Daemons

While reading Philip Pullman‘s His Dark Materials: The Golden Compass, I’d wondered what kind of daemon I’d have if they so existed. In the book, a daemon is an outward, physical manifestation of a person’s soul. It appears as an animal that reflects a person’s true nature.

A friend who introduced me to the His Dark Materials trilogy told me about this quiz on The Golden Compass movie Web site. After answering a series of 20 questions, I found out my daemon’s a fox.

I am “modest, spontaneous, sociable, inquisitive, and dependable.” Sound like me? On a previous run-through, I’d scored a crow daemon. As much as I love crows, I have to admit the fox traits more accurately describe me.

Anyway, I highly recommend the trilogy, which though marketed as a young adult fantasy, is actually a very smart, philosophical inquiry into religion and the meaning of life. The Golden Compass (which incidentally co-stars Daniel Craig and Eva Green, who were in Casino Royale together) comes out this Dec. 7, so there’s still time to devour the books before then.

Movie Plugs

Twin Peaks: The Second Season is finally available on DVD, five years after The First Season came out. The season one DVD set got me hooked on the series, but in the intervening five years, I had to scrounge for VHS copies of season two. Maybe this release will foster a new legion of fans. “Damn good coffee!”

For fans of Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz, directed by Edgar Wright, will be in theatres Friday, Apr. 20. I’ve always enjoyed movies with recurring casts. Although Simon Pegg plays a much more competent guy in this movie than he did in Shaun of the Dead, it’s good to see Nick Frost again cast as the bumbling sidekick and Bill Nighy bring a faintly sinister edge to his character.

For fans of the Russian fantasy thriller Night Watch comes Day Watch, directed by Timur Bekmambetov, opening on Friday, June 1. Night Watch reminded me of The Matrix movies in its epic scope and action sequences. I know some people thought it was cheesy, and I agree that its story about the eternal struggle between good and evil isn’t masterfully original. Still, the movie had some gorgeous cinematography, and I expect to be awed by the effects in this second movie in a planned trilogy. (The final movie will be Dusk Watch.)

When Bootlegs Go Bad

These screen captures are from a bootleg copy of Red Dragon, purchased while abroad by someone I know. Whoever did the English subtitles seemed to have only a passing familiarity with the language, getting something like one word out of every 10 correct. Oftentimes, the subtitles have no relation at all to the dialogue.

WHAT WAS SAID: The Harvey Keitel character is explaining to Edward Norton’s character about murders that took place in Birmingham and Atlanta.
SUBTITLE: Even we have to move from Bominghan to Atalanta

WHAT WAS SAID: Norton’s character talks about how he “doesn’t think about this stuff anymore.”
SUBTITLE: I have got used to clam life
Norton’s character doesn’t use the word “calm,” but the person doing the subtitles might have intended to use it to paraphrase what Norton said. If so, I like how the transposition of letters into “clam” life implies a similar sentiment, i.e., Norton’s character’s life being somewhat slow and of minor significance, like a clam’s.

WHAT WAS SAID: It’s Chromalux.
SUBTITLE: This is carmax

And you know how positive blurbs are always splashed across a movie’s posters? I typically ignore them, but I noticed that this was the blurb on the cover of the bootleg DVD: “It includes the initial capture” (no period, in big red letters). It’s attributed to “The New Youk BBC TV.”

Kidney for Sale! Kidney for Sale!

Not exactly a new story but I still found “Human Kidneys for Sale” to be interesting. It aired on public radio and was filed from India by filmmaker Samantha Grant. What I found especially disturbing was Grant’s observation that

“India’s Ministry of Tourism is promoting what’s being called Transplant Tourism, aimed at drawing wealthy foreigners in search of a cheap medical fix. Its website even has a page called ‘high-tech healing’ and boasts that a ‘kidney transplant package’ in India would cost only $7,000, a fraction of what it costs in the developed world.”

(The Web site she’s referring to is Incredible India. According to the site, India also offers wellness services such as bone marrow transplants, joint replacement surgery, and, of course, yoga.)

Grant’s documentary on the same subject can be viewed online at PBS FRONTLINEt/World. I haven’t had a chance yet to check it out, but it’s only about 11 mins. long. (Though the ending probably won’t be as satisfying as that of Dirty Pretty Things, the Stephen Frears-directed film about the human organ trade. It’s excellent!–I highly recommend it.)

Krampus

Went to check out the Whitney Biennial yesterday, the title of the 2006 exhibit being Day for Night. I usually tend to “get” the mixed media projects, appreciate the works displaying obvious technical proficiency, and ignore the films altogether. I am not one of those people who rushed out to theaters to see Drawing Restraint 9. (Did anyone?)

I was surprised to discover then that my favorite work from the Biennial was Cameron Jamie’s Kranky Klaus. The Whitney Web site describes the work as a document of “the pagan myth of Krampus—a shaggy beast said to roam the valleys of Austria on the night of December 6.”

In his film, Jamie follows a group of four or five Krampus as they make their way through a village on a snowy evening. The way the Krampus worked was this: a man dressed as Klaus would enter a building where a group of people were gathered in expectation. From a wicker basket that he carried, Klaus would distribute these satchels with “Gold Pass” stamped on them.

Shortly after Klaus left, the Krampus would enter. (Refer to picture.) Not only do the Krampus look grotesque, but they wore these bells the size of coconuts around their waists. They would come in, hopping from foot to foot, not only physically intimidating the villagers but overwhelming them with this awful clanging. They would start assaulting the people, pulling them from their chairs, wrestling them to the ground, and overturning tables. Most people, half-smiling, tried to resist. There was no fighting back. But one girl in the film did start crying.

Then they would leave for their next destination, the men playing the Krampus occasionally walking with their costume heads off (and at least once stopping for beers).

The soundtrack for the film was provided by the Melvins (warning: unnecessarily intense Flash site). The music was throbbing heavy metal-like, which underscored the oddly violent–yet organized–nature of the whole thing.

LA Weekly has more pictures from Krazy Klaus. Artangel, which commissioned and produced Krazy Klaus, has more information about the other films in Jamie’s trilogy focusing on “vernacular rituals”: Spook House, about a working-class Detroit suburb’s celebration of Halloween, and BB, about “LA teenage wrestlers.”

The Biennial closes Sunday, May 28.