6:00 PM, 27th August, 2011
No Guests
In case you somehow missed last semester’s screening of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1, or have been hiding under a large, spoiler-proof rock for the last year, here is your chance to see both parts of the final instalment of the Harry Potter franchise back-to-back at the ANU Film Group.
The first film set completely outside of the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, Deathly Hallows: Part 1 is arguably darker yet more beautiful than its six predecessors. No longer able to rely on the protection of Hogwarts headmaster Dumbledore (Michael Gambon) or the routine of school life, Harry (Radcliffe), Hermione (Watson) and Ron (Grint) are forced to make daunting choices in the struggle against the increasingly powerful Lord Voldemort (Fiennes). Searching for Horcruxes - the key to defeating Voldemort’s immortality – the trio will face challenges both from the outside and within, as they gradually uncover the answers to important questions that have long permeated the series. Where are the remaining Horcruxes? What are the mysterious Deathly Hallows? Did even Dumbledore know how to defeat Voldemort?
With Deathly Hallows: Part 2 following this screening of Part 1, Potter fans can experience the complete culmination of seven books, four directors, countless stars of the British stage and screen and ten years of literal movie magic. Anyone with even the slightest affection for the world’s most famous wizard will undoubtedly want to be here with him, until the very end.
Majella Carmody & Matthew ‘Victor’ Dunn
8:45 PM, 27th August, 2011
No Guests
This is it. The very last, the final, the ultimate instalment of a saga which, when you take the books and films into account, has been unfolding for nearly fifteen years. For some of you, there is no memory of a world without Harry Potter. And when the final film is screened, a few of us will look around and wonder where we are, and what we are going to do in this strange, new, slightly lonely world.
Perhaps we'll go out and buy the Harry Potter cupcake mix, with extra bonus sparkly sugar stars - it really exists - and bake our misery away. Or perhaps we'll simply just watch this film again.
If you've at least taken the trouble to see the previous film (Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1) you'll have found out what the titular Deathly Hallows are, and that Voldemort has just got his hands on one of them. As this film opens, our heroic trio are still on the run, still tracking down and attempting to destroy fragments of Voldemort's soul, and still struggling to grow into adults at the same time. If you really are new to all this and haven't the faintest clue as to what's going on, you're still in a position to enjoy some of the most spectacular set-pieces in the series, leading up to a climactic final battle between, in ring one, Harry and Voldemort, and, in ring two, everyone else.
And then it will end. Perhaps we should start a support group.
Helena Sverdlin & Henry Fitzgerald