Notre Dame de Paris; Costumes

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Helene Segara, Garou, Daniel Lavoie, Patrick Fiori Original cast Notre Dame de Paris pciture image

Helene Segara, Garou, Daniel Lavoie, Patrick Fiori Original cast Notre Dame de Paris

Unlike other musicals, Notre Dame de Paris has a very different take on costumes. Like every interpretation of costumes, it’s part the current style, in this case late 90’s in France and the period the story, which takes place in 1482. However, the costume designer, Fred Sathal didn’t seem take much from the fashions of story’s period, she pretty much did her own thing.

Helene Segara as Esmeralda Notre Dame de Paris design by Fred Sathal

Helene Segara as Esmeralda design by Fred Sathal

Fred Sathal is a couture fashion designer who got her start in theater. Her designs are described a luxury bohemian and she likes sequins and beading and has unique techniques on fabric manipulation. Her point of view is clear in Notre Dame de Paris’ costumes.

Helene Segara as Esmeralda Notre Dame de Paris picture image

Helene Segara as Esmeralda Notre Dame de Paris

The costumes in Notre Dame de Paris are really polarizing. I have seen some hate, down right hate, on Esmeralda’s green dress and I can see where that comes from. The original dress doesn’t move very well and the details on it, with its unique swirled velvet-like fabric, patched work seams that are dyed slightly different and sequins, get lost and aren’t that notable. The costumes have so many little details that they aren’t that well suited for a stage show.

Garou as Quasimodo Notre Dame de Paris picture image

Garou as Quasimodo

These costumes just don’t read as medieval. They do seem to have more of a late 90’s couture vibe while sort of relating to the characters. I would say that as a standard representation of a costume, Quasimodo’s is the best. That being said I do like the characters have some color coding, they wear a mostly a single solid color so that a member of the audience can identify the character from far away.

Julie Zenatti as Fleur de Lys Notre Dame de Paris

Julie Zenatti as Fleur de Lys Notre Dame de Paris

The costumes differ somewhat from show to show, cast to cast especially both of Esmeralda’s costumes and Fleur-de-Lys‘ to a fair degree. It’s kind of amazing how much the green dress differs when they try so hard to keep it the same. The exception is the Italian version which is similar in concept but very different, it has more movement and is more exaggerated. Really I could spends weeks discussing these costumes in depth, hell I could spend weeks just talking about the fabric of the green dress, but I will not.

Bruno Pelletier as Gringoire in Notre Dame de Paris picture image

Bruno Pelletier as Gringoire

This costume are more representation of the characters rather expressing grandiose musical costume preferences while maintain the designer style and the minimal nature of the show. If you like them, great, so do I and if you don’t than it’s understandable.

 

 

Fun Fact-  Phoebus’ chain mail shirt is real chain mail and Patrick Fiori lost like ten pounds running around while wearing it

For More
http://rivercygnet.hubpages.com/hub/nddp-costume-esmeralda-green
http://rivercygnet.hubpages.com/hub/esmeralda-white-dress
http://rivercygnet.hubpages.com/hub/fleur-de-lys-costumes-of-notre-dame-de-paris
https://www.thehunchblog.com/2012/04/esmeraldas-green-costume-defense/

3 Weird Facts about Kevin Kline

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Kevin Kline picture image

Kevin Kline

For this months, I picked five random Hunchback actors and offering three facts about them. First one, Kevin Kline who voiced Phoebus in Disney’s Hunchback of Notre Dame.

-He Inspired the Kevin Kline Mustache Principle where he has facial hair for comedies and clean shaven for drama. This doesn’t apply to him voice acting work as it would make The Hunchback of Notre Dame a comedy (which it is in parts) and Bob’s Burger where he plays Mr. Fischoeder, a drama which is not. Though this principle would also make Wild Wild West a drama too. (IMDB)

-His favorite restaurant in Paris is Le Duc*. (source). He is also fluent in French

Despite not singing in Hunchback, Kevin Kline studied at Juilliard and has won two Tony awards for “On the Twentieth Century” and “The Pirates of Penzance.” He also played the Pirate King in the 1983 movie version of “The Pirates of Penzance.” He also sings sometimes as Mr. Fischoeder in Bob’s Burgers, I love that show. (IMDB)

 

2002 The Snow Queen Review; Satan, Seasons, a Muppet and talking Reindeer, Oh My!

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The Snow Queen picture image

The Snow Queen

I feel like a broken record at this point saying that a movie can be both good and bad but that is what the Hallmark 2002 Tv-Movie, The Snow Queen is, it exists in a weird void of good/bad. The things that are good about The Snow Queen are really good and things that really bad are terrible.

