SCHOOL OF ARCHITECTURE, BUILDING AND DESIGN

THE DESIGN SCHOOL

FOUNDATION IN NATURAL BUILD ENVIRONMENT

NAME: LEE YIH

STUDENT ID NO: 0318340

FILMS SELECTED: ‘Les Misérables’, ‘Phantom of the Opera’

WORD COUNT: 842

ENGLISH 2 (ELG 30605)

WRITTEN ASSIGNMENT 1: COMPARE – CONTRAST ESSAY

LECTURER: CASSANDRA WIJESURIA

SUBMISSION DATE: 19TH SEPTEMBER 2014

Contrast between ‘Les Miserables’ and ‘Phantom of the Opera’

Introduction: What is musical movies, how is it mostly will be like, how trendy it is?

Paragraph 1: Setting/ mise-en-scene (shooting at where, what are the props, how is the

buildings look like? 70s 90s? result in what kind of feel?)

Paragraph 2: Difference in theme between two movies - hope and forgiveness

Paragraph 3: Difference in main character between two movies, personality, physically

Paragraph 4: BBFC insight, what does it contains in the movies? When did the movie

showed this?

Conclusion: Summary of main points, why is it important to contrast this both? Why we

should appreciate musical films?

I love watching musical film. Indeed, musical films are a natural development of the

stage musicals. Perhaps it’s because I always find myself intoxicated while watching the

characters singing songs, added with some dance which are interwoven into the narrative.

The songs always advance the plot and at the same time, developing the personality of

characters indirectly. One of the musical film in these recent years hitting the box office at

an impressive figure —$400 Million is ‘Les Misérables’, which is one of my favourite. And

another class film back to ten years ago — ‘The Phantom of the Opera’ crossed &150

Million globally. Anyhow, what is the difference between ‘Les Misérables’ and ‘The

Phantom of the Opera’? Let’s study the differences in terms of movie’s theme, setting and

miss-en-scene, BBFC insight as well as main characters.

Firstly, let’s focus on the movie’s theme itself in ‘Les Misérables’. This movie

adapted the theme of hope, which that never lose your hope even you are downtrodden.

The first such instance was shown when Jean Valjean is caught stealing silver from a

church, a wise priest gave him hope by declines to denounce Valjean to the police

mercifully. The song ‘I dreamed a dream’ was also sang by Fantine to profound the theme

when her life is full of despair. However, with the power of hope, it is simply supply the

sheer belief in our daily life that things will get better no matter what we are in what

circumstance now. Whereas, themes of love and forgiveness are prominent in the ‘The

Phantom of the Opera’. The Phantom symbolises a creation forged by society’s

intolerance, fears and hatred. He was isolated and rejected by the society and even by his

biological mother. And yet, he decided to be lenient to forgive everyone by letting go of

Christine even thought this means he has to sacrifice himself. By forgiving others, we get

to alleviate our pain, helps to let go of our struggling in pain to live a happy life.

Beside from that, both these movies are also different in terms of the settings and

mise-en-scene. ‘Les Misérables’ set against the backdrop of France, from the year of 1789

to 1832 during the period of restoration where poverty, street fighting and wars happen a

lot, where humanity was lack of. This movie was shoot primarily in the cities of Arras,

Digne, Montreuil-sur-mer, Montfermeil, Paris and Toulon. On the contrary, the time setting

for ‘The Phantom of the Opera’ is from mid 19th century to very early 20th century. The

place setting for the whole movie includes Paris Opera House ad the secret house where

the Phantom hide himself under the Opera House. Director Joel Schumacher has made

this a visually stunning film, from the gritty film-reel auction, to the gothic cemetery, to the

renascence like opera house, creating a unique world with vibrant color and stark

contrasts.

In terms of BBFC insight, which publish detailed information about the content of

every film people rate, ‘Les Misérables’ contains moderate violence and sex, and

infrequent moderate language. Les Miserables tells an enthralling story of broken dreams

and unrequited love, passion, sacrifice and redemption. The characters in the movie

sometimes speak French since the setting is at France. Violence occurred when the

youngsters tried to fight back to protect their home during Paris Restoration. Meanwhile for

‘The Phantom of the Opera’, it contains moderate violence which is not as much as in ‘Les

Miserables’ when a large backdrop falls from the fly space above the stage, nearly hitting

Carlotta

Lastly, in ‘Les Misérables’, the main character is Jean Valjean who was an ex-

prisoner being released from a 19-year sentence in a French prison for stealing bread,

Jean Valjean finds it difficult to give up his ways, therefor, he ends up stealing from a kind

Bishop who provided him shelter. After the wise priest frees him from the grasp of the

soldiers, Valjean reforms his confidence and builds a new life and finally becomes the

mayor of the town. On the other hand, the main character who gives the best performance

and raises ‘The Phantom of the Opera’ to classic status is Christine Daae. Christine is a

17-year-old impressionable young lady, sheltered from the world outside the opera house

who sees the world with wide-eyed amazement when the Phantom shows it to her. Her

naiveté and blind trust both make her enchanting and vulnerable prey to the Phantom.

In a nutshell, these movies are similar in the way that both are certainly a bold and

stylish tribute to their original stage musical which were played few decades ago. You

might not noticed any difference between the same film’s genre although you’ve already

seen the film’s adaptation. Literally, Yet, you missed out the movies by not experiencing

them ‘in person’. Both these musical films possess of different movie’s theme, settings and

mise-en-scene, BBFC insight and main characters. We should appreciate musical films

and continue supporting their production.