Around the Common Room

June 30th, 2008 · 20 Comments · Gryffindor Common Room

by Travis

Tags:

20 responses so far ↓

1 Johnny // Jul 3, 2008 at 9:50 am

Travis, I liked the article on Harry Potter and education, particularly in OOTP. Anyone who went to school can name teachers who were channeling Umbridge in the way they taught. I think all of us however can name at least one inspiring teacher who like Remus Lupin taught us to think and gave practical lessons that helped us later on. We need more teachers who can inspire us. Good article.

I think the Jason Isaacs’ quote is fascinating because he links the alchemy in the stories and scripts to something magical happening to the three young actors in Harry Potter. Very insightful on Isaacs part.

As for Hero Fiennes-Tiffin playing young Voldemort, it makes sense having a relative of Ralph Fiennes play the younger version of him, although one can argue that Ralph Fiennes plays Voldemort after he’s gone through all the transformations of experimenting with dark magic. Even so Hero Fiennes-Tiffin reminds me of past representations of onscreen of Oliver Twist, which is fitting because there are many similar elements in the stories of Oliver Twist and Tom Riddle.

Rowling got another award? What else is new although I like that she is receiving it from her hometown of Edinburgh.
2 Red Rocker // Jul 5, 2008 at 11:06 pm

Time to dump on Gambon again. Didn’t know where else to post this, so I picked this one.

There’s a HP movie festival going on, and we’ve been watching the movies (again). We’ve seen 1,2 and part of 3.

There is a scene in SS where Dumbledore comes upon Harry seated in front of the Mirror of Erised, watching his parents. Richard Harris as Dumbledore warns Harry of the dangers of spending too much time with the mirror, and tells him that it will be taken away. Ignoring the words and just listening to the tone and looking at the gestures, I was struck by the sense of power, authority, and even menace, carefully restrained. There, I thought, is Dumbledore.

Check out the scene, if you can. Look at the camera angle. Listen to Harris’ voice. And weep for what might have been.

Same thing happens again, in CoS. The scene at the end, in Dumbledore’s study, after Dumbledore sends Ron away. He thanks Harry for his act of loyalty, and in his voice you can hear echoes of other conversations, with other people, and echoes of the future as well. Harris couldn’t have known any of this, of course, but he put all those shades of meaning in there anyways.

In the next scene, Malfoy Sr. enters the study. At one point he snidely tells Harry that he hopes he will be around to save the day again if such things happen again. Harry assures him that he will. Watch Dumbledore’s face. Watch how his eyes narrow with contentment and satisfaction.

Weep.
3 Travis Prinzi // Jul 6, 2008 at 7:48 am

Weep.

I do. Every time I think of Harris’s performance - and the things you mentioned are examples of brilliance - I plunge into sadness and depression, thinking about how Harris would have done in all the Dumbledore/Harry scenes in HBP, and what we’re all going to have to painfully endure with Gambon.
4 revgeorge // Jul 6, 2008 at 9:29 am

Thank you, thank you for somebody else dumping on Gambon first! I too have been watching the movie marathon & the difference between Harris & Gambon’s Dumbledore’s when seen back to back is astounding. Oh, for what could’ve been!

Isn’t Michael York available? Or Richard Chamberlain? I know he’s American but I think he could pull off Dumbledore. Gambon may be a fine actor in other respects but he’s been horrible miscast in HP.
5 Red Rocker // Jul 6, 2008 at 8:00 pm

Watching GoF on and off. Hard not to compare Harris and Gambon.

First thing you notice is the clothes. Harris’ clothes are dark, bulky, stiff, look like velvet and brocade. He wears them like a king. Gambon’s clothes are lightweight, flimsy, light coloured. He wears them like a man wearing a bathrobe.

Then the beard. Harris’ beard is full, hard to tell where the beard stops and the hair begins. It makes him look old, and powerful, and mysterious. Gambon’s beard is caught up in a clip. It looks like he’s got an embroidered pony tail coming out of his chin. It makes him look like a hippie.

Harris was 71 when filming CoS. Gambon was 64 when filming GoF. Not a big difference - although I have read that Harris partied hard in his day so he might have seemed even older than his actual age.

Everything I wrote earlier about Harris’s performance: the power, authority and menace, is missing fromo Gambon’s performance. Ignore the words and just listen to the tone and look at the gestures, and you see and hear a loud, rude, confused and insecure man with no personal conviction or force whatsoever.

Can’t blame him, actually. I just don’t think he has it in him to project power and authority.
6 Travis Prinzi // Jul 6, 2008 at 8:09 pm

A lot of the blame has to fall on Cuaron. Gambon was not only a bad choice for an actor to play Dumbledore, but all the wardrobe choices you just mentioned were absurd. I think “hippie” may be partly what Cuaron was going for.
7 Red Rocker // Jul 6, 2008 at 9:13 pm

Judiana Makovsky did the costumes for SS. She also did X-Men. Lindy Hemming, who did the costume design for CoS, just did the costumes for Dark Knight.

The costumes for PoA, GoF, OotP and HBP were/are done by Jany Temime.

The hair designer has remained the same throughout the movies.

I like your use of the word “absurd” to describe Gambon’s wardrobe and hairsyle. It’s hard to know who was responsible for it, although I’d agree that the director has to bear some responsibility for the look of one of the major characters. Don’t know if the director had as much say about the choice of actor, though. HP was a going concern before Cuaron came on; I suspect the producers would have ultimate say.

But too late now, isn’t it?

