'Bring On The Night'
A place to talk about movies--old and new, good and bad, high art and high cheese. It's the place to place your kittens on the award winners, gossip about upcoming fims and discuss DVD releases and extras. Spoiler policy: White font all plot-related discussion until a movie's been in wide release two weeks, and keep the major HSQ in white font until two weeks after the video/DVD release.
I wish Alfonso Cuarón had directed more of them.
When you read the interviews with the kid actors, it was definitely Cuaron's influence that raised their game. That was the movie where they really began to understand what they were doing, and what they needed to move towards. He demanded more from them and they responded.
(yes, I'm looking at you Chris C.).
I'm going to plump for the much maligned mister Columbus, because those first two movies are Matilda's favorites and they were Emmett's favorites until he got older. Not only did Columbus get the casting absolutely right, I don't think there would've been a series without the success of his movies which were very young kid friendly.
Aesthetically, the series gets better when it gets darker. But the lighter tone, the cuddliness even, are things which draw in very young viewers who become life long fans.
I have heard that directing the first movie was mostly teaching the three principals how to act.
but PoA is my favorite too.
I have heard that directing the first movie was mostly teaching the three principals how to act.
"Eyes wide, terrified!" was apparently an oft-repeated mantra on set during HP1.
I saw a thing on Biography last week that demonstrated Chris C.'s directing technique for the kids in the first film, at least. He had to keep three cameras running at all times, one for each of the kids, so that he could piece together decent performances from all of them since he knew he couldn't get them to perform at top level on every take. He admitted that the first film was very choppy as a result, because he had to string together the best takes out of, say 10 per scene (on average) to put on screen.
Not only did Columbus get the casting absolutely right, I don't think there would've been a series without the success of his movies which were very young kid friendly.
Maybe so, but MAN does the pacing drag. Both needed a much more ruthless editor to keep the narrative moving forward.
With the first 2 movies, the producers were terrified to leave anything out, which is why they play like books on tape instead of actual movies.
Cuaron made the decision (which carried through the rest of the series) that anything that wasn't from Harry's POV was OUT unless it was absolutely essential to the plot.
IO9 really like Captain America. They did describe it as a war film with superpowers, which gives me teensy pause, since I don't like war films. But I like superpowers, so I'm in.
And the posters there that have seen it are very enthusiastic too. So I'm stoked. I have tickets for 8:30 tonight.
With the first 2 movies, the producers were terrified to leave anything out
They should have cut the Norbert storyline entirely, I have to say. It goes on for chapters in the books, and in the movie it gets all of five minutes, and peters out pretty inconclusively (offstage, even, IIRC).
I really love PoA the film, but I wish Cuaron went a bit more into the backstory of the marauders. That might have interfered with the flow of the story, but I feel like that's an important part of the Potter canon that wasn't very well fleshed out in the movies.
Every single one of them, dead by the end of the series, barely into their 40's.