J. K. Rowling too

Press conference

J. K. Rowling receives the “H. C. Andersen Literature Award”

In connection with the annual Harry Potter Festival in Odense, Denmark, J. K. Rowling received the first “H.C. Andersen Literature Award” in Odense Concert Hall, Tuesday, October 19, 2010.
The purpose of the award is to pay tribute to Hans Christian Andersen’s influence on writers from all over the world by selecting award winners whose works can be tied to Hans Christian Andersen’s through similarities in genre or narrative qualities.

When Rowling arrived at Odense Concert Hall, she was greeted with standing ovations, screaming fangirls and press photographers going crazy. Later, at the press conference, Rowling admitted that she had only experienced a greeting that massive once before, and that was in Carnegie Hall. She said that it made her feel like one of the Beatles.

The award ceremony in Odense Concert Hall was very moving with Odense Symphony Orchestra performing John Williams’ “Hedwig’s Theme” and Countess Caroline Ahlefeldt-Laurvig-Bille making the nomination speech. The Countess said that what makes Rowling a genuinely extraordinary writer is that she doesn’t pretend that the world we live in is plain sailing. Even wizards experience times of crisis and injustice and that helps the reader identify with Harry Potter.
“Who has not mourned Dubledore’s death,” the Countess said, “or marvelled at The Mirror of Erised or laughed at the pranks of the Weasley twins?”
But – as the Countess pointed out – Rowling’s greatest achievement is that her life has broken all imaginable boundaries and in that way inspired millions of children and adults.

Her Royal Highness Princess Marie presented the award to J. K. Rowling, an award consisting of £50,000 and a very heavy bronze sculpture of Hans Christian Andersen’s ”The Ugly Duckling” which the Princess and the Writer tried to lift up in vain. The merriment that this caused was prolonged when Rowling nodded at a ginger female violinist in the Odense Symphony Orchestra and said, “You really know how to make me feel welcome. I see that one of the Weasley cousins is in the orchestra.”

Rowling now thanked for the award, saying that she was humbled and deeply honoured to receive it. She didn’t presume to compare her Harry Potter books with Hans Christian Andersen’s stories that have lasted two centuries, but she admired that Hans Christian Andersen was not afraid to depict cruelty and pain. She said that the true dilemmas of childhood are the dilemmas of the whole of life: those of belonging and betrayal, of the power of the group and the courage it takes to be an individual. That is why writing that succeeds with children often succeeds just as well with adults.

After the ceremony, Rowling did a 15 minutes press conference in which she told the press that at the moment she is writing all the things that she didn’t have the time to write while she was working on the Harry Potter series, but she wouldn’t rule out that she would write a HP8 in ten years time. She said that ever since she was a child, she had had a need to write and that she was happy that her wealth had made it possible for her give money to charities, especially to research in multiple sclerosis, the disease from which her mother died. She told the press that she has a good relationship to the cast of Harry Potter and that she had never met people nicer, more intelligent and well-adjusted than the young actors. Finally she admitted, that she had never read Stephenie Meyer’s “Twilight” series and that her favourite Hans Christian Andersen fairy tale is “The Brave Tin Soldier”.

Upon leaving the Concert Hall, Rowling walked to the Hans Christian Andersen Museum. On her route, young actors from the Hans Christian Andersen Parade acted out scenes from Hans Christian Andersen’s fairy tales. After visiting the museum so went to Odense Town Square where the annual Harry Potter Festival took place. The square had turned into Diagon Alley complete with Ollivander’s, The Daily Prophet, Eeylops Owl Emporium, The Leaky Cauldron and Quality Quidditch Supplies. J. K. Rowling signed autographs while the chimes of Odense Cathedral played “Hedwig’s Theme”.

Rowling then went inside the Town Hall to read from her Harry Potter books to children aged 8-14. She answered a few questions as well, telling the kids that the person she identifies with in Harry Potter is Hermione. She finished her visit to Odense with lunch with the notabilities of the city.

Toy Story 3

In Toy Story 3 Woody, Buzz and the rest of Andy’s toys are mistakenly delivered to Sunnyside Daycare center instead of the attic right before Andy leaves for college. Andy’s toys are welcomed in the Butterfly Room of the center by the strawberry scented bear Lotso and his companions Big Baby and Ken, but although Barbie finds a home (and love) with Ken, the rest of Andy’s toys soon find out that the daycare is run like a prison by Lotso and his companions. Buzz and the rest of Andy’s toys are ”deported” to the Carterpillar Room, occupied by toddlers who plays rather roughly with the toys, and Buzz & Co. realise that they are not going to survive long there. The toys now plan their great escape which is to be the nervewrecking highlight of the movie.

Toy Story 3 is directed by Lee Unkrick and written by John Lasseter, Andrew Stanton and Lee Unkrich (screenplay by Michael Arndt). I’ve never been a huge fan of the Toy Story movies, well, I liked the first one and disliked the second, but this third one is just brilliant. It is funny, scary and emotional (people actually cried in the cinema) and you get to know the characters a lot better than in previous Toy Story movies.

