HBP

[montavilla47]

> > > Carol responds:
> > > That's what I thought, too, until I read the Gambon interview. Now I'm not so sure that Gambon is mistaken (or joking, as you suggest). Surely, if Alan Rickman had read HBP, he would object to the way the tower scene is handled in the film.

> > Montavilla47:
> > I just think you're putting a lot of responsibility on the actors.  They can 
> > protest, but it wasn't Alan Rickman or Michael Gambon who staged that 
> > scene.  It certainly wasn't either of them who designed a honkin' big set element in the middle of the tower that prevented the actors from
> > actually seeing each other--thus making any kind of dramatic eye
> > contact impossible.
> >
> Carol responds:
> 
> But other actors, for example, Patrick Stewart and Ted Levine in the making of the 1998 "Moby Dick," objected to scenes in the screenplay that seemed to conflict with the original story, and the director and screenwriter listened to them (though the film was still not sufficiently canonical, IMO.)

Montavilla47:
Whether or not an actor is listened to if they object is going
to depend on their clout, their relationship to the director/
producers, and the cost of making any change.


Carol:
> Rickman, et al, could have spoken up right after reading the screenplay, before those sets were constructed. And JKR, in particular, should have objected. I think we can be pretty sure that *she* read the book, or at least remembered what she'd written in the manuscript.

Montavilla47:
We have no idea when the actors received their scripts.  They
might have been at an early reading of the first draft--or they 
might not have seen it until a few weeks before their scenes
were shot.  In which case, the sets would have been already been
designed and probably nearly built.

It's even less likely that an actor is going to have any say over 
the cut of a film.  In the cutting, lines may be cut, or even entire
scenes.

We know that there was a first draft reading of the script, 
because JKR wrote her famous note to Steve Kloves that 
"Dumbledore is gay" on her script during it.  But I don't know--
and I doubt any of us on the list know whether or not any
actors were present for that reading.

And JKR should have objected if she had a problem.  I'm 
sure she's obligated to insist on changing the script because 
of *our* feelings. :)

Carol:
> *Somebody* should have indicated that the whole business of Snape already being there, Harry hiding under some platform without his IC and without being petrified, and Snape and DD both being calm, with DD hardly affected by the potion, was A) out of character and illogical and B) much less emotionally powerful than the original scene.
> 
> Why take something absolutely brilliant and terrifying and heart-rending and make it blah?

Montavilla47:
Alas, I can't answer that question.  I will say that, on a second viewing, I
did find Rickman quietly compelling in that scene.  It's really Harry who
suffers the most from the change.

But, in the filmmakers' defense, the scene as written was always going 
to present problems.  Harry is petrified in the beginning of the film, and 
it's not exactly emotionally riveting when you see him.  In order for the 
scene to work, you need to feel Harry's frustration at being unable to 
act.  In order to convey that cinematically while he's immobile *and* 
invisible would be quite difficult!

Carol:
> But the point of my post was that I don't know whether to believe Gambon or not. Has Rickman read the book or hasn't he?

Montavilla47:
I couldn't tell you.  I don't remember seeing any interviews 
either way.  

Carol:
> I would not have kept her mouth shut had I been one of the actors involved in this apparent travesty (I know; I know. I haven't seen the film yet, but I'll be very surprised if that scene makes me feel anything remotely resembling the grief and fury and sense of betrayal--not by Snape but by JKR--that I felt on first reading that scene, or the dim hopes that were aroused when Snape saved Harry from the Crucio, another scene that they've apparently decided to drop.)

Montavilla47:
The Crucio moment is there.