Gilliam Goes CGI
There are perhaps only two American directors I can think of that employ visual styles that unapologetically engross whatever story is being told. The first and certainly more prolific is Tim Burton. The second and unfortunately consistently out-of-work director is Terry Gilliam. 100 years ago they would surely have been world famous painters or something. They are perfect example of my theory that all the best artists have left the still-life painting world and gone into movies. (I also happen to believe all the best poets have become musicians or screenwriters. (Sculptors have become bodybuilders, ha ha.)) I think Gilliam’s style can best be described as “Salvador Dali visits a junkyard.” Still that’s doesn’t do it justice. If anything, Dali is a very unaccomplished Gilliam who does art in really static and boring ways (and doesn’t use as much trash.) It’s not Dali’s fault he’s so inferior though. He just didn’t have the technology. Movies and CGI special effects in general allow artists such as Gilliam to go places a guy like Dali never could. This movie is also a perfect argument for my idea to clean out all the crap-art in the MOMA and just hang still frames from great movies for a change.
The story in this movie is kind of convoluted. Doctor Parnassus, played by Christopher Plummer, made a bet with Mr. Nick, aka the devil played by Tom Waits, that he could use his imagination to capture more souls (of apparently innocent passersbys) than the devil could. Doctor Parnassus won the bet and Mr. Nick granted him eternal life. Unfortunately, as all bets with the devil turn out, it was a blessing in disguise. Doctor Parnassus ages, he just never dies. 1000 years later he’s on the street accompanied only by his dwarf friend, played by Verne Troyer, begging for change. At this point a beautiful woman, played by the supermodel Lily Cole, walks by and Parnassus falls in love. Mr. Nick, always liking a deal, agrees to grant Parnassus his youth again so he can woo her in exchange for his first-born daughter at the age of 16 (again Lily Cole). Fast forward another 100 years (the movie doesn’t go chronologically by the way) to the beginning of the movie when Parnassus is at the centerpiece of some freak travelling show that hangs outside modern bars near freeway underpasses. He has an imaginarium that does crazy shit. His fellow travelling band members find a mysterious stranger named Tony, played by Heath Ledger, hanged somehow from the underside of a bridge. He’s got this lucky fife and has a plan to…
Well, whatever. Suffice to say that the story doesn’t really matter. Or should I say the story matters as much as the story in one of your dreams matter. It seems pretty vivid and real when you’re in it. Places, people, and things transform and transition into different places, people, and things quite seamlessly. But once you awake you can’t really remember what logic wound the whole thing together. Every thing blurs like a stream of consciousness. But I want to make the point that I wasn’t entirely bothered by this. I may not have understood what was going on some of the time but there was always incredible dazzling visual somethings to behold. This is one of those movies you can play muted on your TV during a party. I bet it would be a great conversation piece. (Is this supposed to be an acid trip? What the hell is going on??)
Stuff needs to be said about the imaginarium. How it works is this: A person walks into it and gets transported into a fantasyland created by the mind of Doctor Parnassus. This place will usually be tailored to the traveler inside. Like say a kid has a candy-land fantasy imagined for him. A wealthy woman has a fantasy filled with gigantic pearl necklaces, gold coins, and high heels. Etc. etc. Every single trip inside the magic mirror is something different and something special. At the end of the trip the traveler is presented with a choice between choosing the imagination of Mr. Nick (like say a shady bar or seedy inn) or of Dr. Parnassus (steep staircase to heaven, a bunch of transvestite cops dancing a show tune.) Whoever wins gets the traveler’s soul. Then there’s how Gilliam dealt with Heath Ledger’s death halfway through shooting the picture. All the principal on-set shooting had already been finished so all there was left was imaginarium scenes. Well, instead of just throwing in the towel because one of the major actors passed away, Gilliam just invented the idea that Tony’s looks are morphed by whatever imagination is being serviced in the imaginarium at that time. So each of Tony’s trip into the imaginarium produces a different movie star cameo: Johnny Depp, Colin Farrel, and Jude Law respectively (wow two good Jude Law movies in a week. I’ve stepped into the twilight zone). This works splendidly mostly because no logic is required in an imaginarium. The best thing about the imaginarium scenes though is that they are in CGI. What this does is offset Gilliam’s notorious penchant for real life grunge. What I’ve noticed while watching Gilliam’s many movies is how ugly (though very imaginative) the art direction is. (Ex. 12 Monkeys, Time Bandits, Monty Python). Fortunately it’s practically impossible to do something as realistic as dirty grungy trashy trash with CGI. So Gilliam was forced to design some beautiful art for a change. This movie proves he can.
The actors casted in this movie are like Gilliam works of art in themselves. Google Lily Cole, Verne Troyer (aka Mini-me from Austin Powers) and Christopher Plummer and see what I mean. All of them fit neatly in ancient surrealistic landscapes. Perhaps the best character though is Mr. Nick played by the rockstar Tom Waits. You should look that guy up on Pandora. He’s got a gravelly voice that bests Bob Dylan. The devil has never sounded so devilish. We had an especially poor collection of Supporting Actors in this year’s Oscar Race. Tom Waits was unfairly overlooked. Last but not least is Heath Ledger. His performance was the hardest to wrap my head around. If it had all been done by Ledger, it may have made more sense. But this is something I’m not about to hassle a dead man about. He did fine and the Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus is a pretty good movie to go out on. It at least speaks to his very ambitious taste for interesting roles in fearless movies. He will be missed. Rest in Peace.
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