Alfonso Cuarón and Harry Potter: Adding Complexity to Children's Cinema

Hey everyone. I'm finally done with my junior year of college. And you know what that means: I can write full-time for YDKS Movies again.

One of the things I have been slaving over the past few days is my Senior Seminar portfolio. The following essay was my final individual project. It is a study of Alfonso Cuarón's direction in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. It's a little long but, if you're interested, you can read it below. In a way, you can see it as my review of the third Harry Potter film if you like. But it's definitely an in depth study of Cuarón's direction on that film and some of the things he did that I found impressive and edgy. 

Read it below.

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Alfonso Cuarón and Harry Potter: Adding Complexity to Children's Cinema

An Essay

Written By

Wesley Caldwell

As Cuarón’s camera creeps through the dark night sky, a dim yellow light flashes in the distance. The light grows brighter and more vivid as the camera hovers in closer. Slowly, the camera focuses in on the shabby, upstairs window of Number Four Privet Drive. We, the audience, are magically transported through the glass of the window and are put inside the upstairs bedroom of Harry Potter himself. The legendary boy wizard sits underneath his bed covers as the light illuminates from a wand in his hands. At first sight, one could assume that Harry is just using the wand to provide the light to read his spell book. However, as the scene plays out, a new meaning arises. The brighter the wand grows, the more excited and exuberant Harry’s facial expression gets. Periodically, Harry’s Uncle Vernon walks into the room, causing Harry to put the wand away and act like he is asleep. Finally, at the end of the sequence, Harry reaches the peak of his excitement as the light bursts from the wand in a climax of illumination. The light that is exuded from the wand is so great that shoots Cuarón’s camera back through the window, showcasing the film’s title: Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban.

Viewing this sequence as a mature adult, one may find it hard not to see the hidden meanings that Cuarón was trying to showcase in this sequence. Cuarón takes a scene that would have, in the hands of most commercial directors, had no overall significance to the overall plot or the character of Harry Potter. The Mexican art house director takes this scene and, in an incredibly risky and anti-mainstream move, injects a masturbation theme into it.  To take things a little bit further, he has the gall to open the third Harry Potter movie with it. As the scene plays out, he is able to subtly imbue the feelings of excitement, awkwardness and fear that all accompany this type of situation. Film critic Nick Schager recognizes this, stating, ““From its opening scene of Harry (Daniel Radcliffe) tinkering with his wand under the covers, Cuarón’s Potter reveals a willingness to confront, however slyly, Harry’s burgeoning puberty.” However, puberty is not the only theme that Cuarón tackles in his unorthodox and artistic take on Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. Throughout the film, Cuarón confronts themes of teenage angst, injects symbolism and creates a feeling of realism, making his vision of Harry Potter’s world a complex entry into the realm of children’s cinema.

Cuarón explores an ongoing theme of teenage angst and puberty during many sequences in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. The theme was one that had been following the director throughout his films, appearing before in previous ventures such as Great Expectations and Y Tu Mamá También. In these two films, Cuarón explored how a young male character made his way through life during a time of maturation and budding adolescence. By using the character of Harry Potter as a vessel, he would continue to expound on and develop this theme in the third Harry Potter film. While exploring this overall theme, Cuarón was able expound on it and explore many characteristics of adolescence.

Boiling teenage angst is one of the things that Cuarón really builds throughout the film. Unlike the first two Harry Potter films, Harry is much more prone to outbursts and moments of uncontrollable anger in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. Critic Emanuel Levy recognizes this, stating that, “In this film, Harry is angrier, more socially awkward than in the first installments.” Much like all teens going through the early stages of puberty, Harry suffers through various mood swings and is more emotional than usual. Cuarón first explores this new aspect of Harry at the beginning of the film where Aunt Marge insults his parents. As Harry begins to get upset, he has actor Daniel Radcliffe raise his voice while he quickly tracks his camera towards him. The very next shot contains a sequence where Harry causes a glass that Aunt Marge is holding to explode by means of magic. Here, Cuarón moves the camera tightly in on the glass, causing its destruction to feel much more violent, intimate and of a direct extension of the brooding anger that he just established in the previous shot with Harry. After Harry casts a spell that causes Aunt Marge to inflate and float away, Cuarón has a short sequence where Harry runs up to his room, violently kicks a nearby drawer and sits on his bed. As Harry sits down, he becomes part of the shadows of the dark room. His breathing is heavy and his anger still writhes through him while Cuarón pushes slowly in on him and the photograph of his parents on his bedside table. In this shot, Cuarón almost makes Harry out to be every angry teenager in America— angry, upset, misunderstood and sitting on a bed in a darkened bedroom while feeling utterly alone. As Harry begins to leave the house, Cuarón changes to a slightly unbalanced, handheld camera. He does this to emit the fleeting, brash and spontaneous feelings that Harry is experiencing in these moments as he leaves the Dursley home and goes out into what must seem like an uncertain future.

