Team Experience: Harry Potter Goodbyes

Hey all. I asked the team here at The Film Experience to say their goodbyes to Hogwarts and the Potter franchise now that Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part Two has been viewed by everyone and their werewolf uncle. Y'all know how I feel about it but a huge scale of opinions and emotions swirling about out there. Each wand is unique and chooses its wizard or some such; we're all beautiful unique snowflakes!

1. WHO WAS YOUR FAVORITE CHARACTER?

JA: I always gravitate towards the nerdy girls so my first thought was Hermione, but then she was swallowed whole by a tidal wave of Luna Lovegood affection. The casting people worked magic pretty much across the board but Evanna Lynch was an amazing find.

Andreas: Bellatrix, at least as portrayed by HBC. Cackling, sadistic, sexy -- I'd take her delightfully evil turn any day over her Oscar-nominated cheerleading in The King's Speech.

Kurt: Minerva McGonagall, and she gets two of the best lines in the new movie! Maggie Smith, ready to bring the thunder. Great.

Michael: Neville, Neville, Neville. The same weight of tragedy and depth of character as Harry without the cushy celebrity status or the unfortunate bouts of "woe is me" whining.  All I care about in the last movie is his big moment with the Sword of Gryffindor. It should be the cinematic "Hell, yes!" equivalent of Viggo Mortenson jumping off that ship with the army of the dead at his back.

Jose: Snape of course!

2. WHICH PROFESSOR OF MAGIC WOULD YOU LOVE TO BE SCHOOLED BY?

oh baby, talk dirty Rickman to me!

Jose:  Snape of course! The Dark Arts sound like fun!

Michael: Snape, no contest. I don't care if he does nothing but heap abuse on me. I could still listen to Alan Rickman all day.

JA: Love Maggie Smith but Professor McGonagall would've made me cry with all those withering glances. Professor Flitwick would've been fun! I could've quotedWillow to him. "Some day, Burglekutt! Some day!!!"

Kurt: My first impulse is to say Dumbledore (he seems so cuddly), but he's technically not a teacher, so I'll go with McGonagall. To quote Larry Crowne (and I swear it's the one and ONLY time I'll quote Larry Crowne), she's tough but fair.

Andreas: I've always liked Remus Lupin. He's so mild-mannered and knowledgeable about all kinds of magic. He marries one of the other coolest people in the series, Tonks. And he's a conflicted werewolf, which is pretty badass. Definitely my prof of choice if I went to Hogwarts; I'm just disappointed that he got so little screen time before his sad off-screen death!

3. IF YOU COULD CHANGE ONE THING ABOUT THE SERIES, WHAT WOULD IT BE?

Andreas: I know it's crazy, but why not make it all animated? I feel like Studio Ghibli could do wonders with a complex magical fantasy like this. At the very least, they would've made the characters in the epilogue look convincingly older. 

Kurt: That it could better balance its romances with its driving action. The juxtaposition of raging teen hormones and grave danger has usually been very effective, but the couplings have always felt like inauthentic footnotes. I really liked the final film, but I'd have been more invested had I given a hoot about Ron & Hermione, Harry & Ginny, and Luna & Neville "Never Met a Comic Relief Moment He Couldn't Fumble" Longbottom.

Jose: Have actual auteurs doing the directing work, other than Cuarón's film, none had any sense of real artistry and intention. They embodied the dullness that is adapting something just for the sake of it.

JA: Eight more movies!

Michael: Harry Potter and the Missed Opportunity

4. IN WHAT SORT OF OBJECTS WOULD WE BE LIKELY TO FIND YOUR HORCRUXES?

via

JA: My soul and all its pieces belongs to Victor Krum's underwear drawer.

Kurt: GREAT question. Mine would be: My "Lord of the Rings" Extended Edition boxed set, my grandfather's military pendant, my latest peanut butter jar (I, very unfortunately, LOVE peanut butter), a framed photo of Brandon from when we first started dating, my journal from 2003-2007, my first writing award, and my father's father's pocket watch.

Jose: My Blu-ray and DVD library, my Kindle, white CK briefs and bad dates.

Michael: Ticket stubs. I doubt I would present much of a challenge to Harry and friends. They would have me finished off by page 50 and spend the other 750 pages playing quidditch and making out in the room of requirement. 

5. WILL YOU BE HAPPY TO SEE RALPH FIENNES'S NOSE AGAIN?

JA: Are we sure he hasn't carved it off for method thespian purposes? Has anyone seen it lately? Maybe in real life he's actually wearing a prosthetic nose now and the Voldemort nose look is him without make-up. Nobody will ever know unless somebody jumps him on a red carpet and yanks at his ears! I think I speak for us all when I say that you have the permission of the Film Experience establishment to do this now, everyone.

Kurt: Yes. I like my Fiennes brothers au naturale ...and take from that what you will.

Michael: Kudos to Ralph Fiennes to playing the most iconic villain of modern pop culture. I refer of course to "Harry" from In Bruges. I found his Voldemort to be kind of a one note sinister ghoul to be honest.

Whenever I see Brendan Gleeson show up as Mad Eye Moody I am overcome with the desire  to see him confront Voldemort  at the Hog’s Head  In Bruges-style over some butter beers.

Moody: Voldemort, let’s face it. And I’m not being funny. I mean no disrespect, but you’re a cunt. You’re a cunt now. You’ve always been a cunt. And you’ll always be a cunt. Maybe make some more cunt horcruxes.

Voldemort: Leave my horcruxes fucking out of it! What have they ever done?  You retract that bit about my cunt fucking horcruxes!

Moody: I retract that bit about your cunt fucking horcruxes.

Voldemort: insult my fucking horcruxes? That’s going overboard, mate!

