Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince?

Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince is a Harry Potter Movie for those who haven’t read Harry Potter.

I know…. Big thing to say. Totally honest too. And considering I have just read the book, and watched the film twice in a week (both in English and Spanish), I can consider myself an authority on this matter. Thus, this critic.

So, yes, I liked it, found it really entertaining. Absolutely wonderful at times, funny in many moments (Harry in Felicis is utterly hilarious), but strikingly confusing and disappointing in many others.

WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD.

For those of us who have read the book, well, honestly, if you’re looking forward a faithful reproduction you will be disappointed. HP & The Half Blood Prince is a sugar coated version of the book with missing scenes and added ones that leaves us, faithful-freak-HP-readers asking for much more. Once that is said, however, if you decide, like I did, to forget about the book and watch the movie, I can assure you it will surely entertain you.

I jumped in my seat with delighted pleasure with the first few minutes of the movie, when we first encounter the magnificent catastrophe that London has become. Amazing scene. Not to mention that awesome part of the movie that contemplates the trip between Dumbledore and Harry to the cave in which the third Horcrux waits. Possibly the best scene of the movie.

Told you already, there’s also a bit of humour: I could hardly suppress my laughs with some of Harry’s and Ron retorts, the one of Aragog’s scary pincers included, and some other funny things that happened.

Nevertheless, as I told you, I find there are some things that completely differ from the book, giving it little “credibility”. This is where I get strict, mind you. And again: SPOILERS AHEAD!

I would have honestly erased a couple of scenes such as the encounter Ginny/Harry/and his shoelaces (Merlin’s beard… where on earth did that come from????), Lavs Ron-illness, and certainly, most certainly, a totally invented scene in which The Burrow is devastated.

Message for the Director (with all due respect): WTF?????!!!!! The Burrow?? Honestly! You had better things to show to put a little action in: Does the war in the Castle ring a bell? The one in which everybody fights and has a role?? Hellloooooo!!!

Without this crucial scene, as you may notice, Ron and Hermione have very little to do on the film other than appear, the DA is nowhere to be seen, and we barely have a glimpse of the Order at all. Cool, huh?

And the kiss between Ginny and Harry... SOOO FRUSTRATING!!! we wanted the emotion, the surprise, the fireworks of the book. Where were they??? a hidden teeny kiss on an empty room? HONESLTY

Another thing I sincerely didn’t like, and was quite a bit irritated about, was the final scene in which Dumbledore dies. According to the book, Harry is prettified, so while everything happens, he is incapable of doing anything because of the charm, which is something he regrets. He’s invisible too, so he has to see everything while he can’t act at all, leaving him completely devastated and powerless. On the movie, nevertheless, it’s totally different. Harry is told by Dumbledore to go downstairs and promise to do nothing. And here is the surprising thing: he complies. He does nothing while Draco tries to kill Albus, nor when the Deatheaters appear, and absolutely anything after Snape (who, according to the books, he totally despises, hates, and doesn’t trust) tells him too stay put. Honestly, he looks like a complete coward, which is absurd.

There, I said it. All.

So that is pretty much my critic.

Did I like the movie?
- Without reading the book: Yes, I did, very much.
- Having read it, well… some bits yes, some others no.

But it was very entertaining… it only lets me wondering whether they’ll decide the Deaths of so many characters in the last book is as unimportant as the ones in the Half Blood where…what do you think?
.

12 b

Or THE SANDALS....

For your eyes only, Marta...

12

12 cm is what my latest shoe acquisition heels measure. A wonderful pair of Hermès (yeah, I wrote Hermès, your eyes aren’t deceiving you… yet) terracotta colour platform sandals… very inn, with lots of straps. Just wonderful.

Best part is they cost me only 200€… when they where really a thousand. Outlets are wonderful places…

So, 12 cm. Tall, huh?

