, I was mostly too busy being amused by the staging to care about this. Phoebus has his big IT'S NOT CHEATING IF WE'RE NOT MARRIED YET, RIGHT? song while surrounded by writhing almost-naked men (Fahye: ummmmm) and half the scenes involve the male chraracters randomly chillaxing together on the steps of Notre Dame.
Frollo: So, dude, where's your wife?
Gringoire: Ah! My one true love, the muse of poetry, is as fickle and as fleeting within my thoughts as YOUR true love, the Church. Let us forget these cruel female metaphors and serenade each other about printing presses some more! Because that wasn't gay enough the first time we did it!
Frollo: ...you know, when I said wife, I meant the woman to whom you are married.
Gringoire: Oh, right. The one you're totally stalking, you mean?
Frollo: *coughs*
Clopin: Hey, Gringoire! Where's your
Gringoire: NOBODY APPRECIATES MY ARTISTIC SOUL!!!! Or my luscious curls and my eyeliner. SOB.
Other redeeming features: the sets are fantastic, THE DANCING IS AMAZING, and Gringoire's curls are overshadowed only by the awesomeness of Clopin's dreadlocks.
*Look, I understood MOST of the lyrics, but not ALL. ("'My fourteen summers are for you?' OH. OKAY THIS IS EVEN CREEPIER THAN I THOUGHT.") Definitely enough to know that the subtitles are often...wrong.
no subject
I like to think that the creepiness of the whole Mary Sue thing is deliberate commentary? Like, it is like that in the book with the whole 'everyone wants Esmeralda like crazy', except Quasimodo's love is Pure And True so it's okay, but in the musical staging at least everyone is on an equally creepy footing when it comes to being Esmeralda-obsessed. However I still do not like the actress who plays her in the stage version at all.
BUT CLOPIN AND GRINGOIRE. Everything about the staging is utterly redeemed for me by the awesomeness that is Clopin and the hilarity that is Gringoire.
no subject
(Disney's Esmeralda = ten times better! Well done there, Disney.)
For a while I thought that Gringoire's love was meant to be pure and true, but then I realised that he was only offering her his love to be polite. Because he then proceeds to ignore her completely and toss his curls around and write deep epic poetry to post on his MySpace. OH GRINGOIRE <3
no subject
Helene Segara is a bit stiff on the DVD but she does have really really awesome songs. I recommend "Le Best of Helene Segara" if you're inclined to check her out. But yeah, I think she was a bit outshined by Julie Zenatti, who just has a gorgeous voice.
I admit, I have a bit of a crush on Gringoire and his eyeliner and blue coat and his lovely, lovely voice. And I nearly die of the cuteness when Clopin and Quasimodo bow to Fleur-de-lys during the curtain call.
Someone has a really funny write-up of the musical here (http://www.geocities.com/pierregringoire/fnddp.html) if you're interested.
*Look, I understood MOST of the lyrics, but not ALL. ("'My fourteen summers are for you?' OH. OKAY THIS IS EVEN CREEPIER THAN I THOUGHT.") Definitely enough to know that the subtitles are often...wrong.
Hee. My best bet is that the translator wanted the english-speaking audience to know what the Court of Miracles actually was, but didn't realize that hey, the song kind of explains it.