November 24, 2015 (XXXI:13) , THE IMAGINARIUM OF DR. PARNASSUS (2009, 123 min)

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The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus (2009, 123 minutes)

Directed by Terry Gilliam Written by Terry Gilliam and Charles McKeown Produced by Amy Gilliam, Terry Gilliam, Samuel Hadida and William Vince Music by Jeff Danna and Cinematography by Production Design by Terry Gilliam and Anastasia Masaro Art Direction by Terry Gilliam, Dan Hermansen, Denis Schnegg and David Warren

Cast

Andrew Garfield…Anton Christopher Plummer…Doctor Parnassus Richard Riddell…Martin Katie Lyons…Martin's Girlfriend Richard Shanks…Friend of Martin Lily Cole…Valentina Verne Troyer…Percy Bruce Crawford…Face Changed Martin nominated for a Golden Globe in 1992 for Best Director for The Johnny Harris…Policeman Fisher King (1991). He has written and directed, together, The Lorraine Cheshire…Mum Zero Theorem (2013), (2011, Short), The Mark Benton…Dad Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus (2009), Tideland (2005, Lewis Gott…Diego screenplay), Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (1998, screenplay), Sian Scott…Linda The Adventures of Baron Munchausen (1988, The Crimson Simon Day…Uncle Bob (as Simon Daye) Permanent Assurance (1983, Short), The Meaning of Life (1983, Moya Brady…Aunty Flo and special sequence and written by), Charles McKeown…Fairground's Inspector (scenes deleted) (1981), Jabberwocky (1977, screenplay), and the Tom Waits…Mr. Nick Holy Grail (1975), (1974, Short), Storytime Mackenzie Gray…First Monk (1968, Short). He has also directed The Legend of Hallowdega Kis Yurij…Second Monk (as Yurij Kis) (2010, Short), The Brothers Grimm (2005), Twelve Monkeys Ian A. Wallace…Third Monk (1995), (1991), Brazil (1985). In addition he …Tony wrote for over 30 films and tv series, some of which include Monty Johnny Depp…Imaginarium Tony 1 Python Live (2014, Mostly), Education Tips No. 41: Choosing a Jude Law…Imaginarium Tony 2 Really Expensive School (2003, Video short), : Exploits Colin Farrell…Imaginarium Tony 3 Monty Python (2002), Python Night: 30 Years of Monty Python (1999, TV Movie documentary) Parrot Sketch Not Included: Terry Gilliam (director, writer) (b. 1940, Medicine Lake, Twenty Years of Monty Python (1989, TV Special), Life of Brian Minnesota) was nominated along with and Charles (1979), Monty Python's Flying Circus (1969, TV Series), Monty McKeown for an Oscar in 1986 for Best Writing, Screenplay Python's Fliegender Zirkus (1971, TV Movie), And Now for Written Directly for the Screen for Brazil (1985). He was also Something Completely Different (1971, screen foreplay & Gilliam—THE IMAGINARIUM OF DR. PARNASSUS-—2 conception), (1968, TV Series), Marty (1968, (2000). Plummer has acted in over 204 films and TV series, some TV Series) and (1968, TV Series). He has of which are Remember (2015), Pixies (2015), Danny Collins also acted in 24 films, video games, and television series including (2015), The Forger (2014), Muhammad Ali's Greatest Fight (2015), Jupiter Ascending (2015), 9-Month (2013), The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2011), Barrymore Stretch (2013), I rec u (2012), A Liar's Autobiography: The Untrue (2011), Priest (2011), The Tempest (2010), Beginners (2010), The Story of Monty Python's (2012), The Monster of Last Station (2009), 9 (2009), The Imaginarium of Doctor Nix (2011, Short), The Legend of Hallowdega (2010, Short), Not Parnassus (2009), Caesar and Cleopatra (2009), The Lake House the Messiah: He's a Very Naughty Boy (2010), Locked Out (2006), (2006), Inside Man (2006), The New World (2005), Syriana The Adventures of Baron Munchausen (1988), Spies Like Us (2005), Alexander (2004), National Treasure (2004), Cold Creek (1985), Brazil (1985), The Crimson Permanent Assurance (1983, Manor (2003), Nicholas Nickleby (2002), Night Flight (2002, TV Short), The Meaning of Life (1983), Life of Brian (1979), Movie), A Beautiful Mind (2001), Dracula 2000 (2000), American Jabberwocky (1977), Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975), Tragedy (2000, TV Movie), The Insider (1999), Blackheart (1998), Monty Python's Flying Circus (1969-1974, TV Series), Monty Babes in Toyland (1997), Twelve Monkeys (1995), Harrison Python's Fliegender Zirkus (1971, TV Movie), And Now for Bergeron (1995, TV Movie), The New Adventures of Madeline Something Completely Different (1971) and Euroshow 71 (1971, (1995, TV Series), Wolf (1994), Madeline (1993-1994, TV Series), TV Movie). Malcolm X (1992), The First Circle (1992, TV Movie), Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country (1991), Madeline in London (1991, Nicola Pecorini (cinematographer) (b. August 10, 1957 in TV Movie), Madeline and the Gypsies (1991, TV Movie), A , Italy) is the cinematographer on 21 films including, Marriage: Georgia O'Keeffe and Alfred Stieglitz (1991, TV Hallucinaut (2016, Short, post-production), Misunderstood (2014), Movie), Madeline's Christmas (1990, TV Movie), Nabokov on (2013), Ra.One (2011, director of Kafka (1989, TV Short), Madeline (1989, TV Movie), Shadow photography), The Wholly Family (2011, Short), Problema (2010, Dancing (1988), Vampire in Venice (1988), Gandahar (1988), Documentary), The First Beautiful Thing (2010), The Imaginarium Dragnet (1987), An American Tail (1986), Lily in Love (1984), of Doctor Parnassus (2009), Ordeal by Innocence (1984), The Order (2003), Harrison's The Thorn Birds (1983, TV Flowers (2000), Rules of Mini-Series), The Scarlet Engagement (2000), Fear and the Black (1983, TV and Loathing in Las Vegas Movie), The Amateur (1998), Rhinoceros Hunting (1981), Somewhere in Time in Budapest (1997) and (1980), Hanover Street Tracey Takes On... (1996, TV (1979), International Velvet Series, 1 episode). (1978), The Assignment (1977), The Man Who Would Andrew Garfield…Anton Be King (1975), Conduct (b. August 20, 1983 in Los Unbecoming (1975), The Angeles, California) was Return of the Pink Panther nominated for a Golden Globe in 2011 for Best Performance by an (1975), Waterloo (1970), Lock Up Your Daughters! (1969), Actor in a Supporting Role in a Motion Picture for The Social Oedipus the King (1968), The Night of the Generals (1967), Inside Network (2010). He has acted in 24 films and TV shows including, Daisy Clover (1965), The Sound of Music (1965), The Fall of the Silence (2016, post-production), 99 Homes (2014), The Amazing Roman Empire (1964), Captain Brassbound's Conversion (1960, Spider-Man 2 (2014), The Amazing Spider-Man (2012), The Social