One of my favorite things in the world is the midnight movie. True fact. I am not referring to Rocky Horror, but rather any film that should be seen at midnight, opening night (AM), with a large possibly-costumed-definitely-nerdy crowd who will be very vocal and very clued into whatever insider jokes/moments the filmmaker offers up. To me, the midnight movie blurs the line between film and theatre. My first phrase: Coming to a feater near you. At a young age, I knew what I liked.
Seeing Harry Potter 6, the newest installment of the seven/eight part series, exemplifies the midnight movie. You have a fan base, eclectic in demographics, costumes (I saw people with wands, caps, stuffed owls, and lightning bolt scars--sweet sweet merchandise), a summer blockbuster (grossed 100 mil in one day), and a series...there is a cliffhanger, there is a loyalty to the series and also an anticipation of what's to come. Attendance at a midnight premiere suggests you cannot wait a single second more to see this film. It will be all you speak of at the water cooler or summer day camp for the next three weeks.
By 11 PM at 84th and Broadway, the slumber party was well underway. Every single screen at the cineplex would be showing HP6 at 12:01 or 12:05 (theatres with earlier shows of Transformers 2). Youngsters with jumbo sized popcorns in Griffyndor pajamas. Happiness is crooked glasses on a 14 year old with a lightning bolt scar scrawled in eyeliner.
The film was great. I am not hasty in this review because I agree this was exposition heavy, rather than action which comes as a disappointment to passionate Potter fans. But fundamentally, they achieved something that the other films dreamt of -- cinematic adaptation -- a mood and texture synthesized using filmic techniques which highlighted important moments of the story. This isn't a scene-shot, scene-shot strung together nonsensically. There is build and there is tension. The bargaining scene between Mrs. Malfoy, Strange, and Snape -- brilliant, felt cold and isolating like Kubrick's The Shining labyrinth, and dramatic like a good Arthur Miller act. The quidditch play was exciting and dangerous in a way never before felt. We saw bits of Hogwarts that were grandiose without being solely exterior shots of gothic architecture. And we had comedy and awkwardness.
But to see these films again -- in an emptier theatre, on netflix, worse on an iphone screen, not the same. They live and die in the midnight movie to me. Not to be revisited or recreated like live theatre.
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