.
Terry Gilliam has mastered the genre of film, and you can depend on being kept off balance throughout one of his efforts. The Holy Grail was one of the easiest to follow and enjoy (and was mostly directed by a team consisting of Ian McNaughton and Terry Jones, I believe, though Gilliam's stamp seems to be everywhere in the film), and a close second was The Life of Brian, in whose production I'm sure Gilliam played a role. But of his movies that I've seen, the most characteristically his are, in my opinion, The Time Bandits, and The Meaning of Life, and Baron Munchausen (the adventures of).
The Imaginarium is an interesting movie. We gradually learn that the ancient Doctor Parnassus was originally a monk from an Asian monastery, who makes a bet with the Devil, which he wins. He gets immortal life, and then proceeds to make another series of bets, each of which is tagged onto the next, so that if he wins the last one, he wins them all.
Unfortunately, the last bet is placed on Parnassus's daughter, whom he dotes on, and it looks as though the Devil is about to win.
With the power of the Devil, the immortal Parnassus has a traveling magic show which, though on the face of it is simply juggling and sleight-of-hand, is the front to a truly magical experience. A customer can choose to enter the Imaginarium through a flexible door made of reflective sheets, mounted in a frame on Parnassus's traveling stage. But once the customer passes inside, he or she enters a space which is inside Parnassus's mind. Most of what is experienced by the customer is generated by the customer's imagination, interacting with Parnassus's mind, powered, of course, by the Devil. Parnassus's helpers sometimes find themselves inside the Imaginarium's magical space, either as protagonists, or as passive actors. There are a lot of blanks to fill. With so much chaos in the so-called conceits of the story, it is a miracle that enough logic survives for us to believe that there is any cause-and-effect. The conclusion is satisfying. The Devil (spoiler alert) turns out to be a good sport, which should stick in the craw of most devout Christians, ha ha.
The movie is worth watching even if just to experience the wonderful performances of Heath Ledger, Lily Cole (the famous model, who turns out to be a wonderful actress), Christopher Plummer, Johnny Depp, Jude Law, and a number of other less well-known actors.
The story is based on the Faust myth, but has sufficiently many new wrinkles to make it a delightful new entry in the Faust myth genre.
Arch
No comments:
Post a Comment