Or is it?
8 Travis Prinzi // Jul 6, 2008 at 9:15 pm

Sadly, I believe it is. They’re way too far into HBP now, and I can’t imagine their making a change for the two-film final book.
9 revgeorge // Jul 6, 2008 at 9:20 pm

Not too late for when they remake the movies or do a TV miniseries. Or if they went back in starting at POA & did a cgi version of Dumbledore for release. I’d chip in some money for it.

Like I’ve said before, a cardboard cut out of Harris & a bad voice impersonator could add more depth to Dumbledore’s character than Gambon’s performance has so far.
10 Red Rocker // Jul 7, 2008 at 12:31 pm

The thing about Hollywood is that they do remake movies every ten years or so, if they think they will make money. IMDb gives 92 matches for movies whose titles include the word Frankenstein, going back to 1910. So if we live long enough, we’ll see a HP remake of some sort. The problem is, there is so much that is right with the current version, and really only one thing that’s very wrong. It seems a shame that this otherwise wonderful opus is marred by that one unfortunate casting error.
11 revgeorge // Jul 7, 2008 at 1:07 pm

I’m right with you on this one, Red Rocker. I’m still afraid my reaction to Dumbledore’s death in the HBP movie will be one of relief. Hopefully I can restrain myself from shouting out, “Yippee!!!!”

It is sad that the current movies have been marred by this casting. Because for the most part, excepting parts of GOF, the films do a good job of capturing the mood of each book.
12 Red Rocker // Jul 7, 2008 at 3:02 pm

I don’t want to go on and on about this, so I’ll just say one last thing and then shut up:

Watched parts of GoF yesterday, and was horrified, again, at how Dumbledore/Gambon manhandles Harry when he’s hanging on to Cedric’s body at the end. He literally claws at him to pull him away. Not much difference between Dumbledore and Mad Eye / Crouch at that point, is there?
13 revgeorge // Jul 7, 2008 at 3:29 pm

Can we go on to something else in the movies? Watching the first four movies again this weekend, I was reminded that it’s about GOF that Watson’s portrayal of Hermione really starts to grate on my nerves. She’s a little less so annoying in OOTP, but I really think that out of the movie trio, she is the weak link. But I could have a bad impression.

I’d be interested in knowing how you all feel about how the three actors have captured the essence of their character as related to the books.
14 Red Rocker // Jul 7, 2008 at 3:48 pm

I like Watson’s Hermione. I’ve liked her ever since SS, and that’s never changed.

I like the way she over enuciates her words. I like her upper class accent. I like the way she rolls her eyes at some of Ron’s statements. I like her prim and proper manner. I like the concern and love for Harry she shows with her facial expressions and gestures. I like her dogmatic way of stating things. I like the way she overturns Trelawney’s ball and punches Draco in PoA.

Hermione is a very well-written character, I think. And for me, Watson has completely taken over her. That is how I see her now.

What is it about her that grates on your nerves, revgeorge?
15 revgeorge // Jul 7, 2008 at 3:53 pm

Well, it didn’t start bothering me until GOF. I think she’s just overacting a bit. Prim & Proper is fine. I like that. I just think she’s gone a bit too far, especially in GOF. Her performance in OOTP didn’t bother me as much. So, I’m not sure what it is exactly.
16 revgeorge // Jul 7, 2008 at 3:58 pm

Maybe it’s my overall dissatisfaction with GOF the movie. Guess it’s just a personal preference.
17 Travis Prinzi // Jul 7, 2008 at 4:04 pm

I’d go the other way around. I thought Watson was great through the first four, and then over-acted a bit - just on facial expressions, really - in Order.
18 Red Rocker // Jul 7, 2008 at 4:57 pm

There is one scene, in OotP, when the whole crew is walking with Harry through the bridge, talking about getting together for their own DADA lessons, and I remember thinking: there’s Harry’s posse. And thinking how cool it was to see how they came together, from a bunch of friends to a well-organized militia.

That is how I saw Hermione in OotP: the organizer of Dumbledore’s Army. And how she started out very tentatively and diffidently. And how she gained in self-confidence as they went along. Like I said, I can’t separate the character from the actress any more.

Want to talk about Ron/Grint next? Wikipedia says:

While directing Prisoner of Azkaban, Alfonso Cuarón is reported to have gained the strong impression that Grint is “the likely future star out of the Hogwarts trio”

I would agree. He really exaggerates Ron’s comic side, which I remember you don’t care for, revgeorge, although I personally enjoy it. But I have read that it’s harder to do comedy than drama. I think the kid (well, he’s almost 20 now) has a lot of talent and versatility and could make a fine character actor in the movies.
19 revgeorge // Jul 7, 2008 at 5:55 pm

I don’t care that they’ve made him essentially comic relief instead of adding more depth to him. I think they’ve done better lately. And certainly the character of Ron lends itself better than the other two to comedy.

What I mainly didn’t like was taking some of Ron’s best lines in POA & giving them to Hermione.

But Grint plays it so well that I don’t really mind seeing the role of Ron done with some comedy.

And one could say, also looking at Wikepedia, that Grint is almost like Ron in character.
20 Red Rocker // Jul 8, 2008 at 10:50 am

Agree that Ron mainly provides comic relief. However, I was struck by how well Grint and Radcliffe played the fight in GoF over Ron’s perception that Harry had thrust himself into the limelight by putting his own name in the contest. It might have been because they were enacting a very age-appropriate type of conflict, but they both showed their feelings of anger, hurt, confusion and eventual relief and happiness very well.

Which bodes very well for the more important rupture in DH, when Ron abandons Harry and Hermione, and then returns to destroy the locket-horcrux. Grint is going to have to conjure some pretty good acting skills to deal with:

‘Least loved, always, by the mother who craved a daughter … least loved, now, by the girl who prefers your friend … second best, always, eternally overshadowed…’