Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

The third film of the series and the point where the tone changes. A prisoner has escaped. Sirius Black is the only person ever to get out of the wizards' prison and is said to be looking for Harry. The train to school is searched. Dementors are hunting the prisoner and Harry faints near them; these creatures drain happiness and affect him more than anyone. From there the film is an investigation. A map, a cat, a rat, a willow and a shack. A new teacher arrives. Lupin teaches him a spell against the Dementors, and that is the best teacher and pupil line in the series. The last section is a matter of time. The same hours are lived a second time from another angle, and several details missed the first time fall into place. What the narrative is interested in is not magic but the loss of a family: Harry learns in detail for the first time how his parents died, and all the threat in the film comes from there. The visual language separates from the first two films. The colour is cooled, the camera is handheld, uniforms mix with ordinary clothes, and the school stops being a fairy tale building and looks like a real place. A constantly turning clock and a growing willow are used for the passage of time; seasons change within a single shot. The part of Dumbledore changed hands in this film; the previous actor died after the second. Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint, Emma Watson, Gary Oldman, David Thewlis, Michael Gambon and Alan Rickman are in the cast. Alfonso Cuarón directed. Who it is for: anyone following the series; many take this as the best film. Who it is not for: anyone looking for fidelity; the film shortens a great deal and leaves some information out entirely.