Harry Potter Festival 2015

 The 13^th Harry Potter Festival in Odense, Denmark, took place Friday the 16^th and Saturday the 17^th of October. Odense Central Library, Odense Municipality and Odense City arranged the festival that usually lasts a full week, but not this year.

Originally, the festival was all about Hogwarts. During the week, kids were able to attend classes in Hogwarts (Odense town hall) and in the weekend, there was a Diagon Alley/Hogsmeade market for everyone in the town hall square. Then five years ago, J. K. Rowling visited the festival and since then Hogwarts has been closed and the market activities scattered all over town, so that you no longer get the feeling of entering a magic world as you have to travel through the Muggle world to get from location to location. Furthermore, most of the events are now aimed at the three to eight year olds and some like the Hogwarts Express ride are totally off limits if you are over fourteen. It seems weird as the Harry Potter core audience consists of youngsters aged eleven to seventeen and it also prevents the original Harry Potter fans who are now in their late twenties in participating.

When that is said, the Odense Harry Potter Festival is probably still the biggest and the best in the world with over ten thousand visitors and more than thirty events and activities in thirteen different locations all over town. Although Hogwarts, the core and heart of the festival, is gone, I must admit that I still find it difficult to keep away, even when I want to! As you may remember, I swore last year that from now on I would only visit a single one of the festival locations, as the festival as such was drowning in age limits, long queues and steep prices. Still I was back this year, this time with my daughter and her friend. The locations were too far apart for us to visit them all and we were all too old to visit many of them anyway, so we ended up going to only six locations in all.

We started out in Diagon Alley in Vintapperstraede (Tapster Alley), but that was a bit of a disappointment as most of the shops had moved away. The only ones still left were Gringotts Wizarding Bank, Weasley’s Wizard Wheezes and Madam Malkin’s Robes for All Occasions. We couldn’t get into Gringotts or Madam Malkin’s as both places were too crowded and WWW was just pathetic. George was alone in the shop, as we have never had a Fred at the festival, but instead of doing tricks, he operated a Wheel of Fortune and organised ring toss and hit the can for children who could then win prices. It had nothing to do with Weasley’s Wizard Wheezes at all.

The rest of the shops in Diagon Alley were occupied by the Care of Magical Creatures class, the Mirror of Erised and a small Maze. There were also a Tipsy Toad Pub, a Merlin’s Workshop and a Pumpkin Workshop, but of course, these places had as little to do with the Harry Potter universe as George’s Wheel of Fortune! Apart from George, we ran into Luna Lovegood, Kingsley Shacklebolt and quite a few dementors in Diagon Alley instead of the usual baddies like the Malfoy family or Bellatrix Lestrange who are known to hang out there.

We left Diagon Alley quite early and were lucky to find an affiliated Gringotts bank in the nearby Jernbanegade (Railway Street). Here we bought five hundred Galleon for DDK 30/£3 each from some rather intimidating goblins before we headed towards our next destination, Madam Puddifoot in the Brandts 13 Museum a little further down the street.

First I said hello to my friend Minerva McGonagall who ran a Harry Potter quiz for kids at the museum and then we went to see the two Hogwarts rooms on the ground floor. One was a room with an amazing Goblet of Fire complete with an Age Line. It was by far the most stunning thing at the entire festival.

The other room was called The Fat Lady’s Room and here the Fat Lady resided with Dobby, who apparently is now her house elf! There was a toilet on the ground floor as well, boasting that this was the home of Moaning Myrtle, but if that was the case, she wasn’t in when we visited it.

Upstairs we finally found Madam Puddifoot’s, a very big and pink three-room tea salon where we bought a glass of lemonade and a chocolate biscuit for one hundred Galleons. We were lucky to get a table as the salon was well attended and even the Fat Lady came by to stuff herself with cake while we were there.

Leaving Madam Puddifoot’s, we ran into Professor Snape and as always, he was rather sinister, but also strangely kind. At least he posed for me for a photo and gave me a thumbs-up afterwards! We then went to the Magic Market in Graabroedre Plads (Grey Friars Square) and on our way we meet several groups of pretty Beauxbatons Veelas.

