Before the first Harry Potter film came out in 2001, many fans were worried that the eccentric and distinctively English charms of JK Rowling's books would be lost in the journey from printed page to multiplex screen.
These days, the novels are getting saggier and more bloated (at more than 750 pages in length, the last one was longer than Crime and Punishment), but ever since Christopher (Home Alone) Columbus vacated the director's seat, the film adaptations have been getting progressively sharper and more interesting. The latest even features Jarvis Cocker and members of Radiohead vamping it up as the Wyrd Sisters at a school ball.
The Goblet of Fire is also the first Harry Potter film to be directed by an Englishman, Mike Newell, best known for Four Weddings and a Funeral and Donnie Brasco. Like his predecessor Alfonso Cuarón, he has little time for anything sappy or sugary. "Dark and difficult times lie ahead" is one of the things that Hogwarts headmaster Dumbledore (Michael Gambon) tells Harry early on; and the whole film, an unexpectedly black and at times very frightening foray into the less fun side of wizardry and magic, fully deserves its "12A" classification.
These days, the novels are getting saggier and more bloated (at more than 750 pages in length, the last one was longer than Crime and Punishment), but ever since Christopher (Home Alone) Columbus vacated the director's seat, the film adaptations have been getting progressively sharper and more interesting. The latest even features Jarvis Cocker and members of Radiohead vamping it up as the Wyrd Sisters at a school ball.
The Goblet of Fire is also the first Harry Potter film to be directed by an Englishman, Mike Newell, best known for Four Weddings and a Funeral and Donnie Brasco. Like his predecessor Alfonso Cuarón, he has little time for anything sappy or sugary. "Dark and difficult times lie ahead" is one of the things that Hogwarts headmaster Dumbledore (Michael Gambon) tells Harry early on; and the whole film, an unexpectedly black and at times very frightening foray into the less fun side of wizardry and magic, fully deserves its "12A" classification.