TV Movie), A Doll's House (1959, TV Movie), Johnny Belinda Network (2010), Never Let Me Go (2010), The Imaginarium of (1958, TV Movie), The Alcoa Hour (1956, TV Series), The Web Doctor Parnassus (2009), Red Riding: In the Year of Our Lord (1954, TV Series), Suspense (1953, TV Series), Studio One in 1974 (2009, TV Movie), Red Riding: In the Year of Our Lord 1980 Hollywood (1953, TV Series) and Encounter (1953, TV Series). (2009, TV Movie), Red Riding: In the Year of Our Lord 1983 (2009, TV Movie), The Other Boleyn Girl (2008), Lions for Lambs Tom Waits…Mr. Nick (b. December 7, 1949 in Pomona, (2007), Boy A (2007), Doctor Who (2007, TV Series), Simon California) was nominated for an Oscar in 1983 for Best Music, Schama's Power of Art (2006, TV Series), Swinging (2005, TV Original Song Score and Its Adaptation or Best Adaptation Score Series), Sugar Rush (2005, TV Series) and Mumbo Jumbo (2005, One from the Heart (1981) . He has acted in 31 films and TV Short). series including, The Simpsons (2013, TV Series), The Laughing Heart (2012, Short), Seven Psychopaths (2012), Twixt (2011), The Christopher Plummer…Doctor Parnassus (b. Arthur Monster of Nix (2011, Short), The Book of Eli (2010), The Christopher Plummer on December 13, 1929 in Toronto, Ontario) Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus (2009), Wristcutters: A Love won an Oscar in 2012 for Best Performance by an Actor in a Story (2006), Domino (2005), Coffee and Cigarettes (2003), Supporting Role for Beginners (2010). Christopher Plummer Mystery Men (1999), Coffee and Cigarettes III (1995, Short), Short became the oldest winner of a competitive Oscar, at 82, surpassing Cuts (1993), Dracula (1992), At Play in the Fields of the Lord the achievement of Jessica Tandy. He also won a Golden Globe for (1991), The Fisher King (1991), Queens Logic (1991), The Two the same film in the same category. He has also been nominated Jakes (1990), Bearskin: An Urban Fairytale (1989), Cold Feet for three additional Golden Globes, all for Best Actor in a (1989), Mystery Train (1989), Greasy Lake (1988, Video), Supporting Role, including in 2010 for the The Last Station (2009), Ironweed (1987), Candy Mountain (1987), Down by Law (1986), in for The Last Station (2009) and in 2001 for American Tragedy The Cotton Club (1984), The Stone Boy (1984), Rumble Fish Gilliam—THE IMAGINARIUM OF DR. PARNASSUS-—3

(1983), The Outsiders (1983), One from the Heart (1981), Wolfen (2003), Ed Wood (1994), Benny & Joon (1993) and Edward (1981) and Paradise Alley (1978). He has composed for 14 films, Scissorhands (1990). He has acted in over 75 films and TV shows, videos and TV series including, Language of the Night (2014, some of which are Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Documentary short, completed), Yo y Maru 2012 (2013, Short), Tales (2017, post-production), Alice Through the Looking Glass Susret (Short) (2011), The Keeper (2009, Short), Ole & Jarl (2009, (2016, post-production), Black Mass (2015), Tusk (2014), TV Series, 4 episodes), Don't Say a Word (2005, Short), The Transcendence (2014), Lucky Them (2013), The Lone Ranger Dream Studio (2004, Video documentary short), The Soul of (2013), 21 Jump Street (2012), Pirates of the Caribbean: On Saturday Night (2003, Video short), El plantador de árboles Stranger Tides (2011), The Tourist (2010), Alice in Wonderland (2001, Short), Herencia (1995, Short), Night on Earth (1991), (2010), Public Enemies (2009), The Imaginarium of Doctor Örült és angyal (1989), La première journée de Nicolas (1984, Parnassus (2009), SpongeBob SquarePants (2009, TV Series), Short) and One from the Heart (1981). Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (2007), Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End (2007), Pirates of the Heath Ledger…Tony (b. April 4, 1979 in Perth, Australia—d. Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest (2006), Charlie and the Chocolate January 22, 2008, age 28, in New York City, New York) won the Factory (2005), The Libertine (2004), Finding Neverland (2004), 2009 Oscar for Best Performance by an Actor, as well as the Secret Window (2004), Once Upon a Time in Mexico (2003), Golden Globe, both for Best Performance in a Supporting Role in Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (2003), The Dark Knight (2008). Awarded posthumously, the Oscar was Blow (2001), Chocolat (2000), Before Night Falls (2000), The Man accepted by his father, mother and sister and the Golden Globe was Who Cried (2000), Sleepy Hollow (1999), The Astronaut's Wife accepted by on the actor’s behalf. In 2006, he (1999), The Ninth Gate (1999), Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas was nominated again for both an Oscar and Golden Globe for Best (1998), Donnie Brasco (1997), Dead Man (1995), Don Juan Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role for his role in DeMarco (1994), Ed Wood (1994), What's Eating Gilbert Grape Brokeback Mountain (2005). Ledger acted in 23 films and TV (1993), Arizona Dream (1992), Freddy's Dead: The Final series including, The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus (2009), Nightmare (1991), Edward Scissorhands (1990), 21 Jump Street The Dark Knight (2008), I'm Not There. (2007), Candy (2006), (1987-1990, TV Series), Platoon (1986) and A Nightmare on Elm Casanova (2005), Brokeback Mountain (2005), The Brothers Street (1984). Grimm (2005), Lords of Dogtown (2005), The Order (2003), Ned Kelly (2003), The Four Feathers (2002), Monster's Ball (2001), A Jude Law…Imaginarium Tony 2 (b. David Jude Law on Knight's Tale (2001), The Patriot (2000), Two Hands (1999), 10 December 29, 1972 in Lewisham, London, England, UK) has been Things I Hate About You (1999), Paws (1997), Home and Away nominated for two Oscars, one in 2004 for Best Actor in a Leading (1988-1997, TV Series), Blackrock (1997), Roar (1997, TV Role for Cold Mountain (2003) and one in 2000 for Best Actor in a Series), Sweat (1996, TV Series), Ship to Shore (1993-1994, TV Supporting Role for The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999). He has acted Series) and Clowning Around (1992). in 59 films and TV series including, Knights of the Roundtable: King Arthur (2016, post-production), Genius (2016), Spy (2015), Black Sea (2014), The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014), Anna Karenina (2012), Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows (2011), Hugo (2011), 360 (2011), Contagion (2011), Repo Men (2010), Sherlock Holmes (2009), The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus (2009), Rage (2009), Sleuth (2007), All the King's Men (2006), Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events (2004), The Aviator (2004), Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow (2004), I Heart Huckabees (2004), Cold Mountain (2003), Road to Perdition (2002), A.I. Artificial Intelligence (2001), Enemy at the Gates (2001), The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999), Immortality (1998), Final Cut (1998), Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil (1997), Gattaca (1997), I Love You, I Love You Not (1996), Shopping (1994), The Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes (1991, TV Johnny Depp…Imaginarium Tony 1 (b. June 9, 1963) has been Series) and The Ragged Child (1988, TV Movie). nominated for two Oscars, both for Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role, once in 2008 for Sweeney Todd: The Demon Colin Farrell…Imaginarium Tony 3 (b. May 31, 1976 in Barber of Fleet Street (2007), and once in 2005 for Finding Castleknock, Dublin, Ireland) won a Golden Globe in 2009 for Neverland (2004). He has won one Golden Globe for Best Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture - Comedy or Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture - Comedy or Musical Musical for In Bruges (2008). He has acted in over 47 films and for Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (2007), as television series some of which are Solace (2015), True Detective well as being nominated for an Oscar for Best Actor in a Leading (2014, TV Series), Miss Julie (2014), Winter's Tale (2014), Epic Role for Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (2013), Dead Man Down (2013), Total Recall (2012), London (2003). Additionally, he has been nominated for nine additional Boulevard (2010), The Way Back (2010), Crazy Heart (2009), Golden Globes for Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Ondine (2009), Triage (2009), The Imaginarium of Doctor Picture for his work in The Tourist (2010), Alice in Wonderland Parnassus (2009), Pride and Glory (2008), In Bruges (2008), (2010), Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest (2006), Cassandra's Dream (2007), Miami Vice (2006), The New World Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (2005), Finding Neverland (2005), Alexander (2004), S.W.A.T. (2003), Veronica Guerin (2004), Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (2003), Daredevil (2003), The Recruit (2003). Minority Report Gilliam—THE IMAGINARIUM OF DR. PARNASSUS-—4

(2002), Tigerland (2000), The War Zone (1999), Falling for a Dancer (1998, TV Movie) and Frankie Starlight (1995). Gilliam started his career as an animator and strip cartoonist. One of his early photographic strips for Help! featured future Python cast member . When Help! folded, Gilliam went to Europe, jokingly announcing in the very last issue that he was "being transferred to the European branch" of the magazine, which, of course, did not exist. Moving to England, he animated sequences for the children's series Do Not Adjust Your Set, which also featured Eric Idle, , and . Monty Python Gilliam was a part of Monty Python's Flying Circus from its outset, at first credited as an animator (his name was listed separately after the other five in the closing credits), later as a full member. His cartoons linked the show's sketches together, and defined the group's visual language in other media (such as LP and book covers, and the title sequences of their films). Gilliam's animations mix his own art, characterised by soft gradients and (from Wikipedia) Terrence Vance "Terry" Gilliam (born 22 odd, bulbous shapes, with backgrounds and moving cutouts from November 1940) is an American-born British screenwriter, film antique photographs, mostly from the Victorian era. director, animator, actor, comedian and member of the Monty In 1978, Gilliam published a book called Animations of Python comedy troupe. Mortality, which was an illustrated tongue-in-cheek, semi- Gilliam has directed 12 feature films… The only autobiographical how-to guide to his animation techniques and "Python" not born in Britain, he became a naturalised British visual language in them. Roughly 15 years later, between the citizen in 1968 and formally renounced his American citizenship in release of the Monty Python's Complete Waste of Time CD-ROM 2006. game in 1994 which used many of Gilliam's animation templates, Early life and the making of Gilliam's film Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas Gilliam was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota, the son of Beatrice (1998), Gilliam was in negotiations with one software company (née Vance) and James Hall Gilliam. His father was a travelling called Enteractive, Inc. to tentatively release in the autumn of 1996 salesman for Folgers before becoming a carpenter. Soon after, they a CD-ROM under the same title as his 1978 book, containing all of moved to nearby Medicine Lake, Minnesota. his thousands of 1970s animation templates as free license clip arts The family moved to the Los Angeles neighbourhood of for people to create their own flash animations out of them, but the Panorama City in 1952. Gilliam attended Birmingham High project hovered in limbo for years, probably because Enteractive School where he was class president and senior prom king. He was was about to downsize critically in mid-1996 and later change its voted "Most Likely to Succeed", and achieved straight A's. During focus from CD-ROM multimedia presentations to internet business high school, he began to avidly read Mad magazine, then edited by solutions and web hosting in 1997 (in the introduction to their Harvey Kurtzman, which would later influence Gilliam's work. 2004 book Terry Gilliam: Interviews, David Sterrit and Lucille Gilliam later spoke to Salman Rushdie about defining experiences Rhodes cited "the internet" overwhelming "the computer- in the 1960s that would set the foundations for his views on the communications market" as reason for why the Animations of world, later influencing his art and career: Mortality CD-ROM had never materialised). Around the time of “I became terrified that I was going to be a full-time, Gilliam's film The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus (2009), the bomb-throwing terrorist if I stayed [in the U.S.] because it was the project had morphed into the idea of releasing his 1970s animation beginning of really bad times in America. It was '66–'67, it was the templates as a free license download of Adobe After Effects