Les Mis

So, I have not been doing so hot with keeping up my blog and have some catching up to do. I've been working two jobs and going to school full time, but hey! No excuses, right? This is long overdue, but at the beginning of this year I got to go and see the movie production of "Les Miserables" (Tom Hooper, 2012) with family and friends.
Before I continue, I must shamefully admit that I have never seen the stage production, but from what I have heard word-of-mouth and from the songs and DVDs my friends have been sharing with me it must be well worth seeing.
I enjoyed the film version of "Les Miserables". I thought that the cinematography was quite beautiful and the editing was well executed. The performances of the actors was rendered very well and I feel that this type of stage-to-film musical was delivered in such a way that it could reach out to an audience that hasn't had much exposure to musicals.

My only beef with the film was that all the singing was in real-time. While this is just a matter of opinion, I felt that if I were to go and hear real-time singing I would have preferred to go to a play production. Maybe it's just me, but I kind of feel like the purpose of putting a stage production onto the silver screen is so that it can sound studio perfect. One of the things that makes the stage great is that you can see and hear all the little imperfections, the human hand adds interest, the beauties and nuances are a moment for the audience to grasp onto. But film is a time capsule. I just think its silly to encapsulate something like a flat note or a voice cracking. Sure we can say that its the raw thing, but there are only so many times one can listen to the same flat note over and over again.
I know, and I have been told, that film should be "real", but if you can make something seamless for future generations to look at, I ask, why not? I don't love the film version of "The Sound of Music" (Robert Wise, 1965) because I could tell that the actors were people who sometimes couldn't hit a note, I enjoyed it because people had taken the pains to make sure that every note was hit.
While watching live performances I don't mind slightly flat notes and other such hiccups as much, because I am in awe that a person is putting themselves out there like that. That they have the ability to get up on stage and belt it out. But on camera one doesn't need to belt it out, and the type of display is intrinsically different.
I felt that the fact that the movie was live singing was merely an effort to land some sort of cool points with audiences and reviewers, but I honestly don't think that it helped the film.
Other than that, I really did enjoy the movie and I am interested in actually seeing the stage production. Which is something I appreciate about movies like this, because it gets audiences interested in actually seeing the stage version, singing the songs, or reading the novel by Victor Hugo. It's good to broaden audience's interests and I think that this is something that this film definitely does.