I watched this movie a few weeks ago and it was REALLY long so keep that in mind.

Also this was based on Hans Christen Anderson’s story.

Bridget Fonda as Snow Queen with Chelsea Hobbs as Gerda The Snow Queen picture image

Bridget Fonda as Snow Queen with Chelsea Hobbs as Gerda

For a nearly three hour long movie the plot is pretty simple and yet insane. We have a Gerda who hates the winter because her mother was killed in the winter. And we have Kai a happy-go-lucky lad who loves the winter. Gerda’s father owns the inn where Kai works as a bellboy. Gerda and Kai then fall in love but one night a shard of a mirror falls into Kai’s eye and he turns into a jack-ass. Then a woman comes to the inn and kidnaps Kai. Gerda’s father has no memory of the woman and then Gerda finds a note from Kai asking for help.

Gerda then throws herself into a river and is save by the Spring Witch, who tries to keep her as her daughter. However Gerda has a magical rose brooch that once belonged to her mother and this brooch tells she must travel through the season to get to the Ice Queen who is keeping Kai. Gerda travels through the seasons, literally she meets them, the Summer Princess and the Autumn Robber both of whom want to keep her. As Gerda goes from one season to another, the Ice Queen has tasked Kai with assembling a magic mirror as she sleeps till Winter. Kai is made to work by a Polar Bear minion of the Snow Queen, who is in love with her.

As Gerda tries to free herself from the Autumn Robber she meets an old reindeer names Rutger. After they break free and head toward the Snow Queen’s domain they hear on the wind a story that the Polar Bear is telling to Kai about how Satan made the mirror for the seasons so that when they gazed into it the mirror reflected their essence. However the mirror was twisted and corrupted Winter and made her desire her power to be absolute. Winter then stole the mirror which weaken her sister seasons. Winter flew toward heaven to demand winter be the dominant season on earth but the mirror shattered and went into people’s eyes. Kai learns he can’t complete the mirrior as removing the shard will kill him.

Gerda shows up at the Snow Queen’s place, the mirror breaks, the Polar bear is really a prince and goes off with Snow Queen. Kai is better and him and Gerda return home, happy ending.

Bridget Fonda as Snow Queen with the Polar Bear The Snow Queen picture image

Bridget Fonda as Snow Queen with the Polar Bear

Postives, let’s start there. The first and most obvious best thing about this movie is, the Polar Bear. I’m not kidding. The Polar Bear puppet was hand-down the best thing in this movie. It looks so real. Seriously, it was better then any CG could hope to make. It was made by the Jim Henson company, so it’s technically a muppet.

Another positive thing is the movie takes it time to develop Gerda and Kai’s romance. We understand their connection and the change that Kai goes through as result of the shard.

I also like the idea of Gerda traveling through the seasons, reminds me of the Secret of Mana, old JRPG.

Kira Clavell as Summer Princess The Snow Queen picture image

Kira Clavell as Summer Princess

Now for the bad stuff. First and foremost, the acting, Oh Dear lord the acting! The acting was bad. Like BAD High school levels of acting. And not enjoyably bad either just painful. I’m not sure who fault this was because actors and directors seem competent, so I just don’t get it. Maybe everyone was having an off shoot. Regardless of abilities it was bad on the acting front.

Jennifer Clement as Spring Witch The Snow Queen picture image

Jennifer Clement as Spring Witch

The technicals weren’t anything amazing, except the Polar Bear puppet. There were some nice shots but nothing above average. The costumes were beyond silly though. Why is the Snow Queen wearing a feather-like collar? It just looked silly

The Snow Queen picture image

The Polar Bear fishing

Hallmark 2002 The Snow Queen isn’t like the worse thing in the world. If You have nearly three hours and can handle some truly bad acting give it a watch but if your not inclined you not missing too much except the Polar Bear puppet.