files first police riot in Los Angeles. [...] In college my major was or similar. political science, so my brain worked that way. [...] And I drove Besides doing the animations, he also appeared in several around this little English Hillman Minx—top down—and every sketches, though he rarely had any main roles and did considerably night I'd be hauled over by the cops. Up against the wall, and all less acting in the sketches. He did however have some notable this stuff. They had this monologue with me; it was never a sketch roles such as Cardinal Fang of the Spanish Inquisition, the dialogue. It was that I was a long-haired drug addict living off bespectacled commenter who said "I can't add anything to that!" some rich guy's foolish daughter. And I said, "No, I work in from the sketch, Kevin Garibaldi (the brat advertising. I make twice as much as you do." Which is a stupid on the couch shouting "I want more beans!" from "Most Awful thing to say to a cop. [...] Family in Britain 1974", Episode 45) and the Screaming Queen in “And it was like an epiphany. I suddenly felt what it was a cape and mask singing "Ding dong merrily on high." More like to be a black or Mexican kid living in L.A. Before that, I frequently, he played parts that no one else wanted to play thought I knew what the world was like, I thought I knew what (generally because they required a lot of make-up or poor people were, and then suddenly it all changed because of that uncomfortable costumes, such as a recurring knight in armour who simple thing of being brutalized by cops. And I got more and more would end sketches by walking on and hitting one of the other angry and I just felt, I've got to get out of here—I'm a better characters over the head with a plucked chicken) and took a cartoonist than I am a bomb maker. That's why so much of the number of small roles in the films, including Patsy in Monty U.S. is still standing.” Python and the Holy Grail (which he co-directed with Terry Jones, Gilliam graduated from Occidental College in 1962 with a where Gilliam was responsible for photography, while Jones Bachelor of Arts in Political Science. Gilliam—THE IMAGINARIUM OF DR. PARNASSUS-—5 would guide the actors' performances) and the jailer in Monty usually feature a fight or struggle against a great power which may Python's Life of Brian. be an emotional situation, a human-made idol, or even the person Directing himself, and the situations do not always end happily. There is With the gradual break-up of the Python troupe between Life of often a dark, paranoid atmosphere and unusual characters who Brian in 1979 and The Meaning of Life in 1983, Gilliam became a formerly were normal members of society. His scripts feature screenwriter and director, building upon the experience he had black comedy and often end with a dark tragicomic twist. acquired during the making of Monty Python and the Holy Grail. As Gilliam is fascinated with the Baroque due to the historical Gilliam says he used to think of his films in terms of trilogies, age's pronounced struggle between spirituality and logical starting with Time Bandits in 1981. The 1980s saw Gilliam's self- rationality, there is often a rich baroqueness and dichotomous written Trilogy of Imagination about "the ages of man" in Time eclecticity about his movies, with, for instance, high-tech computer Bandits (1981), Brazil (1985), and The Adventures of Baron monitors equipped with low-tech magnifying lenses in Brazil, and Munchausen (1988). All are about the "craziness of our awkwardly in The Fisher King a red knight covered with flapping bits of cloth. ordered society and the desire to escape it He also is given to incongruous through whatever means possible." All juxtapositions of beauty and ugliness, or three movies focus on these struggles and antique and modern. Regarding Gilliam's attempts to escape them through theme of modernity's struggle between imagination; Time Bandits, through the spirituality and rationality whereas the eyes of a child, Brazil, through the eyes of individual may become dominated by a a thirty-something, and Munchausen, tyrannical, soulless machinery of through the eyes of an elderly man. disenchanted society, film critic Keith James Throughout the 1990s, Gilliam Hamel observed a specific affinity of directed his Trilogy of Americana: The Gilliam's movies with the writings of Fisher King (1991), (1995), economic historian Arnold Toynbee and and Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas sociologist Max Weber, specifically the (1998), which played on North American latter's concept of the Iron cage of modern soil, and while still being surreal, had less rationality. fantastical plots than his previous trilogy. Look and style Themes and philosophy Gilliam's films have a distinctive “Well, I really want to encourage a kind of look not only in mise-en-scène but even fantasy, a kind of magic. I love the term more so in photography, often recognisable magic realism, whoever invented it – I do from just a short clip; to create a surreal actually like it because it says certain atmosphere of psychological unrest and a things. It's about expanding how you see world out-of-balance, Gilliam frequently the world. I think we live in an age where uses unusual camera angles, particularly we're just hammered, hammered to think low-angle shots, high-angle shots, and this is what the world is. Television's Dutch angles. Roger Ebert has said "his saying, everything's saying 'That's the world is always hallucinatory in its richness world.' And it's not the world. The world is a million possible of detail." Most of his movies are shot almost entirely with things.” rectilinear ultra wide angle lenses of 28 mm focal length or less to — Terry Gilliam: Salman Rushdie talks with Terry Gilliam achieve a distinctive signature style defined by extreme perspective As for his philosophical background in screenwriting and distortion and extremely deep focus. Gilliam's long-time director directing, Gilliam said on the TV show First Hand on of photography Nicola Pecorini has said, "with Terry and me, a RoundhouseTV: "There's so many film schools, so many media long lens means something between a 40mm and a 65mm." This courses which I actually am opposed to. Because I think it's more attitude markedly differs from the common definition in important to be educated, to read, to learn things, because if you're photography which qualifies 40mm to 65mm as the focal length of gonna be in the media and if you'll have to say things, you have to a