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HARRY POTTER AND THE HALF-BLOOD PRINCE

HARRY POTTER CHARACTERS, NAMES AND RELATED INIDICIA

ARE TRADEMARKS OF AND © WARNER BROS. ENTERTAINMENT INC.

HARRY POTTER PUBLISHING RIGHTS © J.K. ROWLING

THIS MOTION PICTURE © 2009 WARNER BROS. ENTERTAINMENT INC.

                                                                           SCREENPLAY © 2009 WARNER BROS. ENTERTAINMENT INC.

www.harrypotter.ch 

preview  by dalia "gryphon_spirit" di giacomo ___        

for press screening at Plaza (Zürich), thanks to Warner Bros. (Transatlantic) Inc. Zürich Branch /distributor for 20th Century Fox in Switzerland

            Well, being me... has its privileges.

Same director. Director David Yates. the director of  the most recent release, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. And indeed this new episode is dark, darker than before. brilliantly modern, in the very beginning even brutal and quick, getting  then clearly  occult more than fantasy characteristics. and it is there where the whole story of Harry Potter wanted to land. from a fantasy to the search of immortality.  This is the best Harry Potter  film, at least technically speaking, i have seen till now, and although being an intermediate episode who  prepares the way to the final stages, it is as interesting as Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, or the Order of the Phoenix mentioned before.  In few words: well done. This the Harry Potter i wanted to see.  I sincerely tell i have never read a Harry Potter book. Maybe there will be differences from the motion picture and the written opus, nonetheless i don't care, because this film perfectly portraits that explanation that all fans of the serie were expecting. The figure of Lord Voldemort is more complex than we were supposing at the beginning of the whole story. The fact that Hogwarts itself is no longer safe with all  inherent  tensions and effects is nothing if compared to how Albus Dumbledore is preparing Harry for the supposed final battle that will come in the next episodes. And nothing if compared with the Horcrux -concept. 

At the beginning of the movie Dumbledore recruits his old friend and colleague, the  bon vivant Professor Horace Slughorn, which is therefore introduced to Harry Potter. Why?  Professor Horace Slughorn holds a crucial information, which Harry Potter must get. And when i say must, i say must. Harry cannot fail in rescuing this particular "memory" that Slughorn possesses. It might  seem easy mission, but to  unlock a memory from a reticent person who knows the danger that can surface is hard thing. The right words must be found at the right moment. 

Harry Potter: You didn't exactly bring Slughorn back to simply teach potions, did you sir?
Albus Dumbledore: No I did not. I want you to get his true memory. Without it we leave the fate of our world to chance

It's this memory that will let understand how big Voldemort's force is. Moreover we understand better the episode Harry Potter  and the Chamber of Secrets, in particular what Tom Riddle's diary was. A very dark kind of magic makes is apparition put in practice by the creation of Horcruxes.

Producer Heyman elaborates, “What we’re seeing in this film is Dumbledore preparing Harry to carry the mantle.  As we have seen in the past, he is again a father figure to Harry, but no longer is Harry the child he was when the stories began.  He is a young man and so Dumbledore deals with him on somewhat more equal terms.  

Albus Dumbledore: You must be wondering why I brought you here.
Harry Potter: Actually sir, after all these years I just sort of go with it

And not only . In Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, Harry gains possession of a book of potions and sorcery that once belonged to the mysterious Half-Blood Prince.  The book’s multitude of personal notations brings a dark shadow on Harry Potter  too. Only at the end, the film reveals who the half-blood Prince is...As many of you already know, Professor Severus Snape who becomes the Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher, plays a short but  key role.

Role that seem ambiguous at the beginning of the movie and seem explode in evilness in the last part. Severus Snape is bound to a grown up (as all characters after 8 years of adventures) Draco Molfoy who is  called upon by Lord Voldemort  as chosen one for  carrying out a mission which is  simply too big and dangerous for him. Returning to the role of Draco Malfoy, Tom Felton allows, “He has always been envious of Harry’s limelight and his standing in the wizarding world as the ‘Chosen One.’  Now Draco has been given the opportunity to be the ‘Chosen One,’ and he revels in it at first.  I think this is his coming of age, since his father has been put in Azkaban and he is left to redeem the family name.  He wants to prove to the Dark Lord that he is the right man for the job but—more importantly—to make his father proud.”

The task Draco has been charged with is so risky that his mother, Narcissa Malfoy, accompanied by her sister, the malevolent Death Eater Bellatrix Lestrange, truly risks Voldemort's  wrath  by going to the home of Severus Snape to ask him to help her son complete it.  Helen McCrory, who plays  Narcissa Molfoy, relates, “Draco has been asked to fulfill an incredibly dangerous task, and she does not think he is capable of doing it.  Therefore, she betrays what she believes is a true cause in order to secure her son’s safety.  She’s desperate.  In that moment, I think she must be secretly furious with Voldemort—it’s one thing to ask for your loyalty, but it’s another thing to ask for your child’s life.  Narcissa may be a baddie, but she is a good mother.”

Visual effects are enormous even if this film is focused about disembodied darkness and humanity. 

Some examples are the Death Eaters  attacking openly and violently the Muggle world.  As ominous dark clouds swirl over London, swoop out of the clouds and fly through the city, leaving a path of terror and destruction. 

The first  encounter between Harry and Dumbledore is pure urban post gothic decadence. 

And finally the new dark force introduced in the cavern tht hides a  horcrux  , the "Inferi", a group of  undead  are potentially some of the scariest creatures seen in any Harry Potter film.

Romance? Yes, of course. Harry’s friendship with Ginny Weasley is definitely growing into something deeper.

 Ron’s got romantic entanglements with Lavender Brown  leaving Hermione in jealousy . But then, a box of love potion-laced chocolates will indirectly bring again Hermione and Ron close one another.

But the menace of the Horcruxes is impending. The destruction of Lord Voldemort's Horcruxes will be the main theme in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows . Will then the half-blood Prince help?

Rating: 9

dalia di giacomo  13.07.09