Friday, 19 November 2010

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1

We went to see this film tonight.

If you've read all the books and seen the other films (and read the reviews of the film itself) you'll know pretty much what to expect. it doesn't disappoint, it doesn't delight, and the ending is a classic - it just stops half way through a scene and that is that.

Highlight: the fact that the actress playing Hermione Grainger is about six inches taller than the actor playing Harry Potter in real life, but he is taller in the books (or at least we expect him to be). So there is a load of Humphrey/Lauren clever camera angle stuff going on so that you hardly notice; unless you look out for it, in which case you have to admit, it's very cleverly done.

Except for the graveyard scene* where Hermione is supposed to lay her head supportively on Harry's shoulder but she forgets to bend her knees first, so it takes her about a minute to get her head into a seemingly natural position.

* Why on earth Harry's parents are buried in a Church graveyard, despite the fact that the wizards and witches in the stories are quite patently not Christians, is not explained.

12 comments:

Anonymous said...

This makes me think of the only thing I ever learnt from my mum. Child actors are usually chosen because they look younger than they are and are thus more mature than the age they are playing, but they are small for their age. That's why they rarely succeed as adults, as their lack of stature limits their roles.
It's a bit sad that that is the only wisdom my mum has managed to pass on to me, one always hoped for a discussion on Aristotle's metaphysics whilst drinking a suitable red wine overlooking an azure sea, but mums from the midlands are a tad prosaic.

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Bayard said...

AFAICR, the witches and wizards did their best to appear like normal people to us normal people, presumably to the extent of being buried in a churchyard.

Mark Wadsworth said...

Anon, that's all right - my Mum taught me a few things about cost accounting.

M3S11, I thought you were joking so I looked it up and but we really are near the end of the third series. Unless you are spam.

B, maybe, but it's not really consistent.

Anonymous said...

They celebrate Christmas in Potterland so a churchyard burial isn't all that strange I suppose.

Mark Wadsworth said...

Anon, it's true they celebrate "Christmas" but they just call it 'Christmas", actually they are celebrating the pre-Christian winter festival (Yule or whatever it's called). They don't do a nativity play or anything, they just have a tree with decorations and a feast.

But presumably JKR didn't want to get into a bigger controversy with the religious right and so she just called it "Christmas".

I mean, I'm a dyed in the wool non-believer but I celebrate Xmas.

Bayard said...

There's not a lot of Christ left in Christmas, these days.

"B, maybe, but it's not really consistent."

Well, HP's mum's burial would have been arranged by her sister (HP's aunt) and you know how desperate she was to seem normal. One could posit that they put HP's dad in the same grave for want of anywhere better to bury him. Seems consistent to me.

Mark Wadsworth said...

B, but there's loads of "X" in "Xmas"!

HP's parents are buried in Godric's Hollow, which is a witches'n'wizards village. HP's aunt would never have gone near the place.

Anonymous said...

Hi, Mark.

Just wanted to notify you of a blogger that has stolen this post. The blogger copied the entire post and did not attribute it to you.

The link is here:
http://harry-potter-blogs [dot] blogspot [dot] com/2010/11/harry-potter-and-deathly-hallows-part-1_20.html

It seems to be a spam blog that's stealing posts from many different blogs. You can click on the report abuse button at the top to notify blogger.com that it's a spam blog.

Mark Wadsworth said...

Anon, well spotted, but fair play to them. It's a bit rude not to mention a source but I'm not that bothered.

Bayard said...

Mark, ah OK, I read the book too long ago to remember details like that. Presumably Godric's Hollow is one of those places that normal people can't even get to, so, yeah, put it down to JKR keeping an authorial eye on the US market.

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