normal lens instead, due to resembling the natural human field of know things. If you only know about cameras and 'the media', view, unlike Gilliam's signature style defined by extreme what're you gonna be talking about except cameras and the media? perspective distortion due to his usual choice of focal length. In So it's better learning about philosophy and art and architecture fact, over the years, the 14mm lens has become informally known [and] literature, these are the things to be concentrating on it as "The Gilliam" among film-makers due to the director's frequent seems to me. Then, you can fly...!" use of it since at least Brazil. Gilliam has explained his preference His films are usually highly imaginative fantasies. His for using wide-angle lenses in his films: long-time co-writer Charles McKeown comments about Gilliam's “The wide-angle lenses, I think I choose them because it makes me recurring interests, "the theme of imagination, and the importance feel like I'm in the space of the film, I'm surrounded. My prevalent of imagination, to how you live and how you think and so on [...] vision is full of detail, and that's what I like about it. It's actually that's very much a Terry theme." Most of Gilliam's movies include harder to do, it's harder to light. The other thing I like about wide- plot-lines that seem to occur partly or completely in the characters' angle lenses is that I'm not forcing the audience to look at just the imaginations, raising questions about the definition of identity and one thing that is important. It's there, but there's other things to sanity. He often shows his opposition to bureaucracy and occupy, and some people don't like that because I'm not pointing authoritarian regimes. He also distinguishes "higher" and "lower" things out as precisely as I could if I was to use a long lens where layers of society, with a disturbing and ironic style. His movies Gilliam—THE IMAGINARIUM OF DR. PARNASSUS-—6

I'd focus just on the one thing and everything else would be out of office; and 12 Monkeys went on to take over US$168 million focus. [...] worldwide; whilst The Brothers Grimm, despite a mixed critical “My films, I think, are better the second and third time, reception, grossed over US$105 million worldwide. Gilliam's frankly, because you can now relax and go with the flow that may $30 million-budgeted film The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus not have been as apparent as the first time you saw it and wallow had also become an international box office success, grossing over in the details of the worlds we're creating. [...] I try to clutter [my $60 million in worldwide theatrical release. According to Box visuals] up, they're worthy of many viewings.” Office Mojo, his films have grossed an average of $26,009,723…. In another interview, Gilliam mentioned, in relation to the The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus 9.8mm Kinoptic lens he had first used on Brazil, that wide-angle The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, directed and co-written by lenses make small film sets "look big". The widest lens he has used Gilliam, was released in 2009. In January 2007, Gilliam announced so far is an 8mm Zeiss lens employed on The Imaginarium of that he had been working on a new project with writing partner Doctor Parnassus. Charles McKeown. One day later, the fansite Dreams reported that Production problems the new project was titled The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus. Gilliam has made a few extremely expensive movies beset with In October 2007, Dreams confirmed that this would be Gilliam's production problems. After the lengthy quarrelling with Universal next project and was slated to star Christopher Plummer and Tom Studios over Brazil, Gilliam's next picture, The Adventures of Waits. Production began in December 2007 in London. Baron Munchausen, cost around US$46 million, and then earned On 22 January 2008, production of the film was disrupted only about US$8 million in US ticket sales. The film saw no wide following the death of Heath Ledger in New York City. Variety domestic release from Columbia Pictures, which was in the process reported that Ledger's involvement had been a "key factor" in the of being sold at the time. film's financing. Production was In the mid-1990s, suspended indefinitely by 24 Gilliam and Charles McKeown January, but in February actors developed a script for Time Johnny Depp, Jude Law, and Bandits 2, a project that never Colin Farrell signed on to came to be made. Several of the continue Ledger's role, original actors had died. Gilliam transforming into multiple also attempted to direct a incarnations of his character in the version of Charles Dickens's A "magical" world of the film. Tale of Two Cities, which Thanks to this arrangement collapsed due to disagreements principal photography was over its budget and choice of completed 15 April 2008 on lead actor. schedule. Editing was completed In 1999, Gilliam November 2008. According to the attempted to film The Man Who Killed Don Quixote, budgeted at official ParnassusFilm Twitter channel launched on 30 March US$32.1 million, among the highest-budgeted films to use only 2009, the film's post-production FX work finished on 31 March. European financing; but in the first week of shooting, the actor During the filming, Gilliam was accidentally hit by a bus and playing Don Quixote (Jean Rochefort) suffered a herniated disc, broke his back. and a flood severely damaged the set. The film was cancelled, The film had successful screenings including a premiere resulting in an insurance claim of US$15 million. Despite the at the 62nd Cannes Film Festival. The UK release for the film was cancellation, the aborted project did yield the documentary Lost in scheduled for 6 June 2009 but was pushed back to 16 October La Mancha, produced from film from a second crew that had been 2009. The USA release was on 25 December 2009. Eventually, hired by Gilliam to document the making of Quixote. After the this $30 million-budgeted film had grossed more than $60 million cancellation, both Gilliam and the film's co-lead, Johnny Depp, in worldwide theatrical release and received two Academy Award wanted to revive the project. The insurance company involved in nominations. the failed first attempt withheld the rights to the screenplay for The film's end credit states that the film is dedicated to the several years but the production was finally restarted in 2008. memories of Ledger and William