Reactions to PoA (the film) Re: On to other issues

[Carol]

Carol earlier:
> I actually liked the (uncanonical) chorus, complete with toads,
because of the explicit link to Shakespeare. (The lyrics, I'm sure you
know, are straight out of Macbeth, if not verbatim at least very close
to the song of the Three Witches as Macbeth approaches.)
> 
Katty responded:
> I'm puzzling on the fact why the filmmakers had chosen this
particular passage of Macbeth for the scene (transport to school,
beginning of the feast). This passage in the Macbeth-saga is the
receipt of a witch's brew (making a potion), but I like the music and
the chosen rhymes snipped from Shakespeare's text and rearranged. But
why that song at that specific moment in the film? After that, the
song returns as a leading-theme.

Carol again:

Good question. And did you notice that in the trailer "Something
wicked this way comes" coincided with the appearance of Boggart!Snape?
(Okay, the Boggart was Dark magic, but were they trying to control the
viewers' perception of Snape? Oh, that wicked Potions master!)

The concocted potion precedes the appearance of Macbeth ("By the
pricking of my thumbs/Something wicked this way comes" isn't part of
the recipe/incantation) and the prophecies that shape the action of
the play (Macbeth, like Voldemort, acting on them thinking to bring
about his own advantage but really setting the stage for his own
fall). How that specifically relates to PoA, I'm not sure, except that
we hear Trelawney prophesy for the first time (the first for the
reader and Harry, not the first for her). I guess the vague thematic
connection was sufficient? Besides, the song makes fine entertainment
and fills a void in the essentially musicless world of Hogwarts as
depicted in the books.

BTW, here's a link to an online version of "Macbeth" if anyone wants
to compare the lyrics with the original scene (Act IV, Scene 1,
complete with boiling cauldron):

http://shakespeare.mit.edu/macbeth/full.html

Carol, grateful that Shakespeare, unlike the shrunken heads, is at
least English (as JKR specifically wanted the setting and actors to be)