Clue 1 and Clue 2

Notre Dame de Paris; Staging and Lighting

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Esmeralda and Quasimodo in Notre Dame Ma Maison c'est ta maison garou helene Segara Notre Dame de Paris picture image

Esmeralda and Quasimodo in Notre Dame

Compared to other musicals in the world, Notre Dame de Paris is VERY minimal for something that is marketed as a spectacle. As far as sets, set pieces and props, there isn’t really much going on in the show.

Luc Merville Clopin and the Court of miracles and the Attack of Notre Dame Notre Dame de Paris picture image

Clopin and the Court of miracles and the Attack of Notre Dame

The bulk of the set is really just a rock climbing wall that fills in for Notre Dame as well as some pillars that help sell the set as the cathedral when the scene demands. This puts a heavy burden on the lightening to change the scene as well as the mood.

Daniel Lavoie as Frollo Esmeralda as Helene Segara Notre Dame de Paris picture image Visite de Frollo à Esmeralda

Daniel Lavoie as Frollo and Esmeralda as Helene Segara

I won’t pretend I’m a lighting wizard who knows about filters and gels and what not, my experience in the theater ended in 8th grade and my teachers didn’t teach the students anything of backstage tech or even acting methods but Notre Dame de Paris does some great things with the lighting. It’s moody when it needs to be and warm and bright to communicate the outside. It has some nice patterns of cobblestone and rose windows. I don’t think that is too complex of an effect but it’s a nice touch throughout the show.

Bruno Pelletier as Gringoire with dancer during Le Val d'amour Notre Dame de Paris picture image

Bruno Pelletier as Gringoire with dancer during Le Val d’amour

Then there is the dancing and acrobatics which is probably where most of the marketed “spectacle” lives. The dancing is sort of a mixed bag in terms of conception because without it the show is less a musical and more of a glorified concert but at some points it gets in the way of the show.

Not too often does the dancing do this but at some points it’s overkill, though I will admit that could a side effect of the editing on the DVD. I mean it’s not like I can just go to a place whenever and see the show, it hasn’t been in North American since 2005 and only has been performed in my country for one cast run in 2000 for six months. Am I bitter? Yes!

Garou Helene Segara Quasimodo and Esmeralda Notre Dame de Paris picture image

Quasimodo and Esmeralda

This post has gotten away from me. Anyway the staging, it’s fine for what it is, stylized minimalism.

The Man who Laughs Post-Script

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Well, this is embarrassing, a Monday a didn’t account for. Well to put it rather simply, I hated The Man who laughs as a book and as movies.

Now I can officially move away from it and start the next book except I’m not. You see I have plans for October so I don’t want to start the Phantom posts in September only  to break the next month, so except something new next week.

 

 

 

 

Ella Enchanted Review; Who wears a Hoodie to a Ball?

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Ella Enchanted picture image

Ella Enchanted

This movie confuses me, I’m not really sure who it’s for. If I had to venture a guess I would say Ella Enchanted is for eight year girls who liked the Princess Dairies and like to shop at Claire’s. So if you fit that description you MIGHT sincerely like this movie but I can’t really imagine everyone else liking this movie. I sort of used to like this movie in a guilty-pleasure way but it’s really chaotically goofy and not in a good way as it takes itself seriously.

Anne Hathaway as Ella and Hugh Dancy as Prince Char Ella Enchanted picture image

Anne Hathaway as Ella and Hugh Dancy as Prince Char

Main plot goes a little like this, sweet little baby Ella who lives in a place called Frell gets a special gift from a well-meaning but incompetent fairy named Lucinda. Lucinda  gives Ella the gift of obedience which means Ella has to whatever she is told whether or not she wants to or if she is physically capable. Only her mother and their house-fairy know and before Ella’s mother dies she tells Ella not to tell anyone about the gift/curse.

