Les Miserables

Written by:

Alain Boublil and Claude-Michel Schonberg (Based on the novel by Victor Hugo)

Music:

Cast (in order of appearance):

Colm Wilkinson
Philip Quast
Ruthie Henshall
Jenny Galloway
Alun Armstrong
Lea Salonga
Michael Ball
Michael Maguire
Judy Kuhn
Anthony Crivello
Adam Searles
Hannah Chick

Les Miserables is widely recognised as the world’s most popular musical and this film contains the 10th Anniversary concert performed live at the Royal Albert Hall with a score played by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra.

The most remarkable performance of Les Miserables ever, this unique production brings together the dream cast. The company of over 250 performers features many of the most celebrated stars to have appeared in the show worldwide. This special presentation also includes exclusive footage that will never be broadcast on television.

The picture quality on view here is sometimes slightly better than other VCI DVDs released to date, but there is an overall soft tone throughout the film which makes the image look unnaturally blurred. Artifacts are present throughout the concert and always prevalent in areas where there is no movement, since that area of the screen doesn’t need to updated as often and this is allowed to show itself up.

VCI’s anti-widescreen division are at it again too. You may not think that this would be the sort of material filmed in widescreen, but I happened to chance upon spotting an available PAL laserdisc of the concert which was released in 16:9. Then I checked the back of the DVD case to see if the same thing was mentioned – and it was : “Made in association with the BBC, NHK, Primetime Television, Sky Television, VCI and the 16:9 Action Plan of the European Union”. Given that the length of the concert is too long to include both pan-and-scan and widescreen versions, the wrong choice has been made and 25% of the picture information has been lost.

Another wrong choice made is that this disc is dual-sided rather than dual-layered so you have to turn it over half-way through. Still, at least this comes inbetween the two acts.

The sound comes in Dolby Digital format, but is downmixed to Dolby Surround when played through the PC soundcard and comes across very clear at all times.

Extras :

Chapters : There are 56 chapters in total available by exploring the disc manually, but using the built-in menu, there are enough chapter stops provided, each of which starts at the beginning of a song.

Biographies and Photo Library : The disc contains a detailed biography of writer Victor Hugo including all the important points of his life in chronological order, as well as biographies for all the dream cast listed above apart from Anthony Crivello.

The photo library is not a set of pictures from the performance as you would imagine, but a series of further pieces of information on nine of the cast members with one picture apiece.

Story Synposis : More detailed for Act I than Act II, this feature summarises the story to bring everyone up to speed.

Also Available : This option brings up a small list of other DVD titles available now or coming soon.

Languages & Lyrics :

There’s just the one language on this disc – English, which is also the subtitle language, although here it referred to as ‘lyrics’ which can easily be turned on and off at will.

Menu :

The interactive menu is an improvement on Hellraiser‘s. This time round it is much easier to click on an option and have it actioned, unlike the aforementioned horror film which required use of the onscreen remote control to utilise certain functions.

For a change, it is possible to partly bypass the VCI logo and copyright info. You can’t skip it altogether, but you can speed it up (or slow it down if you really want to).

The day will come when all DVDs offer the same clarity of picture as Laserdisc as well as providing many extras. This particular DVD has good extras which are easily accessible and while they may not amount to much more than sleevenotes, save for the instant track selection, they’re more detailed than the content which usually accompanies DVD films. However, the downside of the disc is not only in the average picture quality (the back cover states that the DVD format enables “a far superior picture and sound quality than has ever been achieved before”, but this is clearly a generic statement as it has appeared on their other DVDs), but also the fact that it has not been presented in widescreen format. Adding the note on the back of the box about the “16:9 Action Plan” just rubs salt in the wounds.

When I first wrote this review I said :

“Overall this disc falls on a par with the also-fullscreen video tape while costing five pounds more, but it has tough competition from the widescreen PAL laserdisc which is available even if that does cost £34.99.”