(no subject)

[naomikritzer]

Ed and I finally went to see "Harry Potter & the Prisoner of Azkaban" last Tuesday night. We don't go to movies very often, and HP/PA finally made it to the second-run movie theater near our house. We like seeing movies there, as (a) it's $3 per ticket (it used to be $2, but they raised their evening prices); (b) it's walking distance from our house; and (c) it's a vintage monoplex with a really big screen and state-of-the-art sound. (They also put real butter on their popcorn, but alas, we had to eat ours this time with just salt.)

Anyway, I found myself pondering a question about the movie, which I will stash behind a cut tag for those two or three people out there who are still trying to avoid Harry Potter related spoilers.



Who was it -- screenwriter, director, producer, actor(s) -- who decided to make Sirius and Remus lovers?

I've re-read the books and embarrassingly high number of times. Since I read pegkerr's journal, I've followed occasional links to Nocturne Alley and the Harry Potter fanfic/gaming that went on there. So I'm aware that it's commonly assumed in the fanfic community that Sirius and Remus were lovers. But although I'm pretty willing to read between the lines for that sort of subtext, I never really saw it in the books.

But the movie! Oh. My. Goodness. They are so clearly lovers in the movie. No question. Just to dispel any lingering doubts, they had Snape's line about them acting like an old married couple, and then the final scene with Harry and Professor Lupin where Lupin explains that the parents of the other students would not be comfortable with people like him teaching. Yes, yes, he's talking about the lycanthropy, but that scene was very clearly suggesting gayness as well.

Anyway. I found myself wondering if it was the screenwriter, the director, or the actors who decided to put that in. I remember hearing that Lucy Lawless and Rene O'Connor found the whole "Xena has a lesbian subtext!" chatter entertaining and started deliberately trying to play that stuff up, which encouraged the chatter, which encouraged the scriptwriters, which encouraged the actresses, and so on (until it really quit being subtext and Xena and Gabby came completely out of the closet).

Or maybe I'm just reading it ALL in.

I've never understood the "Harry is sleeping with Draco" school of fanfic either, but I haven't managed to see the movie version of Chamber of Secrets, so maybe that's in there?

Comments

[wintersweet.livejournal.com]

Harry/Draco is not in there. Some fans just can't resist putting characters who hate each other together. Probably the result of reading too many romance novels. *dodges stones*

I don't know about the Sirius/Remus. I don't really care one way or the other, and I don't really see it. But who knows.

[patchwork-prose.livejournal.com]

I must admit that I totally missed that, Naomi.

[naomikritzer]

Well, I'm not saying it's impossible that I read it all in...

[bethynyc.livejournal.com]

I so saw it. But then, I saw it in the book...very subtle, but just hit my subconcious. I think it's a little more noticable in Order of the Phoenix though. Remus and Sirius giving Harry a Christmas present together, and other little things.

[pants-of-doom.livejournal.com]

I saw the whole lycanthropy as a metaphor for homosexuality thing when I read the books, where you can see it or not depending, but it was glaringly obvious in the film.

I thought that was pretty cool.

[mmerriam.livejournal.com]

I have always seen the entire Lycanthrophy subplot of Lupin's as a discussion of homosexuality, and I must admit that the movie did seem to make Lupin and Sirius look like a couple.

[careswen.livejournal.com]

Wow, I totally did not see that. Now I wanna see the movie again, and watch for it. I just figured they were very good friends, like you are with someone you've known for so many years. Interesting.

I know Lupin's comment at the end was meant to evoke that feeling of shame when faced with homophobia, but I just saw it as a metaphor, not as a clue.