When we reached the Magic Market, our third destination, it was so crowded that we could hardly move. Most of the shops from Diagon Alley had relocated to the market square, so Eeylops Owl Emporium was there along with the Daily Prophet and Ollivanders. St. Mungo’s had also moved to the market and so had The Forbidden Forrest and even Snape’s Potion class! We didn’t see any of the usual good guys at the market like Professor Dumbledore, Hagrid or Mad-Eye Moody, but instead there were several trolls and Death Eaters and even Lord Voldemort who ended up posing for a selfie with my daughter!

Because of the crowds at the market, we hurried on to the fourth location, Smedestraede (Blacksmith Alley), where both The Leaky Cauldron and Honeydukes were situated. It was a bit of a walk and it felt very odd having to go through the ordinary Muggle world to get there. In any case, we paid one hundred Galleons for a glass of butterbeer in the picturesque Leaky Cauldron and as we were the only ones in the pub, we sat down at the long table to play a game of Kalaha and read the Daily Prophet. It was quite nice, but unfortunately the butterbeer was no good. The Leaky Cauldron usually has the best butterbeer, but this year it tasted of cold apple cider with caramel and whipped cream. Yuk! My daughter and her friend couldn’t even finish their glasses.

Opposite The Leaky Cauldron we stood in line to Honeydukes for quite a while. We have never had a Honeydukes at the festival before, so I was curious how that would be and let me tell you straight away that it wasn’t half as magic as in the Harry Potter books and films! Four teenage girls stood behind a table and sold candy at fifty Galleons a piece and then there were tables where you could sit and manufacture your own wrapping for your Bertie Bott’s Every Flavour Beans and Chocolate Frogs. Honeydukes also sold Liquorice Wands, Exploding Lollipops and some kind of toffee, but the toffee was sold out when we arrived, so I’m not sure what it was.

From Honeydukes we had to enter the Muggle world again to reach the fifth location, the Library of Local History on Klosterbakken (Monastery Hill). Here the Whomping Willow was placed in the courtyard and the kids were able to play Magic Minecraft featuring the Triwizard Tournament Maze on the ground floor of the building. Upstairs was the Restricted Section of the Hogwarts Library along with Flourish & Blotts and a toilet with some fancy Harry Potter graffiti. The Restricted Section was a bit boring, but in Flourish & Blotts we met a young, handsome Gilderoy Lockhart and his two giggling, blonde assistants.

Behind the library building, I was sorry to see that what used to be Snape’s dungeons had been turned into a haunt for dragon handlers. Both my daughter and I have spent many happy hours in the dungeons with Snape, chatting and making potions, but now the potions were replaced with a dragon tattoo shop and Snape with a dragon skull!

From the haunt, we were able to see the sixth and final location, Eventyrhaven (Fairy Tale Garden), with its usual Quidditch pitch and Quality Quidditch Supplies, but as nobody was playing Quidditch when we were there, we took a free bus back home. Even the busses seemed to be in Harry Potter mode as the back of the bus was decorated with the Hogwarts crest.

All in all, we spent three hours going to the six locations, but if we had been allowed to visit all of the locations and events, we could probably have spent a lot more time (and money) at the festival. The things that we missed out on this year due to the age limit were the Hogwarts Express, the Beauxbatons Academy of Magic, a Daily Prophet journalist school and a Madam Malkin’s Robes workshop. We didn’t get to attend the Harry Potter film marathon at The Great Hall or the Harry Potter Concert with Odense Symphony Orchestra either, as both things were too expensive and finally we didn’t get to go to the Hogwarts Ball for students aged 16+ as nobody asked us. It was billed as the event of the year and I think it was. At least the original Harry Potter fans were allowed to attend this ball along with all young and old adults and they had dinner and drinks (alcohol if you were over eighteen only) and danced until 2 a.m. It sounded magic. Therefore, if you’re a Hogwarts guy (preferably Ravenclaw like myself or maybe Gryffindor?) and you need a partner for next year’s ball, you now know who to ask!

Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials

“Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials” or “Maze Runner 2” as it is commonly known, is Wes Ball’s screen versions of James Dasher’s second novel in his young-adult, post-apocalyptic, science fiction “The Maze Runner” book series. My teenage daughter accompanied me to the cinema to see this 132 minutes long, PG-13 rated film like she had done last year with the first Maze Runner-film, but this time our roles were reversed. Where she had loved the first one and I had been a little reserved, I loved this sequel whereas she was not impressed.

The story begins where we left the six surviving Gladers in the first film, in a helicopter on the way away from the maze. The six, Thomas (Dylan O'Brien), Minho (Ki Hong Lee), Teresa (Kaya Scodelario), Newt (Thomas Brodie-Sangster), Frypan (Dexter Darden) and Winston (Alexander Flores) arrive at a mysterious facility run by Mr. Janson (Aidan Gillen) in the deserted outside world called the Scorch. Here Thomas makes a horrifying discovery with his new friend Aris (Jacob Lofland), so our young heroes escape the facility and have to survive the trials of the Scorch in the attempt to reach the resistance group The Right Arm in the mountains. The trials include troops from the powerful organization WCKD run by Ava Paige (Patricia Clarkson), the zombifying Flare virus, the Cranks who are people zombified by the Flare and then of course thunderstorms, drugs and bounty hunters! On their way, they meet Brenda (Rosa Salazar) and Jorge (Giancarlo Esposito) who help them along and there is a wonderful although short appearance by Lili Taylor as Mary.

I found this second instalment in The Maze Runner film series much more thrilling and action-packed than the first and to me there wasn’t a dull moment. I also really liked the acting of especially Giancarlo Esposito and Thomas Brodie-Sangster and to be honest there was hardly anything I didn’t like. Maybe our young hero Thomas has become a bit too heroic and too much of a superman and maybe the title “The Scorch Trials” is a bit misleading as the youngsters seem to spend less time in The Scorch than elsewhere and the trials are few and repetitious, but these are minor objections. I guess what annoyed me the most was that the zombified Cranks were able to screech and run very fast. I am from a time when zombies only groaned and walked very slow so you could always outrun them, but that is not the case anymore, my daughter assured me. And that brings us back to why our roles as viewers were reversed this time.

You see, the first film “The Maze Runner” was more or less a rip-off of “Lord of the Flies”, Nobel Prize-winning William Golding’s brilliant 1954-novel that has been filmed several times. I know and love this book (and the early film version), but my daughter does not and that made “The Maze Runner” new and exciting to her. “Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials” on the other hand is a rip-off of the American TV-series “The Walking Dead” (2010- ) of which my daughter is an avid fan, but as I have never seen it, the Maze Runner sequel was exciting to me.

I’m not sure if it is a good idea to rip-off other people’s work instead of stay true to your source, but that is what Wes Ball does in this film. The action has very little to do with the plot in James Dasher’s novel, but a lot to do with “The Walking Dead”. It is up to you if you take this as a warning or a recommendation. It worked for me, so I’ll give “Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials” three and a half out of five stars: ***½. 

 

OFF15 – Odense International Film Festival

This year Odense International Film Festival celebrated its 40th anniversary. On the 24. – 30. August international short films and animated shorts could be seen for free in the two cinemas at Café Biografen here in Odense, Denmark, and people came from all over the world to take part. I remember when there used to be documentaries in the film festival competitions as well, but not anymore, so this year we had to make do with only three competition categories, namely the main category, animated shorts and Danish short films. Still, more than 101 short films from 36 different countries competed and many other activities took place during the festival.

In past years I have complained about it being impossible to get a seat at the screenings, as only schools were able to book seats, and not the general audience or press. As the two cinemas only seat 50 to 100 people each, the general audience was therefore turned away at the door, if schools had booked, which was rather annoying, especially if you’d been hired to review the films! This year everyone was able to book seats in advance, though, so I got to see what I wanted and I even had my daughter with me for two of the screenings.

