Movie Monday: Parnassus is Pure Gilliam
The best place to catch me on a Friday at midnight during my high school days in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, besides a random house party, was a small one-screen independent movie house called The Times Cinema on West Vliet Street. A local college radio station, WMSE 91.7 Frontier Radio, sponsored the weekly late-night cult screenings known as The Midnight Movie. This was almost always a fun time; the atmosphere was relaxed and the audience would randomly shout stuff during the film.
You can imagine my friends and I occasionally preempted these nights with illicit drug use. One evening I found myself unable to handle the bizarre visuals/plot of Terry Gilliam’s Brazil while intoxicated. Before walking home I had a chat (in my mind) with the life-size plastic statue of Alfred Hitchcock that stands in the theatre lobby. I wonder what inanimate Hitchcock would think of Gilliam’s latest opus, The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus? Personally, I think it’s worth a trip to the temple.
In his initial encounter with the Devil aka Mr. Nick—played brilliantly by music legend Tom Waits — the title character claims, “You can’t stop stories being told.” Mr. Nick replies, “That’s a weak hypothesis.” If you know about Gilliam’s production difficulties you can see how close this statement hits home. As such, the film is Gilliam’s most personal to date. Parnassus’ much-ignored traveling show is analogous to the ex-Python member’s filmmaking career. In the film Parnassus is compelled to enlist the help of the mendacious Tony — Heath Ledger’s final role — in order to stop his daughter from being handed over to the Devil on her sixteenth birthday. In real life Gilliam must deal with slimy studio executives to get his films produced and distributed.
If art did not imitate life what would be its purpose? Pure entertainment, I guess. Since we have more than enough of that these days, I’m rooting for sincerity, complexity and visual poetry—all reasons I enjoy this film. Most critics quibble over its confusing plot. That the film is somewhat hard to follow is an assertion I’m not going to refute. But aren’t easy narratives boring and kind of annoying? When I go to the cinema I don’t want to be spoon-fed. I want to be entertained, but I also want to think.
A good chunk of the film takes place in the fantastic realm behind the magic mirror, which becomes a blend Parnassus’ mind and the imagination of those who enter. Considering a lot of crazy shit goes on in our minds, I can understand why it would be particularly tough to follow those scenes. Nonetheless, the sidetracks into the Imaginarium are worth the ride. Gilliam does a great job of juxtaposing the realism of modern London and the surreal dimension behind the magical mirror, something I feel Cameron could have done better in Avatar.
While the prevailing reading of the film is classic morality parable, it seems to me that ignorance vs. imagination is the major theme. As in most of Gilliam’s work you can find a biting indictment of modern Western society throughout Imaginarium. Whether it’s an absent-minded ten-year old playing his handheld device, drunk barhopping twenty-somethings, or vacuous middle-aged women shopping at an upscale mall desperate for the salvation Tony convinces they will find behind the mirror, they are all examples of how mindless and unimaginative we can be. Other timely themes pop up throughout the film, including child labor, spirituality vs. cold logic, police brutality (in a delightful Python-esque Imaginarium scene featuring bobbies in skirts and heels) and the institutionalization of charity work, which is especially relevant in light of the recent devastation in Haiti and the subsequent relief effort.
Montréal native and all-around charming lead actor Christopher Plummer is winning as the often drunk, downtrodden, gambling, ex-Himalayan monk Doctor Parnassus. Tom Waits steals the show with a beguiling interpretation of Beelzebub. Between the three actors (Johnny Depp, Jude Law and Colin Ferrell) who stand-in for Heath Ledger, Farrell does the best job capturing Tony’s essence. It works visually since they had wrapped all the London shooting prior to Heath’s unfortunate passing, so all stand-in work happens in the CGI world of the Imaginarium, where visitors are often physically altered versions of themselves. We can only imagine how Tony would have unraveled if Heath wouldn’t have left us so suddenly. But so it goes. I would say the unsung member of this impressive cast is Andrew Garfield, who plays Anton, Parnassus’ main man in the traveling show before Tony shows up and who pines for Parny’s daughter Valentina, played by model Lily Cole in her debut acting role.
As one reviewer of the film said in a video for needcoffee.com, “”it’s like snorting a line of pure Gilliam. It’s like you powdered his brain…and snorted it.” Take this into consideration if you are going to see this film. I might even suggest giving it the same treatment my high school friends and I occasionally gave the Midnight Movie. Next week I’ll take a look at Heath Ledger’s devastating performance as heroin junky in the 2006 Australian film Candy, which is about two kids in love with each other and heroin. Until then, be safe and don’t forget about the children of the world who have suffered for our sins. While you’re at it rent Brazil.
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- Movie Monday: Darkness Before The Joker
- A&SB Presents: Movie Monday [omfg]
- Movie Monday: Charlie Wilson’s War
- Movie Monday: Inglourious Basterds
- How To Save The Oscars