Want more?
Reviews of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part Two from Jose and Nathaniel,  a teary goodbye from JA who loved the series the most of any TFE contributor, a series lament from Michael in which he posits that the films shouldn't have started production until very recently. (Interesting!)

Your turn! 
Talking about its box office is boring which seems to be the convo du jour. (The franchise continues to fill JK Rowling's endless vault at Gringotts. The end.)  You know you want to answer those five questions in the comments! Or just a couple of them. Your choice. 

First and Last, Fire & Ice

First and Last now without visual clues. We've blinded you.

Can you guess the movie from these audio clues?

First and Last Fire and Ice

Linkbringer

GWB finds Raúl Esparza all villainous

big screen
Broadway.com Raul Esparza, one of our favorite song & dance men, channels his inner gangster for the new film GWB
Pajiba the fifth annual "most bangable celebrities" list. Fun writeups on everyone from Tom Hardy to Emma Stone to Fassy, who tops the list.
In Contention fans can finally choose between Magneto & Professor X for the X-Men First Class Blu-Ray. Nice covers but obviously I'd have to go with Michael Fassbender.
Scene Stealers chooses a top ten of movie super soldiers to celebrate Captain America's arrival. Hey, that's probably what I'm watching right as you're reading this. Wheeeee.
Little White Lies interviews director Mike Mills on his personal and beguiling film Beginners. I love this bit on whether he's nostalgic for old time Hollywood...

Well, I’m obsessed with history. We are the latest chapter in a long story and if we want to figure ourselves out of get out lf the prisons that we’re in then you need to figure out the past. So I’m always looking back. And I do love Louise Brooks and I do love old Hollywood through the teens, ’20s and ’30s, because it was being invented then, it was like this whole new entrepreneurial world that was just being discovered. ...I like these cultures that were born from punk, too. I was around and I watched these things make themselves a little bit and I related a lot to that. Actually Louise Brooks was a fucking punk, man. She was a really interesting, subversive person.

That she was.

Have you seen this new poster for Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy?

It's nifty, yes?

I like that it feels secret messagey and that it isn't loud. But perhaps mileage will vary. I still don't know what to make of it in the Oscar predictions but it's an interesting wild card sight unseen.

small screen
My New Plaid Pants Black Book's wondrous Carice van Houten will play the sorceress Melisandre in Game of Thrones. I wish I loved Game of Thrones because between them giving Sibel Kekilli a plum role and now this (Melisandre is a totally sick character) it's like they're trying to fill their cast with my foreign film harem. Who's next: Franka and Ludivine?
Vulture Lisa Kudrow talks about Web Therapy which she's bringing to regular TV now. My greatest related dream is that she convinces Meryl Streep to reprise her sex-crazed reparative therapist Camilla Bowner because it's so topical now what with those crazy anti-gay Bachmanns flitting about on the news.
Towleroad Where in the world is Anderson Cooper?

Posters Should Be Seen and Not Heard. And Other Grievances.

So Annoying! Let it be known: I'm not going to post the leaked teaser to The Amazing Spider-Man. I didn't even watch it despite it popping up everywhere. I don't understand the internet fascination with getting everything before you're supposed to even if that means crappy quality fuzziness. Why spoil a first view with a bad copy of something? 

So Annoying Part 2! That Hunger Games motion poster that everyone is posting. I opted to just screengrab it for y'all because it's so NOISY. At one point with all the windows I open up when I'm working it sounded like my whole apartment was on fire and it's already hot enough up in here.

In addition to setting your computer aflame virtually -- thus denying you marshmallows to make up for it --  the poster counts down the days until the movie opens which will unfortunately NOT put an end to the constant publicity and internet jabbering about it since it's going to be a quadrilogy or something and if Harry Potter taught us anything it's that the world likes television more than the movies and would like the movies to just become television series with new seasons lasting 2 1/2 hours opening for as many years in a row as possible. The minute that Season One of The Hunger Games opens people will just start speculating about Season Two of the Hunger Games. 

Y'all know I love the movie posters and anything Hollywood can do to liven them up is appreciated. Only please do so very quietly. Like you're in the library. Or a church. The Holy Church of The Cinema.

The movies aren't silent anymore but posters still should be. 

"The Grand Masters" Teases

The teaser trailer for Wong Kar Wai's 代宗師 (The Grand Masters), a biopic of sorts about Ip Man, a famous martial arts teacher who taught Bruce Lee among others has arrived renewing interest in the movie.  It's been an easy movie to forget about since the gestation period has been so long. (And, yes, there's already been a competitive movie on the same topic that's already opened and closed.) I can't remember when they started filming but you may recall that one of our favorite movie stars on the entire planet, Tony Leung Chiu-Wai broke his arm early on in the production and we sent lustful sympathies. Here he is in training again after recovery.

Several websites are speculating about when this will be finished and open (late 2011 fest circuit? cannes 2012?) but we're guessing not until 2012. Since it reunites the acclaimed and very long-absent director with his longtime muse, we're excited no matter how long we have to wait. So long as we can remember it exists that is. (Tony broke his arm two whole years ago!). 

 

The teaser isn't much to go on -- your typical battle scene -- and people have been stealing WKW's style for so long that this tiny tease even looks quite derivative but WKW's films are so stylish that there's every reason to hope this will be yummy eye candy. And with Leung at the center, it could be a new classic. They've already made so many great films together: Chungking Express, Happy Together, In the Mood For Love, etcetera.

Bonus Points: Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon's young lovers Zhang Ziyi and Chang Chen co-star, though they don't appear in this teaser.

Confusion: This title is printed differently everywhere you read about it: sometimes singular, sometimes plural, sometimes with spaces and sometimes as one long word "Grandmasters"