Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

197 Pages·2021·7.048 MB·English

by  Patrick Keating

HARRY POTTER AND
THE PRISONER OF AZKABAN
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21ST CENTURY FILM ESSENTIALS
Cinema has a storied history, but its story is far from over. 21st Century
Film Essentials offers a lively chronicle of cinema’s second century,
examining the landmark films of our ever- changing moment. Each
book makes a case for the importance of a particular contemporary
film for artistic, historical, or commercial reasons. The twenty- first
century has already been a time of tremendous change in filmm aking
the world over, from the rise of digital production and the ascent
of the multinational blockbuster to increased vitality in independent
filmmaking and the emergence of new voices and talents both on
screen and off. The films examined here are the ones that embody and
exemplify these changes, crystallizing emerging trends or pointing
in new directions. At the same time, they are films that are informed
by and help refigure the cinematic legacy of the previous century,
showing how film’s past is constantly reimagined and rewritten by
its present. These are films both familiar and obscure, foreign and
domestic; they are new but of lasting value. This series is a study of
film history in the making. It is meant to provide a different kind of
approach to cinema’s story— one written in the present tense.
Donna Kornhaber, Series Editor
ALSO IN THE SERIES
Dana Polan, The LEGO Movie
Keating_7511_BK 2 2/4/21 12:47 PM
Harry Potter
and the
Prisoner of
Azkaban
Patrick Keating
UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS PRESS AUSTIN
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Copyright © 2021 by the University of Texas Press
All rights reserved
Printed in the United States of America
First edition, 2021
Requests for permission to reproduce material from
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♾ The paper used in this book meets the minimum requirements
of ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992 (R1997) (Permanence of Paper).
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Keating, Patrick, 1970– author. | Cuarón, Alfonso, film director.
Title: Harry Potter and the prisoner of Azkaban / Patrick Keating.
Description: First edition. | Austin : University of Texas Press, 2021. |
Series: 21st century film essentials | Includes index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2020044289
ISBN 978-1-4773-2312-0 (paperback)
ISBN 978-1-4773-2313-7 (library ebook)
ISBN 978-1-4773-2314-4 (non-library ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: Cuarón, Alfonso. | Harry Potter and the prisoner of
Azkaban (Motion picture) | Fantasy films—Production and direction—
Case studies. | Film adaptations—Production and direction—Case studies.
Classification: LCC PN1997.2.H39 K43 2021 | DDC 823/.92—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020044289
doi:10.7560/323120
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Contents
Introduction 1
Point of View in the Novels 11
Novel to Screenplay 31
Camera, Perspective, and Point of View 50
Actors and Authorship 92
Designing a World 112
Sound Design and Music 135
Conclusion 157
Acknowledgments 163
Notes 165
Index 185
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HARRY POTTER AND
THE PRISONER OF AZKABAN
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Introduction
When producers approached Alfonso Cuarón to ask if he
would consider directing the third Harry Potter movie, he was
unfamiliar with the series. His friend Guillermo del Toro said,
“Don’t be stupid. Read them immediately.”1 When Cuarón did
so, he was delighted to learn that he loved the books and that
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban was his favorite of the
series so far. Taking over directing duties from Chris C olumbus,
Cuarón committed to the project, which premiered in sum-
mer of 2004. The resulting film is more than just a skillful
entertainment; it is an essential work of twenty- first- century
cinema.
Cuarón’s movie (hereafter, Prisoner of Azkaban) is an ele-
gant exemplar of several contemporary cinematic trends,
including serial storytelling, the rise of the fantasy genre, dig-
ital filmmaking, collaborative authorship, and transnational
production. Telling one coherent story over the course of eight
films, the Harry Potter series contributed to an industrywide
shift toward complex stories that unfold in ever- expanding
fictional worlds—a shift that would reach its culmination on
the big screen in the Marvel Cinematic Universe and on the
small screen in the complex storytelling that has flourished in
recent years on television and streaming services.2 Alongside
the Lord of the Rings trilogy, the series changed the balance
of genres in Hollywood; as Kristin Thompson explains, the
1
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