Toy Story 3 appeals to kids and adults alike, although if you’re an adult, you’ll probably enjoy it even more because you’ll catch all the references. There are load and loads of references to other movies and TV-serie; The Bridge on the River Kwai, Happy Days, Return of the Jedi, Jurrasic Park, Cool Hand Luke and Monsters Inc. just to mention a few. It really is hilarious, although most kids won’t get these references and in fact the movie is a little too scary at times. I brough my 11 year old to see it and she found several scenes quite upsetting, not to mention Big Baby who really scared her, but in the end she too was bowled over by the story and the characters, wanting to see it again.

As usual Tom Hanks stars as the voice of Woody and Tim Allen as the voice of Buzz, the latter being hysterically funny when Buzz is set to speak and act in Spanish. Michael Keaton, too, is hilarious as Ken, and the rest of the cast is wonderful as well.

So far Toy Story 3 is the best animated movie I have seen this year - even the 3D works well - so I’ll give it four out of five stars: ****

Joe Matera: Travellin’ West

Travellin’ West is a new instrumental solo release written and performed by the Australian guitarist Joe Matera.

Most people know Joe Matera’s electric six string guitar sound from Australian rock outfit Geisha, but this new acoustic release shows new sides to the guitarist without leaving out any of his signature trademarks; melody, taste and style.

Matera plays all the guitars on this beautifully played and produced release. The interplay of acoustic and classical guitars is both powerful and very melodic and the harmonies are beautiful and spot on with a melancholy, subdued quality that seems almost hypnotic.

Travellin’ West is Recorded at Dragon's Lair Studios, Melbourne, Australia with Chris Doheny handling production duties. It is released through Mercury Fire Music and available as a digital single download through iTunes. Visit www.joematera.com for further information.

OFF 10

The annual OFF (Odense International Film Festival) took place in August 23-28. This year the festival celebrated its 25 anniversary, as although it was founded in 1975, it was a bi-annual event during its first years, making 2010 the year in which the 25 festival took place here in Odense, Denmark

OFF is a festival concentrating on short films, animations and documentaries with contributions from Iceland in the North to Australia in the South and from South Korea in the East to the USA in the West. The festival is free and apart from the film award competition it also includes a lot of other stuff such as free concerts, open air screenings, seminars, talent camp etc. etc., but like other years I concentrated on the films.

With so many great films to chose from, it was hard to pick a favourite and I must admit that I had quite a few. One was the Australian ”Franswa Sharl” by Hannah Hilliard about twelve year old Greg who enters a beauty contest for girls in order to win his father’s respect! Another was the French ”Logorama” by Francois Alaux, Hervé de Crécy and Ludovic Houplain which – through its use of logos - told a spectacular tale of Ronald McDonald’s dark side. A third one was the French ”The Little Dragon” by Bruno Collet about a Bruce Lee action figure coming to life. The Norwegian ”The Fight” by Keio and Dag Aastein deserves a mention, too. Very Norwegian and very, very funny!

This year’s winners of the festival were not among my favourites, though. The winner of the international competition was the German ”A Lost And Found Box Of Human Sensation” by Martin Wallner and Stefan Leuchtenberg - a rather muddled animation about how to cope with death. I guess it won because Ian McKellen and Joseph Fiennes had lent their voices to the animation!
The winner of the animation competition was the Norwegian ”Angry Man” by Anita Killi, a pretty pathetic film about a violent father. The audience award went to the Danish ”Out Of Love” by Birgitte Staermose, a film about children in Kosovo.
In my opinion all three films won because they were ”political correct” and that bothers me a bit. All the crazy, funny, strange and innovative stuff didn’t have a chance this year. Too bad, but at least the majority of the films were of a more interesting substance than the winners.

When that is said, it wasn’t the biggest problems with the festival this year. The biggest problems were the same as last year: too little room and too lousy technical skills.
Like last year, the festival suffered from lack of room. The screenings take place in three small cinemas - one has only room for 50 people – and when thousands of people from all over the world come to watch the screenings, more often than not they can’t find room, especially as many screenings are pre-booked by schools! Then, if you finally find a seat, the cinema equipment is outdated, and many screenings were cancelled as the cinemas weren’t able to show the films in the proper formats.
Of course you can see all of the films at the festival video bar, but again, here you have to pre-book and often there are no slots available. I guess it’s about time that OFF realises that it has grown too big for the three little cinemas and that it is time to move on to bigger venues.

One last thing: each year OFF has a special event called “The Old Theatre”. This is a must! The cinema theatre screens old silent movies to the divine piano accompaniment by composer Lars Fjeldmose and the funny insights by the ever so witty and knowledgeable film historian Ulrich Breuning. This year “The Old Theatre” screened “La Première Séance” (France, 1895), “The Lion Hunt (Denmark, 1907), “The Woman Always Pays” (Denmark, 1910) and “Battleship Potemkin” (USSR 1925), but like last year something went wrong and we had to leave the theatre without seeing the ending (and Asta Nielsen’s very sensual dance!) in “The Woman Always Pays”. That’s not good enough, OFF!!

I will of course be back at the OFF festival next year, but I do hope that they’ll have done something to get rid of their problems and not just ignore them like they have done the previous 2 years. On that (happy? no!) note, I congratulate OFF to its 25 anniversary. See you next year.