Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 1 is a 2010 epic fantasy film directed by David Yates from a screenplay by Steve Kloves. The first of two cinematic parts based on the 2007 novel Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J. K. Rowling, it is the sequel to Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (2009) and the seventh instalment in the Harry Potter film series. The film stars Daniel Radcliffe as Harry Potter, with Rupert Grint and Emma Watson reprising roles as Harry's best friends Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger, respectively. The film follows Harry as he has been asked by Albus Dumbledore to find and destroy Lord Voldemort's secret to immortality – the Horcruxes.
Filming began on 19 February 2009 and was completed on 12 June 2010. The film was released in 2D cinemas and IMAX formats in the United Kingdom and in the United States on 19 November 2010, by Warner Bros. Pictures. In the film's worldwide opening weekend, Part 1 grossed $330 million, the third-highest in the series, and the highest opening of 2010, as well as the eighth-highest of all time. With a worldwide gross of $991 million, Part 1 became the third-highest-grossing film of 2010, the tenth highest-grossing film ever at the time and the third-highest-grossing Harry Potter film in terms of worldwide totals.
The film received positive reviews, and was nominated for many awards, including the Academy Award for Best Art Direction and Best Visual Effects. The film was followed by the concluding entry, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2 in 2011.
Plot
Severus Snape meets with Lord Voldemort and his Death Eaters at Malfoy Manor, reporting that the Order of the Phoenix will move Harry Potter, no longer under his mother's protective spell, to a safe location. Voldemort and the Death Eaters travel to Surrey to apprehend Harry, killing Hedwig and Mad-Eye Moody in the process. Harry escapes to the home of his friend, Ron Weasley, where they and Hermione Granger are visited by the new Minister for Magic Rufus Scrimgeour. He leaves them all a bequest from Albus Dumbledore: Ron a Deluminator, Hermione a copy of The Tales of Beedle the Bard, and Harry the Golden Snitch he caught in his first Quidditch match. Dumbledore also bequeathed the Sword of Gryffindor to Harry, but it has gone missing.
During the wedding of Bill Weasley and Fleur Delacour, the guests are informed that the Ministry has fallen and Scrimgeour is dead. When they are attacked by Death Eaters, Harry, Ron, and Hermione escape to Number 12, Grimmauld Place, where Ron works out that Sirius Black's brother, Regulus, stole Salazar Slytherin's locket from Voldemort. Learning that thief Mundungus Fletcher later sold it to Dolores Umbridge, the three infiltrate the Ministry and recover the locket. Discovered by Death Eaters, Hermione hastily disapparates them to a forest, where they start their journey to discover and destroy all of Voldemort's Horcruxes, beginning with the locket.
After failing to destroy the locket, Hermione deduces that Gryffindor's sword can destroy Horcruxes because it is impregnated with basilisk venom. Ron, affected by the dark locket, is frustrated with their slow progress and becomes irrationally jealous of Harry and Hermione, leaving them after arguing angrily with Harry. Harry and Hermione search for the sword in Godric's Hollow, where Hermione notices a strange symbol in the graveyard that matches one on the cover of Beedle the Bard and one worn by Luna Lovegood's father, Xenophilius. Elderly historian Bathilda Bagshot leads the two to her cottage, where they find a photo of the young man Harry saw in a vision stealing a wand from wandmaker Gregorovitch, before Bagshot morphs into Voldemort's snake Nagini and attacks Harry. Hermione disapparates them to safety, but breaks Harry's wand doing so.
The two arrive in the Forest of Dean, where Hermione identifies the man in the photo as dark wizard Gellert Grindelwald, and Harry follows a doe patronus to the frozen pond where Gryffindor's sword lies on the bottom. After Harry dives in, the locket begins strangling him, but he is rescued by Ron, who also retrieves the sword. Ron then destroys the locket and the next day he explains the Deluminator led him to their location. The three visit Xenophilius and learn that the symbol represents the Deathly Hallows. As told in Beedle the Bard, three brothers once each received a prize for evading Death: the Resurrection Stone, the Cloak of Invisibility, and the Elder Wand, the most powerful wand known. Possessing all three makes one the Master of Death. Xenophilius then secretly summons the Death Eaters, wanting to exchange Harry for Luna, who is being held at Malfoy Manor.
The three are captured by Snatchers and brought to Malfoy Manor, where Harry sees a vision of an elderly Grindelwald telling Voldemort that the Elder Wand is buried with Dumbledore. Bellatrix Lestrange sees a Snatcher with Gryffindor's sword that she believed was in her Gringotts vault. Harry and Ron are locked into the cellar with Luna, Ollivander, and Griphook, while Bellatrix tortures Hermione. Harry sees a man resembling Dumbledore in a mirror shard and begs for help, which summons Dobby to the cellar; they retrieve Hermione and their captured wands from Draco Malfoy, but as they all disapparate Bellatrix fatally wounds Dobby, who dies as they arrive at Bill and Fleur's seaside cottage, an Order safe house. Meanwhile, Voldemort retrieves the Elder Wand from Dumbledore's tomb.
