More PoA details (was: I liked the movie too) (Catching up)

[GulPlum]

Short comments on a few issues in this excellent post from last week...

At 05:33 08/06/04 , dan wrote:

>And the audiences I shared the movie with loved the shrunken head,
>all of the Knight bus, loved the "When did she get here? Did you see
>her come in?" lines of Ron.

Something I liked about this movie was that despite book readers (or the 
eagle-eyed new viewer) knowing that Hermione had just turned up out of the 
blue, there's a nice little sequence which questions whether we're *sure* 
that it's not just a case of Ron being dumb and unobservant.

When everyone returns from the Hogsmease visit, and the Trio & co are going 
up the staircase towards the Fat Lady (who's been attacked), someone (I 
forget who) asks what all the commotion is about. Ron says "I suppose 
Neville's forgotten the password again" (assuming that Neville is in the 
crowd at the top of the stairs) - we can clearly see Neville standing right 
behind Ron, and when Neville makes some complaining remark, Ron says "oh, 
there you are".

Incidentally, that scene is representative of something else as well: 
little nods in the direction of the book fans, who think that a scene from 
the book is coming up when it's something else (in this case, the excised 
sequence about Sirius getting his paws on Neville's list of passwords). 
There are a few other scenes like that.


>By the way, I don't recall there being anything actually laugh funny in 
>the Columbus travesties.

I've been meaning to mention this point, so here's a good a place as any. 
Over the weekend, I sat down and watched the first two movies on DVD 
*properly* (as in sitting in front of the screen and not doing anything 
else), for the first time probably since I got them. Whilst I disagree that 
there are no laugh-out funny lines at all in the first two movies 
(something which has entered my family's daily activities is Hagrid's 
"sorry about that" when knocking down the hut door in PS/SS, and I still 
managed a laugh when watching it), such moments are few and far between. 
The visual gags are too slapstick for an adult audience (certainly for my 
taste), and some of the funnier lines lose some of their punch in the 
delivery. The humour in PoA, however, was perfectly timed and wonderfully 
delivered. for instance, I cannot help but smile every time I think of 
Ron's completely absurd "bad idea, bad idea - good doggie, good doggie" 
line after Lupin's transformation. And the first time I saw it, I roared 
with laughter, despite the seriousness (pun not intended) of the scene.

>Nor, in fact, do I recall there being anything creepy in his failed attempts.

Strangely enough, when re-watching CoS on Sunday, Lockhart's speech ending 
with "prepare to lose your memories" sent a real shiver down my spine which 
it had never done before. Much as I disliked Branagh's performance (I 
thought he was dreadfully mis-cast) it really brought home what a seriously 
warped person he is.

<snip>

>So, any overt reflection of Real World London in early movie scenes is 
>canon. Perhaps the sense of grime some complained about is just that - 
>downtown London.

I don't think I agree with you on that. Yes, most of central London is 
fairly grimy, but I don't think that was the point at all. As it happens, 
the Leaky Cauldron interior is no more grimy in this movie than it was in 
PS/SS. In some respects, it was even worse before, as there were definite 
cobwebs here and there. But the plaster on the walls was peeling, the 
counter was dirty and the clientele ... rough. The same goes for 
Ollivander's shop, the Gryffindor common room and dorm, and even, dare I 
say it, the Great Hall.

So I really don't understand the criticisms of how dirty the magical world 
looks in PoA. Sure, the lighting accentuates the grime a little more, but 
it was always there!

>As I said before too, the train wasn't the Santa Claus Express, but a pretty
>fair example of a train running, say, between Manchester and London,
>like the one on which our author found her story.

Actually, as any Londoner would tell you, the train Harry sees through his 
window is nothing of the sort. :-) It's a London commuter train, in the 
livery of Connex South Central (yellow with blue stripes). I doubt this was 
intentional (90% of the trains running across that particular bridge would 
be in Connex colours), but Connex is (or was) one of the most Muggle train 
companies imaginable. They were so incompetent that they had their 
franchise taken away from them (the first - and if I'm not mistaken, only - 
UK train company since privatisation to meet that fate).

When I lived in London, I had to take a Connex train every day, and I do 
recall that one day some bright spark had spray painted the word "Muggle" 
over every instance of "Connex" on display at my station. :-)

However, on the subject of trains and proximity of the magical world, 
something new in this movie is that when the Hogwarts Express is leaving 
Kings Cross, a Muggle train is perfectly visible at the next platform with 
passengers seemingly oblivious to the steam train milling around it. Now, 
*that* train (dark blue) was most likely headed for Manchester (the real 
platform 4 at which it was standing, serves those trains).

In Columbus's vision, in contrast, Platform 9 3/4 appears completely 
disconnected from the Muggle world. this actually annoyed me, as the cover 
of the British edition of PS clearly shows a standard diesel locomotive 
behind the Hogwarts Express.

>Dan, who loved the movie as cinema and as HP theorist and fan

--
GulPlum AKA Richard, who always sees himself as primarily a movie fan, 
secondly a movie theorist, thirdly a HP fan and fourthly a HP theorist, and 
watches the HP movies accordingly. :-)