Cuarón also explores the growing teenage angst that Harry is feeling in a later scene. After discovering that Sirius Black is believed to be the one that betrayed his parents, Harry becomes very emotional in front of Ron and Hermione. He breaks down, storming off into the snow by himself. When Ron and Hermione discover him, he is sitting on a rock, crying. Cuarón moves his camera in intimately on Harry’s face. Then, Harry’s voice breaks through the air in a roar of emotion. When Harry’s voice first breaks out, Cuarón cuts to a wide shot, giving a sense of the impact of the anger running through Harry. As Harry claims that he wants to kill Black for betraying his parents, Cuarón gets intimately close again, moving in a close up on Harry’s face. By having actor Radcliffe bring out so much raw emotion and by moving the camera in on his face, Cuarón makes the teenage angst aspect of the scene much more prominent. He also fills the scene with much more raw emotion than both of the previous Harry Potter films combined. Lastly, Cuarón links the source of Harry’s budding angst to the death of his parents with this sequence and the previous sequence at the Dursley’s home. Here, Harry breaks down after learning that his parents were actually betrayed, which lead to their death. Previously, it was Aunt Marge’s unkind remarks about his parents that caused him to snap. By linking these two sequences together with a common thread, Cuarón makes the source of Harry’s growing angst a little more complex, along with making him a much more psychologically defined character. Levy recognizes this, stating that, “Cuaron asked the actors to think about their characters' psychology, to explore more deeply than they had done before the emotional territory.” Because of this careful emotional study conducted, the film that resulted was much a much more realistic and complex piece of cinema than the previous Harry Potter films.

Harry is not the only character that Cuarón develops a sense of teenage angst within. In a sequence before the planned execution of Buckbeak, Hermione really lets out some pent up anger in a fairly striking manner. When Hermione sees Draco Malfoy and his cronies excited about the upcoming execution (which they are pretty much responsible for), she forcibly makes her way down a steep hillside to them with Harry and Ron. Her voice explodes through the air, calling Draco a “foul, evil, little cockroach” (Cuarón). She then puts her wand to the throat of Draco, almost in a manner to threaten a certain death. As the moments pass, Cuarón intercuts between close ups of Hermione’s anger ridden face, Draco’s terrified face, Ron and Harry’s concerned faces and the wand at Draco’s Adam’s apple. As these moments of silence occur, a large sense of tension, fear and fury can be felt. Right before Hermione makes her decision to take the wand away, Cuarón cuts to a distant wide shot of the whole event. Unlike the wide shot he cuts to in the previous scene to build Harry’s sense of fury, this shot seems to be carrying the weight of Hermione’s upcoming decision. It is almost as if the shot makes the audience step back and look at the situation that is unfolding. The shot also really gives the feeling that these kids are all alone and there is no one really around to intervene or tell them what to do. This expounds on the feeling of being alone and isolated that they are all beginning to feel in this time of puberty. It also really seems to hit home the fact that Hermione’s decision is completely up to her and in her hands. After this wide shot, Cuarón cuts back in close as Hermione pulls her wand away from Draco’s throat and begins to walk away. Draco lets out a tiny laugh of victory, causing Hermione to whip back around and slam her fist into his nose, violently knocking him back into a rock slab. Cuarón then focuses on a close up on Hermione’s face, which displays a sense of growing excitement. Through this sequence, Cuarón manages to not only to continue developing a growing sense of teenage angst but also a need for responsibility behind the sometimes rash decisions that teenagers can be tempted to make due to their violent mood swings.

Cuarón also explores various aspects of puberty when not developing a sense of teenage angst in his film. In one sequence, the director explores a sense of budding male comradery. One could view this as one of the many aspects of puberty that a male goes through. In this scene, Harry, Ron and other Gryffindor boys stay up the first night back at Hogwarts messing around. They hang out, chewing pieces of candy that causes them to roar like various animals. At first glance, the scene does not really have much to do with anything. It almost seems out of place with the rest of the film. However, much like the opening sequence, Cuarón inserted this seemingly pointless scene for a very specific reason. The director almost seems to be trying to develop the feeling of comradery that young males get while they begin to go through puberty. By filming the sequence in one consistent, loose steady cam shot, Cuarón manages to inject a sense of energy and excitement into the scene. This excitement can be identified with any late night outing with a group of young males at this stage of their lives. While Cuarón has them innocently playing around with roar-inducing pieces of candy and rough housing at the end, he might as well have them sitting around and discussing girls that they wish they could get. The sequence, while minor at first glance, is one of the many little things that Cuarón does to make his Harry Potter film just a little more mature and well-developed than most pieces of children cinema.