Cast
The film also features Warwick Davis as Griphook, a goblin and former employee at the bank Gringotts; Toby Jones as Dobby, the house elf that Harry saves from the Malfoy family; Tom Felton as Draco Malfoy, Lucius's son and a Death Eater; Helen McCrory as Narcissa Malfoy, Draco's mother and Bellatrix's sister. Julie Walters, Mark Williams, Clémence Poésy, and Natalia Tena appear as members of the Order of the Phoenix Molly Weasley, Arthur Weasley, Fleur Delacour, and Nymphadora Tonks respectively. It also features Dave Legeno as Fenrir Greyback, a werewolf and supporter of Voldemort; Simon McBurney as Kreacher, a house elf; Nick Moran as Scabior, a bounty hunter for Voldemort; Peter Mullan as Corban Yaxley, a Death Eater at the Ministry of Magic; and David O'Hara as Albert Runcorn, an employee at the Ministry of Magic impersonated by Harry.
Domhnall Gleeson, James and Oliver Phelps, George Harris, and Andy Linden appear as members of the Order of the Phoenix Bill Weasley, twins Fred and George Weasley, Kingsley Shacklebolt, and Mundungus Fletcher respectively, while Matthew Lewis appear as Harry's friend Neville Longbottom. Other cast members include Hazel Douglas as the corpse of Bathilda Bagshot; David Ryall as Albus Dumbledore's old schoolfriend Elphias Doge; Frances de la Tour as the head of Beauxbatons Madame Maxime; Guy Henry as Pius Thicknesse, a puppet Minister of Magic installed by Voldemort; Rade Šerbedžija as the wandmaker Gregorovitch; and Carolyn Pickles as Charity Burbage, the Muggle Studies teacher at Hogwarts, tortured and killed by Voldemort.
Production
Part 1 was filmed back-to-back with Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2 from 19 February 2009 to 12 June 2010. Director David Yates, who shot the film alongside director of photography Eduardo Serra, described Part 1 as "quite real"; a "road movie" that's "almost like a vérité documentary".
Originally set for a single theatrical release, the idea to split the book into two parts was suggested by executive producer Lionel Wigram due to what David Heyman called "creative imperative". Heyman initially responded negatively to the idea, but Wigram asked, "No, David. How are we going to do it?". After rereading the book and discussing it with screenwriter Steve Kloves, he agreed with the division.
The production filmed at the Dartford Crossing for the dramatic chase where Harry and Hagrid are being ambushed by Death Eaters.
Sets Stuart Craig, set designer for all of the previous Harry Potter films, returned for the final two parts. He said, "We made a very different kind of film, which was shot a great deal on location. We travelled quite far, we built sets, and they spend a lot of time in a forest," he explained. "We built forest sets and integrated them into the real forests, so there were challenges there, as you might imagine." Craig was ultimately nominated for an Academy Award for his work on Part 1.
On the wedding tent for Bill and Fleur's wedding in Part 1, Craig commented on his aim to "rather than make it an extension of the house, which is rather eccentric, homemade, we decided to make it rather elegant . . . It's lined with silk and beautiful, floating candelabra. So it's a nice contrast with the house." For the Ministry of Magic set, he noted, "This is an underground world; this is a ministry, so we went to the real ministries, the Muggle ministries – Whitehall, in London – and decided that our magical ministry was kind of a parallel universe to these real ministries."
Craig also commented on his design of Malfoy Manor, saying that it is "a very strong architectural set. The exterior is based on an Elizabethan house here in this country called Hardwick Hall and it has massive windows, and these windows are kind of blinded out. The shutters are drawn so they are like blind windows and they have a real kind of presence, an ominous presence, so that gave us the basis for a good exterior. There's an extraordinary magical roof that's added and surrounded by forest which isn't there in reality, but again is one of the devices to make it more threatening and mysterious."
Costumes The costumes for Part 1 were designed by Jany Temime, who has been the costume designer on Harry Potter productions since Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (2004). Temime was involved in a controversy regarding her work on Fleur Delacour's wedding dress. She was accused of copying the design from a similar dress from Alexander McQueen's Fall 2008 collection. Temime spoke about the dress, saying that she "wanted it to be a witch wedding dress but not a Halloween dress. The dress is white but it needed to have something fantastic to it. So there is the phoenix [motif], the bird, which is a symbol of love in a way because there is rebirth, love never dies, it is born again."
Visual effects
After working on every film since Prisoner of Azkaban, Double Negative was asked to provide visual effects for the final instalments of the story, in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Parts 1 and 2. Working closely with the film's VFX Supervisor, Tim Burke, the team was led by VFX Supervisor, David Vickery and VFX Producer Charlotte Loughlane. The main team also included 3D Supervisor, Rick Leary and 2D Supervisor, Sean Stranks.
Double Negative's work for Part 1 included the corroding Warner Bros. Pictures logo and extensive environment extensions of the Burrows and its surrounds. Additional environment work was completed on Xenophilius Lovegood's home, extending it in 3D and culminating in the Death Eaters' attack. Double Negative also advanced the Death Eaters' smoke effects, with the introduction of the 'flayed man' stage in between their smokey, fluid, flying state and their live-action presence upon landing. Other work included the Patronus charm that interrupts the wedding party to inform the guests that Voldemort has taken over the Ministry of Magic.
The visual-effects company Framestore produced most of the creature CGI, as in previous films, as well as the animated "Tale of the Three Brothers" sequence, which was directed and designed by Ben Hibon.
Music
Composer Nicholas Hooper, who scored Order of the Phoenix and Half-Blood Prince, did not return for Deathly Hallows. Instead, Alexandre Desplat was hired to compose the score for Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 1. The film also featured the song "O Children" by Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds.
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