Movie Contamination (and a P.S.)

[cantoramy]

No: HPFGUIDX 74150

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "Jim Ferer" <jferer at y...> 
wrote:
<snip>

> A lot of events in the movies are different than in canon. Which is
> 'official?' Can we deduce the number of students by counting the 
seats
> in the Great Hall in the movie? Is the layout of Hogwarts the same 
as
> the scenery? You could drive yourself nuts this way.

Absolutely.  One reason scenes are altered in movies is things look 
different on film.  In CoS, Harry stabs the diary with the basilisk 
fang only once, but in the movie he does it 3 times.  From photos 
that are showing up from the next film, we see Hermione threaten 
Draco with her wand; in the book she slaps him.  Translating the 
written word onto the movie screen can be tricky.  Books force us to 
participate and use our imagination, while movies lay everything in 
front of us.



> Usually, movies are movies and the books they're made from are only
> sorta related.  This has been complicated, though, because JKR has
> apparently shared some of her private mind with Steven Kloves, the
> scriptwriter. I would guess that, if this knowledge appears 
anywhere
> in Kloves's work, it's in the broad drift of events, dialogue, and
> relationships, not in  clues.


True.  I think that JKR's overall viewpoint is carried out in the 
films, even if certain details are modified and time lines 
shortened.  Watching the movie and seeing things that were not in 
the book must be a little startling for an author, but I'm sure she 
understood that not everything would, or could, be included, or else 
we'd be sitting there for 4 hours or more.  As long as the 
highlights of the plot and the overall themes are true, the rest 
shouldn't matter too much.  Aunt Petunia and Dudley are supposed to 
be blonde; they could have worn wigs if it were that crutial.  
Obviously, it really doesn't matter to the plot, or I think that JKR 
would have protested.

If my daughter weren't an actor (Heaven help me), I wouldn't have 
known any of this, or even thought about it!  

cantoramy

P.S.  In the interview with Mary GrandPre, she says she has two 
dogs, Charlie and Chopper and that "Chopper, a large mixed breed, 
was the visual inspiration for the Hagrid character in the Potter 
series".  How funny!