HBP Premiere in Zurich

[swissmarg]

Last night was the night! The much-awaited premiere of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince in Zurich. I uploaded my pictures here if you want to take a look, here are just a couple:

The red carpet outside the Arena Filmcity theater at Sihlcity in Zurich.

Evanna Lynch, who plays Luna Lovegood, signing autographs.

Matthew Lewis, who plays Neville Longbottom, pausing for directions on the red carpet.

And now on to the show!

When we arrived at 6pm, there was a small crowd outside the theater, mostly lining the red carpet walkway. Since we had tickets, we went right in to the theater, where there was an apéro underway. They were passing out free orange juice, mineral water, and hors-d'oeuvres like tuna wraps, mini-sandwiches, and spoonfuls of curry salad. Peter spent the entire time chowing down, while I went and took up a position at the end of the red carpet to try and get good shots when the stars came in.

The stars arrived around 6:30, and spent a long time outside being interviewed for Swiss TV. I probably could have gotten better shots if I had stayed outside, but oh well. We could see the interviews on a big screen inside the lobby, but we couldn't hear anything. Then around 6:50, the stars came in. First was Sven Epiney, the Swiss TV moderator. He signed a couple of autographs, then went up to the VIP lounge at the top of the stairs.

Then came Matt Lewis. He took his time, signed lots of autographs, posed for lots of pictures with fans along the way, but his handlers were pushing him to move on because they were running behind schedule. He was really easy-going, though, nice, friendly, smiling, seemed to be really down-to-earth and just enjoying himself.

Then came Evanna Lynch, and it was the same with her. She tried to accomodate as many autograph-seekers and fans for pictures as she could, but the handlers were hurrying her down the row. I had a really hard time getting a shot of her that was in focus for some reason, so I could only get ones where she was looking down. :-( She had on a cute black and white polka dot minidress with amazing 4-inch heel black strappy sandals. And in her hair, she had a blue butterfly clip. Her hair is really that amazing long and blond. Nearly everyone else has their hair different in real life than in the movies, but she looked just like Luna in real life. :-)

Once they were ushered up to the VIP lounge, I went and turned in my camera and phone because that was part of the rules, so no one could take pictures or record during the movie. However, we still weren't allowed to go up to the screening rooms yet because there was a slow-down with the metal detectors, so we were all just waiting there right next to the VIP area and I thought, I can try to get a good picture of Evanna, so I ran back down and got my camera back, then tried a few more times to get a good shot, but there was just always someone in the way, and eventually they made an announcement that everyone had to go up now, so I re-checked my camera and went back to wait for the escalator. It still took another 7 minutes or so before we could go up.

There were two separate screening rooms, and we were in the one at the back.

We all had to be checked with a metal detector wand and have our bags searched, and then we could go in. We finally got into the screening room at 7:35. 

We had excellent seats, J21 and 22, about 8 rows back and right in the middle. Once everyone was seated, Sven Epiney came in and gave a little introduction and announced that the showing would be in German because this was a 'family showing' (there were quite a few kids in attendance), and then Matthew Lewis and Evanna Lynch came in. Sven conducted an interview with them, speaking English to them and then translating their answers back into German for the audience. He was really quick and good, although his English was not perfect, and once Evanna even needled him, when he said 'Are you still stingle?' instead of 'single'. That was pretty funny.

Anyway, first he asked Matt about being in Zurich. Matt said it was his first time in Switzerland, and it was a beautiful country. They had just arrived the day before, and had spent the day on a cruise around Lake Zurich. He had also visited the FIFA headquarters in Zurich, but had not been able to meet Sepp Blatter, so he would have a reason to come back. He is a big football fan and follows Leeds, although he is not too happy with their performance this year so far.

Then Sven asked him a prepared question about filming HBP. Matt told about the Slug Club scene, where they were filming a dinner. They had to eat a big bowl of chocolate ice cream, and it took about 20 takes. Every time, he had to eat a lot of the ice cream, and by the end, he was feeling really sick. I always thought that when actors filmed an eating scene, they never actually swallowed, but just chewed and spit out. But I guess not.

Then Sven asked Evanna about her first audition. She said she was really excited about it, and had to wait along with everyone else about 4 hours for her turn. She just did a reading, and then when she got called back, she did a reading with Dan Radcliffe. She was completely starstruck and couldn't believe she was standing next to him, because she'd always just imagined him as someone up on the screen. She said she had to poke him a few times to see if he was real.

Sven then asked Matt about his bracelets. He was wearing about 20 rubber bracelets. He said he always wears them, but he had to take them off for the premiere in London because the cuffs of the shirt he was wearing wouldn't fit over them. But they are just from different things, one is from a charity event and another is from the Heinecken brewery in Amsterdam. He said he was a big beer drinker. Sven asked Evanna if she thought he looked cool with the bracelets, and she said yes, so he took one off and gave it to her.

Then Sven said some members of the audience had a question for them, namely if they were single or if they had a boyfriend or girlfriend. (This is where he stumbled and said the 'still stingle' line.) Both said they were single, and Matt added that he'd seen some really pretty Swiss girls so far, so you never know what might happen.

