Movie thoughts (yeah, Snape, so sue me)

[Amanda Lewanski]

Sorry about the dual post, but this deals both with the movie in general
and Snape in particular.

Best summation of my lasting "take" on the movie: I wish I'd had eight
pairs of eyes. For slightly more detail, little things and (of course)
Alan Rickman observations, read on.

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Overall, I think they did well. With all the detail they put in, that
only one thing truly sucked (Firenze) is a miracle. And the atmospherics
were perfect.

Quibbles and observations on the first viewing:

1.     McGonagall was James' *teacher*, why is an "M. McGonagall" also
on the plaque (as a chaser, I think, didn't catch the position) which
shows James as Seeker?

2.    Did anyone else spot Filch in the Slytherin stands during the
Quidditch match?

3.    I await long, sincere, written retractions from everyone who said
    (a) Alan Rickman was too old to play Snape
    (b) anyone else could have done it

Snape thoughts (get comfy, it's long):

(1) I was watching Alan Rickman pretty closely (my husband snorts when I
say this, that "what else is new" type thing). Seriously, though,
mention has been made in several of the articles I read on the movie and
its making, that JKR gave insider information, post-book-4 stuff, to
Robbie Coltrane and Alan Rickman, to help them with characterization. So
I was watching Rickman because I felt we could trust his
characterization, since he knows things we don't. And I saw one thing
which surprised me.

When reading the books, it did not begin to occur to me until PoA that
while Snape was nasty, mean, and cruel, the end result of much of what
he did was protective of Harry. Book 1's whole "debt owed to James"
motivation always came across to me as a discharging of duty, an
obligation. But. But.

In the movie, when Snape is chanting the countercurse and keeping his
eyes on Harry, he looks concerned, almost afraid. He is clearly working
at what he's doing, putting more into it than I had realized, but there
is far more emotion than I'd expected. It looks like he's frightened for
Harry. I didn't expect that. My mind's eye has put many expressions on
Snape's face, but fear in any form was not one of them.

Rickman being the "facial" actor par excellence that he is, this
expression could be read simply as intensity. And it may be. I suspect
it is meant to be an expression that would allow for the dual
interpretation of the scene---it will be valid both for those who think
Snape's trying to kill Harry, and for those who already know he's not.
But I think Rickman is still expressing something real to Snape, here.

By this I mean that Alan Rickman is a good enough actor to put Severus
Snape's genuine feelings on his face, while still making it possible for
a first-time viewer to be misdirected as to his motivation. I've watched
a fair amount of Alan Rickman's face, and I read it as alarm, on a more
emotional level than I'd expected.

Did anyone else have this take on it? Am I spouting codswallop?

(2) I was also intrigued that they left the whole James/Snape life-debt
out. Unfortunately, that can be explained in a couple of ways--if it's
very plot-important, it'll come back in subsequent movies, like Peeves;
or, mayhap it is a red herring, has nothing to do with Snape's
motivation after all (I *am* a torch-for-Lily advocate, after all) and
was discarded.

(3) I thought the scene where Harry overhears Snape and Quirrell was
potentially significant in Snape's reaction. It struck me that his
reaching out, on a suspicion, means that he has had experience with
being invisibly spied upon before, to the point where he'd reach out to
make sure. It didn't seem to me too standard a reaction, to think, Hey,
maybe something invisible is over there, unless once upon a time
something invisible was. If that was coherent.

--Amanda