There were many good short films and animations this year and here are the winners:

Winners of the main competition: The International Grand Prix (The HCA Award): “Over” by Jörn Threlfall, England.  The International Storyteller Award: “Leidi” by Simon Mesa Soto, Colombia. The International Artist Award: “Rearranged” by Ewa Górzna, Finland. Special Mention: “Discipline” by Christophe M. Saber, Switzerland.
Winners of the Danish competition: The Danish Grand Prix: “Mommy” Milad Alami, Sweden/Denmark. FilmFyn Talent Award: “Our Fathers’ Sons” by Ulaa Salim, Denmark.
Winners of the animation competition: Boerge Ring Award: ”Dinner for few” by Nassos Vakalis, USA. Animation Talent Award: “No man’s land” by David Adler, Denmark
Other winners: The Audience Award: “Our Fathers´ Sons” by Ulaa Salim, Denmark. The Youth Film Award: “Antiman” by Gavin Ramoutar, Guyana. The Robert short film Award: “Mommy” by Milad Alami, Denmark.

My personal favourite film was the crazy, hilarious “Very Lonely Cock”, which was only represented in the animation category and didn’t win a thing. In fact, none of the films that I liked won anything, as the ones that won were most often very bleak, harsh and violent, dealing with heavy social problems. To me it felt as if the juries of the competitions had completely forgotten that this is a film festival for fantastic short films; at least they didn’t reward fantasy, magic and imagination at all.

Had I been in the jury, I would have picked “Splintertime” by Mr. Rosto, Belgium/France/Netherlands, as the winner of the main competition. I would have had “All Your Favourite Shows!” by Danny Madden, USA, winning the Storyteller Award, “Seven times a day we bemoan our lot and at night we get up to avoid dreaming” by Susann Marie Hempel, Germany, winning the Artists Award and “Klementhro” by Sue Dunham, Canada, getting a special mention. As for the Danish competition, I think it should have been won by “Whole” by William Reynish with “Fibers” by Nynne Steen Mors winning the talent award. As winners of the animation competition, I would have picked “Very Lonely Cock” by Leonid Shmelkov, Russia, with “Aubade” by Mauro Carraro, Switzerland, winning the talent award. Finally, I would have loved if “La Fleche Delta” by Francesco Vecchi, France/Italy, “Benedito Machine V – Pull the Trigger” by Jossie Malis, Spain and “Vagabond” by Pedro Carvalho, Denmark or “Tsunami” by Sofie Kampmark, Denmark, had won the additional awards.

The magic lacked in the award winning films this year, but I found it elsewhere, especially in OFF Junior and the Focus Programmes. The Focus Programmes consisted of “everything else” that was going on in connection with OFF, like screenings of old silent movies, open air feature films (like “The Rocky Horror Picture Show”, “2001 – A Space Odyssey” and “Birdman” to mention a few), talks with directors and actors, dance, yoga, concerts, food etc. OFF Junior on the other hand was the screening of children’s short films, feature films and TV series. I went to see the OFF Junior programme “Best OFF Buster 3+”, but when I reached the cinema, so many schools with 8 and 9 year old children had booked seats that the venue had decided to alter the screening to a programme for kids who were 8+ instead of 3+. When I told the staff that I’d booked a seat in order to write about the 3+ programme, he (there was only one!) quickly found another venue in the nearby Student House where he screened the programme for me. A few parents with young kids tagged along and we had a great time as the kids could sit/lie on pillows on the floor. The four animated shorts were great as well, especially the funny and surprising “Pawo” by Antje Heyn, Germany, and the cute and beautiful “The Tie” by An Vrombaut, Belgium. The kids seemed to go for “The Little Bird and the Squirrel” by Lena von Döhren, Switzerland, though.

Anyway, I found the service of the young guy in the staff who arranged this special screening quite magic. Thank you so much! I’ll be back next year, when it’s my 30th anniversary as a film critic!