Then Sven asked Evanna about her first meeting with J.K. Rowling. Evanna said she was in a dressing room, getting her makeup on, and Tom Felton (who plays Draco Malfoy) came in and asked her to sign a book for him, which she thought was weird because she was wondering why he wanted her autograph, but then J.K. Rowling came in right behind him, and Evanna was so excited, she said she didn't know what to do, but she must have just screamed and jumped up and down. It was so amazing to meet her, because she was the creator of this whole thing that so many people are involved in now.

Finally, Sven asked what their schedules looked like next. Matt said they were off to Belgium tomorrow for the next premiere, but he said he'd been assured that Swiss chocolate is better than Belgian. Then he is off until he starts filming Deathly Hallows in October.

Evanna said she would be filming in August already, a scene at a wedding where she will be a guest and wearing a yellow dress. (I think we all know what scene she means!)

Then Sven thanked them and they got a big round of applause as they left, I assume to go over to the other screening room.

There were 2 commercials shown, one for the local commuter paper 20 minutes and the other I don't remember. And then the showing began. There were no previews, which was kind of disappointing because there are often awesome previews at premieres, but I guess they didn't have anything else they wanted to promote.

Okay, I tried to take notes throughout the movie because I have a terrible memory, and I am working on typing everything up, but it's going to be really long, so I will just post a shorter review here:

 

I went into this movie with mixed expectations. On the one hand, I hadn't liked any of the trailers or advance press that the movie had gotten. I thought it was going to be silly and disjointed, and that it was going to focus on teenage romance and be embarrassing. On the other hand, I had heard that some of the pre-screening reviews gave it fairly good reviews, finding it funny, and I had basically enjoyed all of the other 5 Harry Potter movies, even though many people hadn't found them that good. So I was pretty open going into it.

 

The movie certainly ended up exceeding any expectations I had for it. I was entertained for the full two-and-a-half hours, and beyond. I laughed out loud, I applauded, I cried, I was emotionally touched. There were deeper themes that were woven throughout, such as the nature of trust, friendship, love, and the convergence of reality and what we perceive reality to be. Okay, I don't want to make this too rave of a review, because there were certainly things I could nitpick, but in my opinion, this was not only the most entertaining of the 6 Harry Potter movies to date, but also the first one that was really a movie worth watching independent of the books.

 

My husband, who has never read a single Harry Potter book and kept referring to Dumbledore as 'Gandalf' and Snape as 'the black guy', said he understood nearly everything and really liked it. Which is about par for the course, no matter what movie he watches, so I don't think anything he might have found confusing was due to a lack on the part of the scriptwriter.

 

The movie was very true to the original book; nearly every scene in the movie was also in the book, with one major exception, the attack on the Burrow. Of course a large amount was left out, and some scenes had slight changes, such as it was Luna who found Harry under the Invisibility Cloak after Draco smashed his nose, rather than Tonks. Or that Ginny accompanied Harry to the Room of Hidden Things to hide the Potions book, whereas in the book he went alone. There is one major, major change at the very end that I won't give away, but I will say that it affected the entire interpretation (although not outcome) of the ending of the movie, and made the theme of trust that much stronger. It was really powerful, and I thought actually better than how it was in the book.

 

The biggest lack I would say, which my husband said too, was that the movie did not finish the story. It ends with Harry saying he is going to go find the rest of the Horcruxes, and leaves Snape's loyalty up in the air. Which is how the book ended, too, but as this movie should be able to be viewed as an individual piece, it is a big piece that is missing not to have the satisfaction of a real ending.

 

There were also a couple of WTF moments, like what was going on with Bellatrix's teeth, why was Neville invited to the Slug Club dinner but then had to serve hors-d'oeuvres at the Christmas party, who shampooed Snape's hair, and what was up with those creepy twin girls? Also, the bezoar was never adequately explained; I don't think if you hadn't read the book you'd know what that was nor how Harry knew about it.

 

As to the actors, the one who impressed me most Rupert Grint. He showed a real range of emotion and was very funny. Dan Radcliffe still came across as very stiff to me for most of the movie, but really opened up during the Felix Felicis scene: it was like watching a whole different actor. Jessie Cave was delightfully ditzy as Lavender Brown, and Jim Broadbent a pleasure as Professor Slughorn.

 

I have to leave one entire paragraph for Alan Rickman because he is a god. Every scene he was in, he dominated. He only gets better with age and experience. I could have watched him all night. As I mentioned above, his hair looked like it'd been Vidal Sassoon'ed, which was a shame (what is Snape without greasy hair?), but the tailored button-down robes were to die for. I just ... gah, it makes me want to write a fan fiction, I just love him.

 

On the other hand, I found it weird that Tonks and Lupin were even in the movie. In fact, their parts could have been dropped entirely without any loss. Fred and George didn't have much, either, but their store alone is worth going to the movie to see, and I wish there'd been more screen time devoted to it. I also loved the interpretation of the Burrow as something out of M.C. Escher's pen.

 

And finally, my favorite line in the whole movie (I think, since it was in German, but I think in English Ron said): "So, Harry, did you and Ginny do it?" LOLZ! I guess you had to be there...