Along with confronting the theme of teenage angst and instances of puberty, Cuarón also inserts a vast variety of symbolism into the third Harry Potter film. Film critic Jeremiah Lewis recognizes this, stating that, “Cuarón uses such images as the giant clock and the moon as both metaphors and foreshadowers, giving POA a wealth of underlying cinematic capital not quite seen in the previous two films.” By injecting symbolism into Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, Cuarón makes the film much more mature and complex than the previous two films.

The symbolism that Cuarón creates with the image of a central clock overlooking Hogwarts is one of much significance. One of the biggest complaints among hardcore fans of the original Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban novel is the fact that Cuarón constantly inserts images of a giant clock around campus in his film adaptation. However, upon further thought and study, one can see the importance of this image to Cuarón’s film adaptation. The clock is an important image because it introduces a theme into the film: the importance of time. By having the clock so prominently showcased in early portions of the film, Cuarón is hinting to the time traveling finale of the film. The subtle hinting to this sequence makes this finale not as unexpected and a little easier to shallow when it eventually occurs. The image of the clock is also important because it symbolizes the passing of time into adulthood. This meaning goes back to the theme of puberty that Cuarón worked hard to develop. Time is going by for all of the students of Hogwarts and they are quickly learning the pains of growing up. The use of the clock through the film helps to hit this point home, making it more developed than it already was.

Cuarón also uses many shots of nature around Hogwarts around the school to symbolize and develop the importance of time. Every time the seasons change at Hogwarts in the film, Cuarón focuses on various shots of nature. We are shown beautiful and striking sequences of leaves changing colors, falling out of trees, snow covering things and then melting and many other aspects of the changes that occur with the advances in seasons. The significance of these scenes is to further develop the importance of time in the film. As we see the seasons change visually on screen, we are once again reminded that time is passing by, causing things and people to mature. Another use of this imagery is to set the tone for certain sequences. For example, the shots of nature before Buckbeak’s planned execution are very dreary, wet and foreboding. It really works well to set the tone and prepare the audience for the sequences to come.

By using camera shots through glass windows, Cuarón manages to create symbolism for the feeling of being an outsider. Many times throughout Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, Cuarón moves his camera digitally through glass windows. Here, Cuarón seems to be harking back to his theme of budding adolescence and puberty. By looking through the glass windows, Cuarón creates a feeling of being an outsider looking in. It feels as if the audience is put into the shoes of all the film’s characters that are forced to look at the world from behind a window. This is very significant, as most young people truly feel like outsiders in the turbulent time of puberty. A few times in the film, Cuarón actually moves his camera through the glass windows of the giant clock on campus. By doing this, Cuarón manages to connect his themes of puberty and the importance of time with this one gesture. He manages to create the feeling of being an outsider due to the passing of time in an adolescent period. This subtle technique represents well-planned, intelligent and complex filmmaking.

Although with injecting the film with themes and symbolism, Cuarón manages to really capture a sense of realism in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. As touched upon previously, Cuarón expounds upon the more emotional aspects of Rowling’s original novel, creating a film that has more impact than the previous two films. Along with added more of a punch to the emotional aspects of the film, Cuarón changes certain visual aspects of the Harry Potter world to make a more realistic film. Critic Levy explains this new approach and how it changed the wardrobe of the film:

"Visiting several British schools, [Cuaron] observed the way the kids wore their uniforms. No two were alike. The teenagers' individuality was reflected in the specific way they wore their uniform."

After doing this research, Cuarón decided to apply this logic to his film. He gave artistic and creative freedom to his actors, asking them to “wear their uniforms as they would if their parents were not around” (Levy). While this decision angered many die-hard fans of the first two films and Rowling’s novels, it allowed for film more personal and grounded in reality to be created.

Taking all of this in, one can see how Cuarón created a complex piece of cinema. Critic Peter Chattaway recognizes this, stating that, “Cuarón brings darker colors and bolder, more imaginative visuals to this entry in the series, and for once, it can be said that a Harry Potter film has been made with something resembling a genuine artistic vision.” By turning Rowling’s original novel into a carefully constructed piece of complex and imaginative cinema loaded with subtext, raw emotions, realism and clever symbolism, Cuarón did something very rare in the filmmaking world: he made a children’s film that was a complex piece of art. Believe it or not, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban is an art film through-and-through. It displays a director’s intelligent and creative vision for material that before was just fodder for heavy-duty special effects and by-the-books direction. By doing this, Cuarón showed that children’s films don’t just have to be films for children. They don’t just have to be movies that parents are dragged to by a screaming child who just won’t shut up until they’re taken to the movies. They too can be good movies. They too can be pieces of art that can be appreciated universally by both the young and the old. They too can be complex and thought provoking. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban is a mile stone in the realm of cinema for what it achieves: it is an enjoyable piece of pop entertainment that manages to be artistically and emotionally sound at the same time due to the direction of a true auteur.