Vince. Depp, Farrell, and Law Gilliam has attempted twice to adapt Alan Moore's donated their proceeds from the film to Ledger's daughter…. Watchmen comics into a film. Both attempts (in 1989 and 1996) Personal life were unsuccessful. Most recently, unforeseeable problems again Gilliam has been married to British make-up and costume befell a Gilliam project when actor Heath Ledger died in New designer Maggie Weston since 1973. She worked on Monty York City during the filming of The Imaginarium of Doctor Python's Flying Circus, many of the Python movies, and Gilliam's Parnassus. movies up to The Adventures of Baron Munchausen. They have Box office three children, Amy Rainbow Gilliam (born 1978), Holly Dubois On the other hand, Gilliam's first successful feature, Time Bandits Gilliam (born in October 1980), and Harry Thunder Gilliam (born (1981), earned more than eight times its original budget in the on 3 April 1988), who have also appeared in and/or worked on United States alone; Gilliam's infamous box office flop The several of Gilliam's films. Adventures of Baron Munchausen (1988) was nevertheless In 1968, Gilliam obtained British citizenship, then held nominated for four Academy Awards (and won, among other dual American and British citizenship for the next 38 years. In European prizes, three BAFTA Awards); his $24 million-budgeted January 2006 he renounced his American citizenship. In an film The Fisher King (1991) (his first film not to feature a member interview with Der Tagesspiegel, he described the action as a from Python) grossed more than $41 million at United States box protest against then-President George W. Bush, and in an earlier Gilliam—THE IMAGINARIUM OF DR. PARNASSUS-—7 interview with The A.V. Club, he also indicated that it was related actor—was at heart I don’t have the neediness or incompleteness to concerns about future tax liability for his wife and children. As a that will ultimately drive you in that direction…. result of renouncing his citizenship, Gilliam is only permitted to spend 29 days per year in the United States, fewer than ordinary I’d gone there with no expectation of getting a job, but Id British citizens. Gilliam maintains a residence in Italy near the saved enough money working at Camp Trinity to buy a bit of time, Umbria-Tuscany border. He has been instrumental in establishing and I just wanted to give myself a chance to make something the annual Umbria Film Festival, held in the nearby hill town of happen. The first time I stepped out of the station at Times Square, Montone. Gilliam also resides in North London. the impact of the looming tall buildings hit me right in the guts. That’s the fundamental difference From Terry Gilliam, between LA and New York—the Gilliamesque (HarperDesign, former is flat, while the latter is 2015): way over your head. People didn’t My imagination was generally look at the best part of always stimulated by enclosed the buildings—which was the worlds with their own distinct tops—because their gaze was hierarchies and sets of rules— glued to the pavements, but my whether they be the virtual neck was craning upwards. I think reality of Disney’s that’s why so many of my films Tomorrowland, or the medieval (Brazil and The Fisher King being castles or Roman courts of the the obvious ones, but it applies ‘sword and sandal’ movie epics, also to Baron Munchausen and which I loved just as much. Time Bandits as well) ended up Such well-defined social structures give you something to react having a vertiginous aspect—because it’s taken me decades to against and take the piss out of, and I’ve always—and I still do process the overwhelming impact of my first arrival in New this—tended to simplify the world into a series of nice, clear-cut York… oppositions, which I can mess around at the edges of. It's when things become more abstract and unclear that I start to struggle. When you grow up—as I did—reading Grimms’ fairy tales and the Bible, there’s no question that you see it as your duty There are few more exotic and compelling examples of a to change the world for the better. And I think that’s why, for all self- contained community than the travelling show, and some of my frequent recourse to irony and/or sardonic sarcasm, my films my most vivid childhood memories were supplied by the annual have always been repositories of idealism—both in terms of the visits of the Clyde Beatty circus, which used to set up in the car process of making them and the subject matter of the films park in Panorama City and put the word out for local kids to come themselves. Cynicism can often be the way of covering up one’s and help raise the tents. They’d give you a bit of money in return own inability to do great deeds. In a way I think that was what had for the work you did, but I found the carnival atmosphere so so drawn me to the British sense of humour, because the Brits had intoxicating that I’d probably have done it for nothing. They almost patented that response—they’d failed an empire, but them always needed extra pairs of hands and one year, when I was by learning to accept failure and make fun of it, they’d almost thirteen or fourteen, I ended turned that into a positive thing…. up helping out in the freak- show tent. The experience of In film-making terms, a lot seeing all the exotic circus of directors I’ve been friendly acts sitting around playing with—from John Landis to Martin cards—just like everyday Scorsese—have tended to shoot people, except they were pin- with a trailer full of reference videos heads or dwarves—has stayed (now it would probably be ) with me to this day. It wasn’t so they can study various classic just the revelation that these templates of the scene they’ve got in extraordinary people would mind. But being one of the those behave in such a normal way guys who sits in the National that fascinated me—in Gallery trying to get a perfect copy retrospect that should have of the Rembrandt has never been been obvious—it was the what it’s about for me. I’m much moment when the show more interested in using what I think would begin, the barkers would introduce them, ‘All the way from I remember of something as a template, rather than going back to the darkest Africa…’ and they’d have to instantly make that check the actuality, because that way I know it’s been through my transition to being ‘the leopard man’ or ‘the alligator boy’…. alembic (the alembic being the distiller that alchemists use for turning base metal into gold, although in my case it does tend to I was always very gregarious and loved making people work the other way round.)