Ella grows up to be a liberal-minded teenage and her father gets remarried to a vain woman with two daughters, meanie Hattie and dum-dum Olive. One day the handsome Prince Charmont a.k.a Char comes to Frell for a Mall opening, Ella and her pal take the opportunity to protest for Ogre’s rights which Char’s evil Uncle, Edgar is persecuting. Hattie gets mad and sends Ella off on her way but Ella then runs into Char and since she is the only girl to not fancy Char they have a snarky attraction. Hattie then finds them and sends Ella back to the mall where Ella gets into trouble because Hattie caught on to Ella doing what she is told and Hattie and Olive made her steal stuff.

Ella decides that she need to get Lucinda to take back the gift, so her house-fairy, Mandy gives her a special book named Benny who is also her boyfriend to help Ella find Lucinda as he can show people and not where they are, though looking at context Ella sees that Lucinda is going to a wedding in Giant-ville. So she off with a Book and along the way she runs into an Elf who wants to be a lawyer, some ogres and Char. They go to the wedding but miss Lucinda. Char recommends Ella looks at census stuff at the castle.

At the castle Edgar gets wind of Ella doing what she is told and orders her to kill Char when he pops the question because they are in love. Ella tries to break it off with Char and chains herself up to a tree. Her plan might have worked but Lucinda shows up, frees Ella and gives a dress for the ball. Ella goes to the ball and nearly kills Char but breaks the gift by telling herself not to obey anymore, that never crosses her mind before? To tell herself not to obey?  Ella is  arrested but her crew of oppressed magical friends help her, fight scene and Edgar inadvertently poisons himself, though doesn’t die. Ella and Char get married and they end with a song and dance number.

Anne Hathaway as Ella Ella Enchanted picture image

Anne Hathaway as Ella

Just so we’re 100% clear Ella Enchanted was based on a book of the same name by Gail Carson Levine from 1997. I haven’t read the book but from what I can gather the movie is nothing like the book, like you can’t even compare the two they are too different. So the movie wasn’t for fans of the book.

Also I have to wonder about the whole gift giving thing. The movie seems to indicate the giving babies gift was commonplace but we never hear anyone else talking about their gift. Maybe the book explains it but the movie doesn’t. Also is a fairy an occupation? Like what is the difference between Lucinda and Mandy. Mandy says she is a house-fairy but what does that MEAN? Do other houses have house fairies? Is she employed? Are any fairies good at the their jobs? These little things just take me out of the movie.

Cary Elwes as Edgar and Heston Ella Enchanted picture image

Cary Elwes as Edgar and his useless snake goon

There is one thing I liked about this movie but I kind of hate that I like it, the actors. There are so many actors I love who are in this movie, from Cary Elwes, Eric Ideal, Joanna Lumley, Heidi Klum, Jim Carter ect. I don’t really have a issue with Anne Hathaway, Vivica A.Fox, Minnie Driver or Hugh Dancy but most of these actors have been in things I have liked and yet they somehow are in this movie? I mean they wasted Joanna Lumley who is awesome in AB Fab. The trouble is expect for Elwes who is just chewing the scenery everyone is playing this movie fairly straight when the idea is supposedly to be taking jabs at fairy tales.

Anne Hathaway as Ella Ella Enchanted picture image

Anne Hathaway as Ella

It seems like the movie is parodying fairy-tales with it quirky stye but the basic story is being true to yourself and that is what Ella does while being perfect. I mean she is pretty and has no emotional hang-ups, she is smart and proactive. She is damn perfect that is not very interesting. The only thing that makes her interesting is her curse which is the source of most the film’s weak attempts at humor.

Lucy Punch as Hattie and Jennifer Higham as Olive Ella Enchanted picture image

Lucy Punch as Hattie and Jennifer Higham as Olive

Then we have come to another major issue with this movie, the costumes. Execpt for Ella, all the costumes are AWFUL, they are trash. I don’t know how this movie managed to make Heidi Klum look bad but they did. The movie has this weird sense of fanasty fairy tale costume but they give them weird modern cuts with gross fabric. Olive at one point has to wear a purple hoodie that is the fuzzy and glittery at a ball. Also Ella’s ball gown was a snooze.

Anne Hathaway as Ella and Hugh Dancy as Prince Char Ella Enchanted picture image

Anne Hathaway as Ella and Hugh Dancy as Prince Char

Ella Enchanted has somethings going for it like the good cast and not abysmal pacing but the humor, style, tone and plot are corny as heck. But in classic this movie let’s go out with a song which is also a clue.

