Monday, March 28, 2005

The translation of the Premiere article
The following is a translation of the Premiere article featuring Harry Potter and The Goblet of Fire.
This is courtesy of Basile from Poudlard.org. Thanks! ;)
Premiere magazine article translation, courtesy of Fawkes from Poudlard.org :

Go ahead, come in.
Two massive wooden doors, 16 feet 8 inches high, 12 inches thick you'd better be Hagrid if you want to push them and we enter the Holy of Holies: The Great Hall, built in a permanent structure with real stones, a real floor, real walls. The real Great Hall, in a word.

Long, silvery curtains remain hung to the floor, three painters are painting over in white to erase the decoration of one night.

We've just filmed the Yule Ball scenes. You should have seen them dancing the waltz, how exited they were ... The girls couldn't stop talking about what they would wear for days. ("Why can't I have the lovely dress she wears"?). We've known them as kids, and now they're growing up, they're falling in love with one another, that's very moving.

The big doors are now closed. The walk to Jany's workroom goes on. The Weasley's huge, yellow tent house, the one used for the quidditch world cup, had pride of place in a corner, a real hippie capharnaum you could mistake with a stand of self made products from the Agriculture Fair. On the D set, through the cracks in a door maintained by chains and padlocks, you can see the lake where the underwater scenes were shot.

The graveyard.
It's a fabulous set built 6 feet and 7 inches above the ground, which is entirely based on scaffoldings. We take a small footpath on a slope and we emerge among dozens of centenary tombstones. Here will take place the famous duel between Harry and Voldemort, central pillar of the story and, from me to you, of the whole J.K. Rowling series. As an anecdote, please take a note that the names written on the tombstones are the staff technicians, to avoid copyright problems in case of a person recognizing himself.

What about Voldemort?
It will be a great moment. Nobody apart from Ralf Fiennes could have had the part ... K, that will do.

The costumes.
Let's begin with Harry. He needed a new costume for the tournament and, of course, I wanted it to be as casual as it was with the previous film. In black and red, the Hogwarts' Rastignac will start the competition as he would have entered a ring. Just as if the aggressivity had risen.
Here, it's Mad Eye Moody, the new defence against the dark arts teacher. I really enjoyed myself creating a warrior like style, a man for action who knows exactly what life is composed of. Leather jacket like Mad Max under a long cow-boy coat: mad eye will have everything of the loony adventurer ready to shoot at the first unpleasant word.
Ah! Rita Skeeter, the poisonous journalist! Thus the green colour of this sexy little costume she's in when she has Harry in a cupboard. She had to appear through the eye of a young boy discovering what feminity is. The other costume is for the tournament. Can you see the little dragon tail behind? Nice, isn't it? To lay down her executive woman style, I chose the 80s period. Closer from us, there is the little Malfoy style, very Prada like, black turtleneck and suit, more son of rich parents than ever. And lots of women clothes, that seems a little bit older ...

The uniforms of the young French students from Beauxbatons whose head is our fellow patriot Clemence Poesy (Fleur Delacour), will set Hogwarts on fire. It's better if I tell you on the spot that this film is mostly dedicated to the awakening of sexuality, but it won't be emphasised. Hence the references to the 30s. It's very feminine, but it shows nothing. It remains a dawning.

About Jany being given the job of costume maker for the fourth film:
To convince Mike, I had to pass an oral exam which lasted four hours, show him my book, speak about my ideas. He could decide between keeping me or not. He, like J.K. Rowling, saw every single costume I'd made, gave his opinion. Normal.

But they weren't the only ones. Our wardrobe mistress had to take into account the opinions of these children as they become older. It's a little more difficult for it is sometimes completely irrational.

They're lovely, our babies, but it's over, you can't suggest them anything and everything. Take Emma, for instance, who is known to have a temper, she will never wear clothes she doesn't like. Impossible!

No comments: