A Make-or-Break Film for Gilliam: The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus
At long last The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus is starting to see the light of day! This first trailer looks amazing, it sort of reminds me of what Terry Gilliam was doing with Brazil in a roundabout way. Many folks are focusing on the fact that this was Heath Ledger’s last film, but for me th real story is that this is a make-or-break moment for Terry Gilliam.
Gilliam is of course a genius, but the film gods (and well Hollywood) has not always been kind to him. I was sad when Ledger died, but my first thoughts went to Terry who I’m rooting for to make a bit of a comeback. What I love and what most people hate about Gilliam is that he’s not afraid to take chances. From Gilliam you won’t see a sequel to 12 Monkeys and instead what you may get is a film like The Adventures of Baron Munchausen: However I’ll gladly suffer through another dozen Munchausens to get to see a film half as brilliant as Brazil before I die.
So Terry: Please know that us cinema fanboys are rooting for you to hit a home run! Sadly we’re not the mindless Hollywood suits who can greenlight a project or cut you a check, but as long as you can make it past those drones we’ll line up to buy our tickets. And know this – even if we can’t find a proper movie theater, we’ll gladly Netflix you any day of the week…
Below: A French interview with Terry Gilliam on the making of his classic Brazil.