Cuaron's Hogwarts IS a nice place (Was: Hogwarts a nice place?, etc.)

[Annalisa Moretti]

No: HPFGUIDX 100402

I really hope many of you read this ...

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "entropymail" 
<entropymail at y...> wrote:
> Firstly,  I believe Snow is referring to the readers'/viewers'
> perspective.  For me, Hogwarts and the entire Potterverse are nice
> places to visit.  Living in the "real" world can be a bit much
> sometimes, and visiting Harry's world, whether through books or
> movies, is always a wonderful way to transcend everyday life. The
> world that JKR has created has always been, for me, a world that's
> bigger than life, a world of rich leather, golden things (like
> snitches and Dumbledore's instruments),  and warm, fuzzy socks.  
In my
> opinion, the first two movies reflected the "spirit" of the books 
not
> because they followed them to the letter, but because they caught 
this
> warmth perfectly.   The third movie was, for me, a big 
disappointment,
> not because "immobulus" stops the whomping willow or Flitwick looks
> funny, but because it hasn't captured the beauty of the books.
> Hogwarts has become crumbly, Dumbledore needs a bath, and the Great
> Hall doesn't take my breath away.  I could be very wrong, but I 
don't
> think that's what JKR had in mind.

Wouldn't JKR know that better than you?

One thing I've found most interesting about the responses to the 
movie are the people fretting about how it goes against so much of 
what JKR wrote, and yet JKR loved it, called it her favorite of all 
three -- and let's face it, JKR is very blunt, and isn't going to BS 
just to please Warner Bros.

So I don't think the problem for you, or for the original poster, is 
that it isn't what JKR had in mind. It's that it isn't what YOU had 
in mind.

Hogwarts is a nice place, to me, and I think, to Harry. Does nice 
mean clean and neat and logical? Why should it? 4 Privet Drive was 
all of those things. Yet it was a horrible place. I personally take 
great comfort in things that are old, things that are strange, 
things that are quirky ... which Cuaron's Hogwarts certainly is. And 
which I think JKR's Hogwarts is, too, but that's entirely up to 
interpretation. Why should a 13 year old boy care much about dirt? 
What has that got to do with anything?

I found Cuaron's vision of Hogwarts one which was far more 
unsettling than Columbus' but no less a "nice place", and no less 
comforting. To me this is epitomized in the scene with the boys 
eating candy in their dormitory. As the camera pulls out of the 
window and shows us the Dementors, you feel an overwhelming sense 
that the world outside is dangerous, but that inside Hogwarts, 
things are safe, and despite the darkness in the world, there's a 
place to be carefree. 

- Annalisa