Anne Hathaway cast in 'Les Miserables'

By Sarah Sluis

I have a special fondness for the musical Les Misrables, which my high-school French teacher used to instruct us in the vagaries of the French language. Singing along with my fifteen-year-old classmates to Cosette's innocent rendition of "There is a Castle on a Cloud" in French ("Mon Prince est en Chemin")? Priceless. Universal Pictures has moved incredibly fast with its film adaptation of Les Misrables, casting the main roles shortly after announcing the project. The musical, based on Victor Hugo's 1862 novel, was first staged in London in 1985, so it's odd that the studio is now moving with so much speed. They've already set a release date: Dec. 7, 2012.

Anne Hathaway will play Fantine, a poor working-class woman whose condition is made worse by her chronic illness and her status as a single mom. She joins Russell Crowe, who will play Javert, the police inspector who makes the lives of Fantine and Jean Valjean miserable. Valjean, a criminal turned wealthy factory owner, will be played by Hugh Jackman. Most encouragingly, the production will be helmed by newly minted Oscar winner Tom Hooper. Last year, he received the Best Director award for the critical and commercial success The King's Speech.

The stage version of Les Misrables is sung all the way through. The question of how to blend the songs with dialogue (presumably spoken, not sung) will shape whether the movie ends up being a success or a failure. Musicals are no longer the pariahs they once were, but success is still something of a gamble. Who would have thought the poppy songs in Mamma Mia! would appear to effortlessly blend onscreen, leading to a global success? With its prestige December release date, Universal is undoubtedly hoping the movie will end up more like director Rob Marshall's adaptation of Chicago ($300+ million) and less like his adaptation of Nine ($50 million). Hooper has shown he can sensitively adapt history with The King's Speech and "John Adams," but will he be suited for a musical historical epic? In little more than a year we'll find out.

81st Oscars get a lively makeover

By Sarah Sluis

This year the Academy promised to mix up the awards show, and the vibrancy and attempt to nix the

yawn-inducing moments was a success. Even their missteps made me laugh and supplied good Oscar party chatter, so in my opinion the Academy delivered. One of the biggest improvements was removing the clips that introduce each nominee in an acting category. The clips never really seemed to capture the performance, and the stars had to act humble and sheepish about their work when the camera would cut to them afterwards, which was incredibly boring. Replacing the clips with words of praise from a winner in that category (with five past award winners assigned to praise the five nominees) added to the sense that the winner would be joining a club, a legacy, and also focused on the compliment and honor of a nomination.

Oscar presentations are known for their cheesy, overlong musical numbers and montages, but, again, the ridiculous lyrics were at least entertaining. One of my favorite moments in the opening number was the bit on The Reader. Bowing to the fact that there is always at least one movie that no one has seen (and the box-office numbers support this fact), host Hugh Jackman merely intoned "The Reader...The Reader..." in a mechanical voice while the dancers did an abstract dance. Also, instead of longish clips from each of the Best Picture nominees, the producers showed montages/shorts surrounding a genre that included non-nominated films (and made you truly appreciate the fact that Hancock and Space Chimps did not receive nominations) The comedy bit (which Judd Apatow helped create) was strong, featuring the expected jokes about Milk and misplaced laughter at dramatic moments, but what stood out to me was the irreverence of laughing at film during an awards presentation that aims to elevate movies, which also happened earlier with the Reader bit. Curious.

This year had few tight races. Sean Penn's win for Best Actor over Mickey Rourke was one of the few surprising moments of the night, as many expected Rourke to win. The other upset, especially among those participating in Oscar pools, was the choice for Foreign Language Film. Japan's Departures won over the widely publicized Waltz with Bashir, which was considered a frontrunner, and The Class, another film that was more widely seen in the United States. For the smaller categories (also more difficult to predict in those Oscar pools) the Academy put effort into explaining the technical challenges of sound mixing, editing, and art direction. Adding award-specific props to the set enhanced the visual appeal of the telecast, which was also helped by the more intimate, rounded shape of the auditorium and the interplay between the audience and the stage (which I predicted). In the end, Slumdog Millionaire received eight awards, including Best Picture, Director, and Adapted Screenplay. Most-nominated Benjamin Button came away with makeup, art direction, and visual effects, a sign that the film's technical achievements just weren't matched on a narrative level. A predictor of its impending win, Slumdog received a box office boost of 10% this weekend, and will surely cross the $100 million mark next weekend, adding to the film's success.