An Interview with Jeremy Scott Lapp

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IBpgtV4QbAE

Jeremy Scott Lapp was the Asst. Director- Disney’s The Hunchback of Notre Dame Musical. It’s an interesting interview though it’s a little out-of-date since the show has no plans of going to broadway. I sort of wished they had mentioned the influence of the German Musical but it’s not a big deal.

Songs of Notre Dame de Paris Part 16

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Donnez-la moi (Give her to me)

Garou as Quasimodo and Helene Segara as Esmeralda performing Donnez-la moi Notre Dame de Paris picture image

Garou as Quasimodo and Helene Segara as Esmeralda performing Donnez-la moi

Donnez-la moi is a bridge song. It’s Quasimodo literally fighting guards to get to Esmeralda’s body to claims it. It’s roughly thirty seconds long but it so sad.

Danse mon Esmeralda (Dance my Esmeralda)

Garou as Quasimodo & Helene Segara Danse mon Esmeralda, Notre Dame de Paris picture image

Garou as Quasimodo and Helene Segara performing Danse mon Esmeralda

Speaking of sad. Danse mon Esmeralda is the show tear-jerking finale. I challenge you not to feel sad during this song because it is heart-breaking. Quasimodo sings this to a dead Esmeralda and begs her to dance and sing for him and to let him go with her as in death they will unite.

Quasimodo learns that his deformity has lead him to this moment and that to die for Esmeralda is not death but an expression of his love.

This is beautiful and heartfelt. I get chills listening to it and it also leaves my misty eyed. The three dancers that are lifted in the airt gives this songs a even more transdential quality.

Musically, lyrically and contextually this is the best song in the show and was the perfect way to end it. Though the curtain call does have the whole cast singing Le Temps together in a super happy way so the audience doesn’t go home too bummed but Danse Mon Esmeralda fit the ending of the book and way a great note to end the show. A+++

Get the whole GLORIOUS ALBUM HERE

The Man who Laughs Conclusions

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There are actually a few other version of The Man who Laughs including one from 1921 and 1971 but the 1928 is the most well know, the 1966 is the most infamous and the 2012 is the most recent, so that covers the major base.

Before I end The Man who Laughs I just wanted to discuss its impact on popular culture.

The Joker, Batman, the man who laughs, picture image

The Joker

Have you ever heard of the Joker? The Joker’s look is based on Conrad Viedt’s make-up from the 1928 movie. In fact a one-shot Batman comic from 2005 is called “The Man Who Laughs. ”

but there are some more (got these off of Wiki and there is more)
-In H.G. Wells’ The Island of Doctor Moreau (1896), Moreau refers to L’Homme qui Rit when explaining the nature of his experiments to the protagonist.
-A short story by the name of “The Laughing Man” (first published in 1949) is featured in J. D. Salinger’s Nine Stories (1953). The story appears to be influenced by The Man Who Laughs, featuring an individual facially disfigured in his childhood by criminals who have kidnapped him.
-The novelist and essayist Ayn Rand adapted Hugo’s term “comprachicos” for her own purposes in a noted essay, published in The Objectivist in 1970.
-In James Ellroy’s book The Black Dahlia (1987), the mutilation murder of Elizabeth Short is partially inspired by a painting of Gwynplaine.
-In the 2003 “Wild Cards” episode of the Justice League animated series, The Joker infiltrated a TV station by using the alias “Gwynplaine Entertainment”.
-Laughing Man, a character in Japanese anime TV series Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex (2002–2003) and inspired by J. D. Salinger’s short story “The Laughing Man”.
-In the 2010 Rob Zombie album, Hellbilly Deluxe 2, the last song is titled “The Man Who Laughs” and is based on the story of the same name.

Well I do think the characters could have been richer or just more interesting it does that Gwynplaine’s look does inspire people, albeit more villainous than the character or what Hugo was going with the character’s laughing face as mirror to an elitist society but whatever.

Moving on, the next book is about a deformed French guy who lives in a Paris Landmark and the story has been made into a famous musical and lot movies. Yeah, it’s Phantom of the Opera. (though there will be a hiatus till then )