But I’ve got to say, the so totally rock. Not only for the former reasons, but also, because they managed to avoid leaving me footless even after 10 hours of wearing them. Strolling (quite a bit, btw) around the office included, plus 2 trips in metro. Impressive. And here I thought I wasn’t going to be able to tolerate them… I must confess I was carrying some flats on my handbag, just in case.

Anyhow, it was pretty impressive the reaction I obtained at the office. Everybody seemed to realize I was 12 cm higher. I didn’t think it was THAT obvious, but apparently… it was. Everybody kept asking me about it.

Truth is, I kind of enjoyed being 12 cm. taller…

Time, and again

Today I got to thinking about time, and its relativity. So many meanings in so many different situations...

2 minutes in the metro mean a station, one less for your destination. In the bus, we’re talking about a couple hundred metres.

2 minutes at work, what it usually takes for all my e-mails to download first thing in the morning.

When in a taxi, stuck in traffic, 3 euros and a mayor piss off.

2 minutes is what it takes me to get an outfit and it’s accessories out drawers and closet (after probably 30 minutes of decision making and changes of mind – several of them-).

Time. We are tired of listening it runs too fast. Time and again. But it does, it runs like mad. And it’s precisely this fact that gives it its charm, right? The absurdity of it all. Time, and again.

2 minutes is what it took me to type this post. Quite a bit more to write it on my notebook in one of those trips by bus… or was it by metro?

Madmoiselle Coco. Coco Chanel

El domingo, tras un fin de semana de descanso, babysitting y negociación con Indi, fui con mi BFF a ver la nueva peli de Tatou, “Coco, de la rebeldía a la Leyenda de Chanel”. Una película sencilla, sin pretensiones, y muy elegante.

Aviso a navegantes, antes de nada: el que vaya a verla esperando ver perlas, y glamour… que no se engañe, pues será decepcionado. Glamour encontrará, pero poco y desde luego no en la protagonista. Hay plumas, sombreros, tocados… elegancia de la campiña inglesa, pero apenas 5 minutos de esa estética típicamente Chanel que conocemos (y adoramos). Así pues, nos queda una historia algo lenta, pero exquisitamente ambientada, preciosa para el que sepa mirar más allá de la historia y el mito, del que, como ya digo, apenas sí se roza en los últimos instantes de la película.

Coco cuenta la historia antes del diseño. Los comienzos difíciles de esta gran dama de Francia que lo fue, pero tarde en su vida. A través de esta película conoceremos la infancia y juventud de Coco como cabaretera y modistilla que se convirtió en presencia perenne pero ajena al mismo tiempo de la alta sociedad francesa, de la que se alimentaba abiertamente y con un desdén que rozaba la insolencia.

Para mí, lo mejor, la escena final. Rompo filas para el que no quiera leerlo, para el que aquí termina mi resumen.

Para ojos más curiosos, desvelo el final, punto culminante del largometraje, pero para mi gusto, como ya digo. Una escena brillante por su sencilla complejidad y belleza:

Cuando apenas quedan unos minutos para que nos despidan, y tras un paso rápido por unos talleres de costura que evolución sin darnos casi cuenta, de pronto, entre una escalera curva forrada de estrechos espejos, vemos aparecer a las modelos ataviadas con los tules, las perlas, los blancos y negros… el tweed esencia de la Maison. Se contiene la respiración, aunque la cámara apenas las sigue. En su lugar, se fija en una sobria mujer que baja la escalera sobria y en silencio, y su reflejo multiplicado en los espejos. Es Madmoiselle Coco, en un fabuloso traje de chaqueta típico, collar de perlas y pelo corto y ondulado, los labios rojos. Transcurre el desfile (vemos a las modelos reflejadas a su espalda), y ella acaba sentada en las claras escaleras, la mirada perdida. Parece una extraña, una invitada inoportuna e inesperada. Coco parece ajena a lo que sucede a su alrededor y, sólo tras unos largos momentos de aplausos, sonríe. Dudo que sea consciente de su éxito.