Serious magic

DEEP below the Whitehall governmental district here, in the glistening greenish-black tiled bowels of the Ministry of Magic, Ralph Fiennes’ lithe, snakelike Lord Voldemort and Michael Gambon’s white-bearded Dumbledore are going at it like Ali and Frazier in Manila.

As these two great wizards parry and thrust their dueling wands, shooting out spells and, for now, imaginary rivers of fire that will meet and crash together like sparking electrical currents, off-camera wind machines blast and tug at their robes. Cowering to one side, Daniel Radcliffe’s terrified, ashen-faced Harry Potter recoils from the pyrotechnics exploding above his head, smaller, tributary spells that rat-a-tat-tat the walls like machine-gun fire.

“It’s a very intense scene,” says Radcliffe during a break in filming the sequence, part of the climax to “Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix,” which premieres July 11. “Harry’s so out of his depth, he’s emotionally pretty much destroyed by this point and given up all hope.”

After Voldemort’s return at the end of the last movie, the stakes have, clearly, increased exponentially for the bespectacled young wizard, who, in this fifth film in J.K. Rowling’s magical saga, has to deal not only with sundry attempts on his life and the loss of someone very close to him but also his first kiss.

“In the past, Harry’s been terrific at bounding out and dealing with death-defying incidents without breaking sweat, really,” says the series’ fourth director, Britain’s David Yates, between setups at Leavesden Studios, Hertfordshire, where all the Potter films have been shot. “I thought it would be interesting to make him feel a little bit more fragile, a bit more vulnerable. That heightens the emotional stakes because you know he can be killed.” Part of that change of emphasis was to treat magic as a vital, dangerous force. “To make people realize how powerful and dangerous magic could be.”

Plot-wise this fifth installment sees the wizarding establishment in denial regarding Voldemort’s reappearance, leaving the eponymous Order -- which includes Harry’s godfather, Sirius Black (Gary Oldman), and former teacher-werewolf Remus Lupin (David Thewlis) -- to defend our young hero against the forces of darkness. Among Voldemort’s leather-clad agents of evil: Jason Isaacs’ Lucius Malfoy and Black’s demented, just-out-of-Azkaban cousin Bellatrix Lestrange (Helena Bonham Carter).

When the minister of magic, Cornelius Fudge (Timothy West), dispatches his authoritarian minion in pink, Delores Umbridge (Imelda Staunton), to cleanse Hogwarts of its liberal tendencies and so unseat Dumbledore as headmaster, a handful of rebellious pupils band together to create Dumbledore’s Army to try to save both their school and its head.

Although “Order” is only Yates’ second feature after the little-seen “The Tichborne Claimant,” his small-screen resume includes the critically acclaimed “State of Play” (a U.S. remake starring Brad Pitt is in the works) and Emmy Award-winning “The Girl in the Cafe.” Producer David Heyman says Warner Bros. was supportive of his directorial choice, given the success of a previous leftfield pick, Alfonso Cuaron, on the third movie. “It has given the studio more confidence in working with directors who may not have had their big studio success,” Heyman says. “Alfonso was a very bold choice at the time. David was bold too, no question.”

And since the majority of Yates’ work has revealed a deep political bent, Heyman felt he was ideal for this, the most overtly political book of the series. “He was perfect for this,” says Emma Watson, who plays Harry’s friend Hermione Granger, as she sits in her trailer eating chocolate. “I don’t know if he could have directed any of the other ones. This was his story to tell.”

Indeed. In addition to the usual adventure, magic and monsters, this film also deals with political repression, child abuse, fundamentalism, fascism, global terrorism and racism -- not your typical summer blockbuster fare but themes that, plainly, appealed to Yates. Don’t go thinking it’s too, well, political, though. “There’s no question there are political aspects to this story,” says Heyman, who nevertheless is keen to stress that it’s politics with a small “p.” “I don’t want to give the impression it’s a political film. It’s an entertainment.”

Radcliffe is in no doubt as to the subtext. “We’re the French Resistance,” he explains of Dumbledore’s Army, “and Voldemort and the Death Eaters are the Nazis. Obviously, in a magical context.” Not that his analogies end there. “Harry’s like a Vietnam veteran,” he says. “He’s seen awful things and come back into a society that’s rejected him. That’s the main parallel I’ve been drawing on.” Fudge, meanwhile, he equates to Britain’s prime minister, Tony Blair.

“Dan’s absolutely right,” says Yates several months later in his Soho office. “What Fudge does is he spins everything all the time. He’s a great manipulator of information, and there is a bit of Blair about Fudge.”

‘FINDING TRUTH’

ON set, the gentle, softly spoken Yates is such an inconspicuous presence he’s easy to overlook. “He’s quiet, thoughtful, sensitive,” says Watson.

“Mike [Newell, director of ‘Goblet of Fire’] would sit in his chair and yell at us, or stand up and just be very loud and British. Whereas David will think for a bit, he’ll come over, speak a few words, keep it to a minimum. The thing that always comes up with David is finding truth in the characters, truth in the performance, make it real.”

It’s the mantra by which Yates has steered this massive ship, be it relation to magic or finding the emotional truth in his characters. The film begins in “the shadow of bereavement,” so he had Radcliffe meet with a bereavement counselor before shooting (“She told us about policemen who shovel people up off the motorway when they’ve had a car accident and what they have to go through,” Yates says) and drafted a choreographer to establish a grammar of wand fighting. “So rather than just point the wand, there’s a language in place, to make it feel as real as we could.”

By all accounts, Yates has also managed to wrestle the best performance from Radcliffe thus far.

“I’m ready to be pushed and challenged,” says Radcliffe, who this year made his London stage debut in “Equus” to good reviews. “The other directors could have pushed and challenged, and did, but I wasn’t ready. With David, I think I’m at a stage where I can more competently give him what he wants out of a scene and with more detail.”

Working with the cream of the British acting establishment across the films has certainly been beneficial. During one particularly emotional scene in this installment, Radcliffe recalls Oldman saying to him: “ ‘Dan, do you mind if I do something sort of physical with you before we start?’ I was like, ‘No, no,’ assuming he meant giving me a hug. He came up to me and grabbed me and shook me really, really hard. As he went away, he kept eye contact. And tears started to form up. I had no idea how it happened, but it worked.”

Radcliffe has already committed to play Harry for the final two films in the series. For Yates too this isn’t the end, having signed on for the next: “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.” “I know Alfonso and Mike, when they came out, they were kind of shredded, but I’ve come out feeling invigorated,” Yates says. “And I don’t think I’m quite done with this world yet. These can be great films about childhood. The next one’s full of sexual politics, and the kids are getting better as actors, and I want to push them even more. This one’s quite lyrical and intense. The next one is more fun.”

He grins. “I’ve had more fun in the last two years than I’ve had making anything. The whole thing’s slightly addictive. It’s difficult to let go.”