Idle ramblings...

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

Now we’ve got to the end and book seven. Although I might later produce a few codas as films arrive, it will soon be all for the time being, bear with me a while yet.

This last volume is ace, and I’m not giving anything away — except for my favourite killer sentence: “If we die for them, I’ll kill you, Harry!” Now, that’s a real beauty!
Rowlings has done it and more, hats off to her. Depth and introspection, those kids really did grow up, and each one has developed a consistent personality. There’s drama and action, time for thought and humour - yes! The drawn out camping trip on the run is a bit too reminiscent of Lord of the Rings, specially with the ring at Frodo’s neck effect, but no matter. She’s tied it up, added more to the quest and tied that up too. You get some interesting surprises, learn a lot about wands, and she plays some magnificent tricks with them, a true magician of wand logic. Plus she gives you back some of what she’d taken away. A master storyteller. But believe me, it’s bagged for good and sealed tight, there won’t be a sequel. She’s made sure of that and can move on to other thing — or retire.
The lady has earned my respect - for what it’s worth.
Amazingly, though, when all is said and done, behind the fantastical window dressing as sorcery, the series is profoundly Christian in both ethics and symbolism. It is, after all, a tale of love, faith and hope, of generosity, sacrifice and redemption, of courage, death and rebirth, in which one can be saved turning the other cheek. And maybe, just maybe, beyond the hype and on top of the brilliant storytelling, the fact that it has roots so deep in the subconscious mind of our Western cultures is the hidden key to its success. Possibly even a lasting one. Strange though it may be, I haven’t read or heard a word about this. But then, “serious people” don’t read that sort of stuff...

While HP7 is cooking,
while album is cooking,
just a peek at my famous dustbath...



Not very feminine perhaps...
Childhood memory...
Long story...
I'm hooked!

HP inkjet

The volumes are now getting fatter, and better. She’s done it!
There is real plot intricacy, psychological depth, and even philosophy in books five and six. In fact, I’d say that if parents took the trouble to read HP and the Order of the Phoenix, they might be able to navigate their kids through the dreaded adolescence crisis by discussing Harry’s behaviour with them...
The film, I just saw. I was wondering how they would deal with so much material and so much important talk - not the best thing on screen, talk, specially when a major part of the audience is expecting action. Well, happy surprise, it is a most excellent visual transposition. What the book spells out through well managed iteration translates as atmosphere and intensity; good use has been made of know-it-all Hermione who explains to silly Ron what might escape those in the audience who haven’t read the book. Real narrative talent there.
And we’re back to something English, hurray! Suitably oppressive and claustrophobic. The headquarters of the Order in London is a masterpiece of Victorian gothic. Love it.
Umbridge, nasty incarnation or fascism, is a rather lovely surprise too. All pink and plump, all smiles, she revels in her own sadism, relishes it with perverse pleasure. Wonderful stuff. Somehow, consistently seeing the candy look on screen makes her seem even more poisonous. Snape the “occlumencer” is darker, more rigid and inscrutable than ever. Sirius less than black, totally loveable, a shame he had to die... Harry won’t be the only one to mourn and miss him.
There’s fireworks and pyrotechnics galore but the special effects here serve the story well. The kids look tired, worried, and well they may be... OK, so they twisted the story a bit, who cares? They always do. “Lost in translation” is the name of the game.
Don’t know what the next screen instalment will bring, we’ll see in due course, hope it matches this one for the book deserves it. There’s a lot of depth there too... and the plot has become so intricate that, well, I was wondering until very recently how Rowling would manage to tie it all up in one single volume. With what she has laid out in way of loose ends, it’s got to be a feat of narrative achievement.
Of HP and the Half-Blood Prince, I’ll just say that I won the “spoilers contest” by guessing correctly which important character would die and who the Half-Blood Prince of the title was before I read the book (no big deal for an old hand like me)... And that, contrary to many of my annoyed young friends, I am an absolute fan of the ending and Dumbledore’s funeral. That poor and lovely Dumb Old Door (excuse the pun, comes from reading too much Pratchett).

Out of the witches cauldron,
In translation lost and found

I really enjoyed book three. HP and the Prisoner of Azkaban is distinctly less juvenile. The plot thickens. And blackens. And I like Black (Sirius).
I like the fact that the content matures with the heroes (and readership). Rowling is keeping her promise, pulling it off, good for her.
Now, for the movie... The horror, the horror!
If the director has had an uncanny intuition of what was to transpire in the then unwritten book seven - so said Rowling in some interview - I doubt I’ll check on it and watch the film again.
Here is one I am glad to have seen dubbed in French. The translation from print to screen is pure cultural treason. The whole thing has gone so darn American that the wonderful English accents would have seemed totally out of place.
And that ridiculous bus ride that goes on for ever - a dragged out fairground attraction, a pointless waste of valuable narrative time... And, and, and... Well, to sum it all up, I have a distinct feeling that special effects have taken over and much content has been lost in the process. Read the book, folks, if you want to retrieve important plot bits that went missing.

Strangely enough, my reaction to the fourth instalment of the saga went the exact opposite way.
Mirror effect.

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, the book, I didn’t quite take to, found it rather boring in parts. Still, it’s useful to the developing plot which. Dropping it halfway through out of irritation would have been a mistake...
On the other hand, though still American in feeling, the film worked for me. Great visuals, and not only special effects but some spectacular photography. Not bored for a minute at the movie. Through necessary contraction, it concentrates the best and gets rid of the annoying puppy fat.

Hocus Pocus and cultural secrets lost in translation

The chamber of Secrets will keep its secrets, I haven’t read the book, just seen the film. And it will do, ‘t will serve.
I feel no intense need for what I might have missed. Great characters, good fun and adventure value... but rather in the vein of “Five at Wizard School”. What I’m interested in is Rowling’s narrative project of having the heroes mature with their readers. This would be rather new. Series with recurring heroes are usually aimed at a particular age group, and nobody ever really grows up, young readers may keep a soft spot, but they move on to other things. From the film, it appears to me we are still in that tradition.
The film, though, I’ve seen twice.
In my remote corner of Brittany, most commercial flicks arrive dubbed and there no cure for it. So, while in Paris... I couldn’t very well miss out on the original Kenneth Branagh himself, could I? And Jason Isaacs, oh boy! So wonderfully superior and upper crusty as Lucius Malfoy, the voice just dripping with contempt. A treat.
Must say, the dubbed versions are really quite good. But the whole English cultural thing inevitably falls by the wayside. And everything - in the books, in the first two films - is so, so British!