Trailer: regional accents, gestures, clothes, storm

[Amy Z]

Neil wrote:

> I agree.  To my ears, Ron sounds like a Londoner, but not a broad 
Cockney.
> I think that works in creating the idea he is from a poor 
background, but it
> doesn't seem quite right, somehow.
> 
> Harry sounds far too well-spoken, considering he was raised by the
> nouveau-riche Dursleys and not given the most sparkling of 
educations prior
> to Hogwarts.  He comes across as way too posh, IMO.  The way he 
says "I'm a
> what?"....sounds to me as I would expect Draco to speak.
> 
> Hermione sounds posh, yes, but also a bit "stage school" (not that 
Emma
> Watson has been to a stage school, mind)... maybe that's the 
annoying edge
> the character needs.
> 
> I don't really mind the differences though.  It is an 
interpretation of the
> book, after all.

Ah, the blessings of being American.  I have freedom of speech, 
religious liberty, and an ignorance of British accents so complete 
that I can enjoy HP movies without nitpicking a single thing about 
the way people talk.  (Other elements are still targets, of course.)  
All I can guess accent-wise is that Hermione and Snape sound pretty 
upper-class, Ron and Percy lower-, and Harry sounds just plain 
terrific and could probably make me happy by reading ticker tape.

A few more observations from my most recent 6 viewings of the trailer 
(I still can't get sound without holding up the picture, so I just 
watch the silent version, muttering the lines to myself as I go-—I'm 
starting to do quite a good Snape, if I do say so).  If my trailer 
ramblings bore you, I completely understand.  Go, skip to the next 
post, by all means!  I just have a need to tell someone all these 
things, and everyone else I know would look at me blankly.  You know 
how it is.

-Don't think I'm weird, but I love Snape's left hand in the classroom 
scene.  There's a bit of an unconscious motion there (unconscious to 
Snape, probably not to Rickman) that speaks volumes.  Quirrell's 
hands in the confrontation with Snape aren't bad either.

-Sartorial observation #1:  Harry seems to be wearing the same t-
shirt in the Hut on the Rock, Diagon Alley, and the Hogwarts Express, 
and the same overlarge plaid shirt in the latter two.  If the 
moviemakers haven't compressed all those events into two back-to-back 
days (they might have done, but they'd have to ditch one of two 
comparatively immovable bits of JKR: that Harry learned who he was on 
his 11th birthday or that Hogwarts always starts on Sept. 1), the 
implication is that he doesn't have many clothes.  I like it.  (My 
spellchecker, BTW, doesn't approve of the previous sentence but one.  
It says it's too long.  It underestimates the intellectual caliber of 
HPfGU listies.)

-Sartorial observation #2:  the red cable-knit sweater actually seems 
to fit him-—is it a Molly Weasley creation, do you suppose?  It's not 
quite maroon . . . (I know, Ron doesn't give him his sweater anyway). 

-Someone (Steve?) commented on the lightning in two shots:  Quirrell 
fainting and Percy (?) leading a group through a corridor.  It seems 
likely that it's the same night (Halloween) and the same storm, which 
LOON will permit because it doesn't contradict canon, just adds a 
detail that isn't specified.  I did like the idea that crossed my 
mind that the enchanted ceiling might have been rigged to storm on 
Halloween regardless of the weather, though—-Dumbledore's way of 
providing atmosphere.

Thanks for letting me share,
Amy Z