But is it art?

Hmm... I read the first His Dark Materials book, and it felt a little dry. I usually like kid's fantasy, e.g. the Lloyd Alexander books (High King, Taran Wanderer, Black Cauldron), and I loved Lord of the Rings, but The Golden Compass made me shrug. I'll press on if you guys think the books get a lot better, but if Golden Compass you think is good too, maybe we gotta agree to disagree.

Then again, I really liked The Prestige.

...

Salo... okay, since you asked. Salo is an Italian movie from the 60s which is an 'artistic interpretation' of 120 Days of Sodom by the Marquis de Sade, loosely integrated with Dante's Inferno. There are three parts to the movie: the Circle of Flesh, the Circle of Shit, and the Circle of Blood. Imagine the worst sub-genres of porn, the real bottom-feeder stuff... pun not actually intended but unfortunately appropriate here. Then take out all the fun stuff that makes porn really porn, and what you have left is Salo. Of course, being a 'film' and not truly 'porn', most of the, er, acts are simulated, i.e., the actors themselves do not actually eat REAL shit, but oh my god it's a close simulation.

This is not a fun movie. It is the exact opposite. This is not a movie to watch with friends. This movie is, from start to finish, an atrocity exhibition. There is no 'plot', certainly no resolution, just rich middle-aged men doing increasingly horrible things to adolescents. Supposedly the movie is a metaphor for life under the Nazis or Fascists during WW2, but whatever. I advise staying away. For the curious, you can read more about it on Amazon, IMDB, and the Criterion Collection website.

Didn't set out to make the Prince/Queen/King levels like this, but I didn't know exactly what I was going to do with them. Then, since I've been questing for disturbing movies all year, I finally saw Salo, fulfilled my quest, and decided to spin the top three levels of Castle Greyhelm in a similar manner. Not exact, obviously, but the Queen's and King's levels are definitely under the influence. Ugh.