… laugh, but I think ultimately the reason I was never going to become a performer first and foremost—and certainly not an Losing one leading man in the middle of filming—as we did when Jean Rochefort’s double herniated disc killed Quixote— Gilliam—THE IMAGINARIUM OF DR. PARNASSUS-—8 was very bad luck. Losing two was starting to look like did a bang-up job, making almost twice the money in Italy that we carelessness. I wish I could say that somehow wrestling The did in the US). At times like that, you find yourself wondering Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus onto the screen after Heath Ledger ‘What’s going on here? Have I been wrong, and they’ve been right died in the middle of the shoot was the heroic last stand of a all along? But then you—or at least I—just think, ‘Fuck ’em.’ director who refused to bow down to the dictates of a malevolent From Gilliam on Gilliam edited by Ian Christie. Faber & destiny. But it wasn’t really like that. Faber, London & NY, 1999 Everyone was utterly stunned when the news of Heath’s death came through—it was beyond horrible. It was impossible, (The figure of comparison Gilliam evokes is Welles, unbelievable, unbearable. Not only had we lost a wise and joyous thinking of his struggle with Hollywood from The Magnificent friend, a part of our family, but an extraordinary talent who, I have Ambersons onwards, and perhaps also of his unfinished Don no doubt, would have been the greatest of his generation. I just Quixote, another long-planned Gilliam project. Welles, of course, said, ‘I don’t give a fuck about the film. I give up. It’s finished. I’m was also a magician. A fabulist. And in his own way an exponent old and tired and worn out and I want to go home.’ Luckily, I of the quest theme. But if there is another illuminating comparison, surround myself with people who don’t listen to anything I say. it is surely with Sergei Eisenstein. Although Gilliam rejects the My daughter Amy—who was one of the film’s producers— Nicola Eisenstein of ‘audiovisual counterpoint’, just as Tarkovsky scorned Pecorini and my friend Ray Cooper kept telling me, ‘You can’t do the Eisenstein montage he had been taught, it is arguable that these that, you’ve got to finish it for Heath.’ Whatever arguments they two film-makers are reacting more to a fusty image of Eisenstein used for a full week and a half—or maybe even two—to rouse me than to the quicksilver, questioning reality of ‘the little boy from from my slough of despond. Even Riga’ behind the legend. There then, I didn’t personally have the are striking parallels between strength and resilience to find a Eisenstein’s graphic way forward, they just pushed me understanding of cinema as an art to the point where I had no other of construction and combination choice, so it became the line of and Gilliam’s multi-layered, least resistance. allusive works; and they share a My thought process mordant, self-deprecating started off like this: ‘OK, you’ve cartoonist’s wit. The anecdotal got to get someone to replace fact that, on a visit to Eisenstein’s Heath, but there’s no one person museum-apartment in Moscow, who is good enough, and even if Gilliam dislodged a Disney there was, I don’t want to work cartoon while reaching for with him even if he was Eisenstein’s own copy of available—which he won’t be at this short notice—and we don’t Munchausen seems a sure sign of poetic kinship.) have the time to re-do the whole film.’ Then I realized, ‘He goes through the magic mirror three times, so maybe we could get three What are your earliest memories? different actors to play him.’ I was partly thinking of Luis Bunuel’s Snow White is the first movie I can remember and The That Obscure Object of Desire, where two different actresses play Thief of Bagdad was the first film to give me nightmares. But I the same character but mainly about how if the part was divided also remember having scarlet fever–one of the many fevers you into three, Heat’s three replacements would only need to turn up could get in Minnesota–and that was the first time I really for a few days. hallucinated. I was in the bedroom, and I could hear my parents in It’s amazing how often the most satisfying and effective the kitchen and the refrigerator was blowing up and killing them solutions to seemingly insurmountable film-making problems turn all. It’s remained with me, as if I’m still in that room. I still have out to be completely counter-intuitive. If you need someone to play certain dreams that cling, which I’d swear are real, because my a giant, it’s always best to ask a short fat-arse. And if you’re senses and my whole body seem to have experiences them. That’s agonisingly short of one A-list male lead, why not just get three to always been the problem, not knowing what’s real and what isn’t. replace him? I’ve got this sense memory of dreams I remember clearly, yet other I was determined that it was only going to be people who things that really did happen I don’t remember at all, so which is really knew and loved Heath, so my first call was to Johnny Depp, more valid? I only know that one has formed me more than the who said he would do anything to help. His promise stopped the other: that’s been basic from the beginning…. frantic retreat of the money people, who knew the film would never be finished, and bought us time to get Jude Law and Colin The other thing that was important to me as a kid was Farrell to join the ride to the rescue. Not only was it extraordinary radio. I’m convinced it gave me half of my imagination., or at least for those three to step in at such short notice, they gave their fees exercised those muscles. Whole worlds existed in this little box, to Heath’s daughter. Heath’s spirit seemed to be infusing all of us. and you had to people them with faces, build the sets, do the In fact, when we finished Dr Parnassus I thought it was one of the costumes, do the lighting, everything. It certainly introduced me to best things I’d ever done. much more than I was getting in Minnesota. There were two I remember watching it all the way through and thinking, worlds: one was real, with trees, and plants and snakes, which I ‘This is so good—I can’t make a better film than that.’ As it turned loved and wallowed in; and the other was the exotic realm of The out, not as many people as I’d hoped agreed with me and Sony Shadow, The Fat Man, Let’s Pretend and Johnny Lujack, Catholic Classics, the American distribution company, didn’t help by barely Quarterback from Notre Dame. The stories were always dark– promoting te film despite its stellar cast (unlike the Italians, who Gilliam—THE IMAGINARIUM OF DR. PARNASSUS-—9 somehow radio is good for shadows–and they tended to be urban. What in you didn’t do was go down the road that extra block and … become a Catholic–one of those papists and slaves of Rome! . . . In the end, I decided that religion is about making people feel You have to leave spaces for people’s imaginations to do comfortable–providing explanations and giving answers–while the work. When I make a film, I lay things out but I don’t always magic is about accepting the mystery and living with question show how they relate. I juxtapose things and the mind has to make marks. Mystery intrigued me more than answers. The difference the connections. It’s not that I want to confuse the audience, like between Close Encounters of the Third Kind and 2001: A Space it’s a puzzle to be solved. I try to make the audience work at it and Odyssey is that the end of Kubrick’s film is a question, while the do their bit, and if it succeeds then everyone comes out with their end of Close Encounters is an answer–and it’s a really silly own film. I know the story I’m trying to tell, but the one they come answer–little kids in latex suits. away with may be a different one, which is fine and dandy because they’ve become a part of the film-making process. In general America tends to be afraid of nonsense. That’s what I liked about English comedies–they From when I was a little kid, I weren’t afraid to be nonsensical–but always drew cartoons. The first contest America’s always too busy being earnest, I won, when I was about ten, I won by moulding itself, wanting everything to be cheating–and so my career began. educational. We’d gone to the zoo and we were supposed to draw an animal that we’d Terry Jones and I went crazy over remembered. I’d slipped a book in Borowczyk because his films were so under my desk and I copied a bear, much about atmosphere and texture. which won me a box of crayons. So I came from a world where Doris from the beginning I was cheating and Day and Rock Hudson films used to drive stealing! I think my mother has kept me crazy, because everyone in them was some early drawings I did of domestic so clean and well-scrubbed and shiny, things, such as a Hoover, that became with perfect white teeth and hair always Martians. Instead of in place. The world isn’t like that, yet it anthropomorphizing, I was alienizing was depicted this way in the cinema and them. The other very important people seemed to believe it, which really element was that we were serious bothered me. . . . churchgoers and I read the Bible all I think that was why I moved to the way through. . .twice. You can’t New York, to get away from all the beat those stories for scale and drama cleanliness and neatness, which felt and passion., and I grew up with all of artificial, and to live instead in squalor, that. which felt honest and real.

Thanks to all the church stuff . . . I have to say that one bit of when I was a kid, and with my father a reading that is absolute bullshit is what carpenter and my mother clearly a Eisenstein wrote about his music scores- virgin, I knew who I was, and my composition of picture goes left, right, desire for martyrdom was considerable. A few years ago my wife rising, so the music’s got to rise in the same shape. Rubbish. For Maggie said she’d never really thought about mortality, and I years I believed this because the guy was a genius; in fact, I think a found myself saying that every single day since I was a kid I’ve lot of my life has been spent believing in geniuses and their thought about my own death. I always felt I was chosen and that I godlike stature–especially their total control over what they do, had something special–which is easy to translate into the wrong their complete understanding of everything that they do. But I’ve things if you’re not careful. That’s where humour has been my never experienced that: it’s always been after the event. saving grace. When I look at other directors–all of whom are I think that was Eisenstein’s experience too. A lot of his clearly mad and think they’re God–the question is: how to combat writing . . .is really an attempt to understand what he’d done the feeling that you’re the Messiah with all the answers. I had a intuitively in his films. As he said, more than once, ‘No one ever sense of what the truth of things was and I wanted to clear the asks if I follow my own principles.’ But it’s true that it can look as world out a bit and do good, and yet my sense of humour always though he’s completely in control. undercut these impulses. ‘I fight not for me but for the gift that I’ve Did I tell you about my one trip to Moscow, when we got’–this idea comes from a religious background. Well, I’m not showed Brazil? I went to the Eisenstein Museum with David the Messiah, but I’ve got a lot of stuff here which has to be Robinson, and I was already working on Munchausen. Suddenly I protected from all those other people who are trying to destroy it. saw a copy of Munchausen on the bookshelf, but when I reached up for it, I knocked a framed drawing on to the ground, which was What church did your family belong to? a cartoon that Walt Disney had done for Eisenstein. My plan all Presbyterian. Actually, I think we were Episcopalians in along was to make Munchausen as a Disney cartoon, but in live Minnesota, then we became Presbyterians when we moved to LA, action. Wasn’t that wonderful? I forgive Sergei all the bullshit. In because out there you could either be Lutheran or Presbyterian. fact, I’ve always loved his appearance, with that great beaming face and Eraserhead hair. November 24, 2015 (XXXI:13) Terry Gilliam, THE IMAGINARIUM OF DR. PARNASSUS (2009, 123 min)

COMING UP IN BUFFALO FILM SEMINARS 31 Dec 1 Béla Tarr, The Turin Horse, 2011 Dec 8 Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, A Matter of Life and Death/Stairway to Heaven, 1946

PRELIMINARY SPRING 2016 FILM LIST 1929 Pabst: Pandora’s Box 1939 Renoir: Rules of the Game 1946 Hitchcock: Notorious 1955 Ray Pather: Panchali 1968 Leone: Once Upon a Time in the West 1970 De Sica :Garden of the Fitzini Continis 1971 Friedkin: The French Connection 1980 Scorsese: Raging Bull 1996 Pacino: Looking for Richard 1997 Kurosawa: Ran 1999 Claire Denis: Beau Travail 2008 Folman: Waltz with Bashir 2012 Haneke: Amour 1951 Powell & Pressburger: Tales of Hoffman

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