[lit-ideas] That's Holiday Entertainment!
- From: "phatic" <phatics@xxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Fri, 09 Apr 2004 02:34:24 +0100
Returning to repairmen POMPEL&PILT (dir. Ebbe Ording), we made some
investigations into whether this fine piece of TV entertainment, in the
form of puppeteering 1960s style is available to young and eager minds of
today. And lo and behold. NRK, the Norwegian State Broadcaster is now
publishing the series as a DVD for the meager price of NKR 199 (USD
28.7123 according to http://www.xe.com/ucc/). From the web jacket:
--
Puppet show in black and white, with figures that were always contained
in a large hall, without walls or ceiling, but equipped with doors
leading nowhere. They argued incessantly, and lived in perennial fear of
Gorgon the Custodian and his ravenous son.
--
http://butikken.nrk.no/butikk/product246.html
POMPEL&PILT was first aired on NRK in 1969, and then re-broadcast several
times. In around 1985 the pressure from pedagogical quarters on NRK that
the series had anti-pedagogical content made the broadcaster submit that
it was not "fit for children." In 1994 they caved in to contrary
pressure, however, and transmitted it one more time. The current head of
programming for youth and children in NRK, Kalle Fuerst, calls it a
"classic of cultural history." It was "pioneering and surrealist. I can't
fathom how NRK in 1969 dared to put resourses into a series as peculiar
as this, completely absurd in form and content." However, it is not of
"sufficient quality" for children of today, even if Fuerst promises to
consider broadcasting it to an "adult audience, at night." He doesn't shy
away from recommending the DVD on sale from his employer's sidekick
on-line store, though. And hence and in all ways demonstrates his loyalty
to Employer and Provider. Well done, Kalle.
http://www.vg.no/pub/vgart.hbs?artid=38456
Anyway, this post was supposed to introduce the series. Bjoerg and Arne
Mykle wrote the script and made the dolls. There's photographs with them
and the dolls at
http://www.vg.no/pub/vgart.hbs?artid=38462
If you look closely you'll see that Pompel (the older chap with the tired
eyes) and Pilt (younger and with more hair) don't have mouths. There's
another photo, in black and white, at
http://home.powertech.no/shoiem/turidg/pp/reparatorene.html
with Pompel to the left, Pilt to the right, and Gorgon the Custodian in
the center. It's kinda difficult to explain the story line, if there is
one. Child psychologist Thore Langfeldt describes the mood of POMPEL&PILT
as "chilling, funny and surprising" at the same time. Professor of Media
Sociology Eva Bakoey explains that it made a radical break with the norm
of children's television of the 1960s and 70s.
"It has no happy ending, doesn't offer a sense of that 'everything will
be OK', and it communcates a chaotic and incomprehensible world," she
says, adding that, first and foremost, it was FUNNY.
http://www.vg.no/pub/vgart.hbs?artid=38460
There's more on Bakoey's research here:
http://www.forskning.no/Artikler/2002/juni/1022772677.43
We have managed to ascertain that there is at least five episodes of
POMPEL&PILT available, and that there might be a sixth episode made. The
titles of the first five parts are:
1. The repairmen are coming
2. The repairmen are returning
3. The repairmen are coming and coming
4. The repairmen are coming again
5. The repairmen are returning again
The disputed sixth episode is probably entitled "The revenge of the
repairmen."
The music was performed by Arild Boman on organ, Helge Hurum, flute, and
Espen Rud, drum sponge and percussion. The drum sponge was made on the
basis of an old matress, onto which a number of bells and other objects
were attached. When the repairmen walked around in their vast, open
spaces, the sound from the drum sponge would evoke a sense of uncertainty
and polyphony.
As repairmen Pompel and Pilt move around in this building, or whatever it
is, trying to negotiate their way past door that lead nowhere, or back
into the same room as they had just left, they meet several characters,
some friendly, some not. Gorgon the Custodian appears to be the one who
has comissioned Pompel and Pilt to repair something. This observation is
based on that every time they encounter him, they ask if he has anything
that needs repair. Upon hearing the question, Gorgon goes off on a long
harangue consisting of words that resemble or sound like "repair," like a
grown-up lost in her or his own long, incomprehensible sentences. When
Gorgon enters into this kind of trance, Pompel and Pilt seize on the
opportunity to run away, but always ends up in more difficult and
mysterious situations.
They also meet Gorgon's wife and his rapacious son, Gorgon the
Custodian's Assistant. Then there's also the Moffedill, who gets by on
eating keys, and the numerous Migrants, who look somewhat like bicycle
pumps with funny rasta hair and necks that keep extending and
contracting, while they whistle. They are always busy and confusing.
Pompel and Pilt never really get to repair anything. Their world is not
only confusing and absurd. It is also beyond repair.
You can download some soundbites to get a further sense of the atmosphere
in the series. Each episode ends with Pompel reminding Pilt that now he
should surely understand that it is better with two repairmen than no
repairmen.
http://home.powertech.no/shoiem/turidg/lyd/bedre.wav
Gorgon the Custodian goes into his strange trance-like state:
http://home.powertech.no/shoiem/turidg/lyd/gorgon.wav
A makeshift translation of the first part of the first episode is
available from Utopos:
http://home.no.net/torgfje/utopos/pandp.html
It is updated slightly, with some stage directions added, and some
wording changed here and there. Comments welcomed.
Best,
phatic
[sign]
editor
--
phatic
phatics@xxxxxxxxxxx
http://phatic.blogspot.com/
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