Independent Components Analysis of Harry Potter

While I was at NIPS in December, I decided to apply independent components analysis to the first two Harry Potter movies. It is widely known that film directors place cameras in the midst of a universe of independent movie vectors and record the mixed, overlapping results. The difference between good movies and bad, worthless garbage is all based on the choice of the mixing matrix.

So I was listening to Erik Miller and John Fisher present their new ICA algorithm, RADICAL, at a NIPS workshop, and I decided to apply it to the problem at hand. A few minutes of computer time resulted in many components, but two were responsible for the majority of the movie. The first can be best described as "mysterious occurrences disrupt isolated boarding school" and the second "famous English actors, one of which is a Dame, adapt work of a famous British author."

I pushed all of this through a DVD-R and got two fine movie night selections ...

On St. Valentine's day in 1900 a party of schoolgirls set out to picnic at Hanging Rock... Some were never to return.

Everybody loves Ernest...but nobody's quite sure who he really is.

  • Directed by Peter Weir.
  • Written by Joan Lindsay and Cliff Green.
  • Rated PG.
  • Released in 1975.
  • Language: English.
  • Directed by Oliver Parker
  • Written by Oscar Wilde and Oliver Parker
  • Rated PG.
  • Released in 2002.
  • Language: English.

Picnic at Hanging Rock depicts a girls boarding school in rural Australia. The students are taken to visit Hanging Rock, an ancient geologic formation, and several girls disappear. Were they abducted? Or murdered? Or are they the victims of the mysterious, magical forces of the land itself? Peter Weir, who would later direct The Truman Show and Dead Poets Society, provides us with few answers.

The Importance of Being Earnest adapts Oscar Wilde's play to the screen. I could describe the plot, but it just serves as the base for Wilde's witty dialogue, and the hilarious performances of Rupert Everett, Colin Firth, Reese Witherspoon, and Judi Dench.

Movie night follows the wisdom of Woody Allen, who observed that "80% of success is showing up." For movie night, make that 100%. Points are allocated strictly on the basis of attendence.

Schedule:

Movie Night directed by Michael Ross and Nick Matsakis