"The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus": Gilliams's Metaphysical Mirror

In a world where Terry Gilliam is an immortal storyteller and Tom Waits is the devil, no one's imagination is safe. This is the creative depth charge that is Gilliam's latest film, "The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus." The film is a soaring spectacle at odds with the post-modern world; befit for Gilliam's triumphant return as the king of magic realism and a memorial for the tragic passing of its star Heath Ledger.

"The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus"reunites Gilliam with a number of his past collaborators. Most notably his star from "The Brothers Grimm" Heath Ledger, whose untimely death in 2008 has haunted the release of "The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus". Innovative cinematographer Nicola Pecorini, also returns to Gilliam's "Imaginarium", after being fired by the Weinstein brothers from Gilliam's "The Brothers Grimm."Pecorini and Gilliam have also visually stunned us in "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas" and "Tideland." Pecorini was also slated to shoot Gilliam's ill-fated "The Man Who Killed Don Quixote", but the only footage survives in the documentary about Gilliam's quixotic quest, "Lost in La Mancha."

Johnny Depp is still in talks with Gilliam to complete Quixote, after their work together on "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas"and "Imaginarium." Depp, along with Jude Law and Colin Farrell, jumped at the chance to help Gilliam complete "Imaginarium" in tribute to their fellow thespian Heath Ledger. Another powerhouse actor reuniting with Gilliam on "Imaginarium" as the title character Doctor Parnassusis the ubiquitous Christopher Plummer. Plummer played Dr. Goines, the father of Brad Pitt's crazed eco-terrorist in Gilliam's "12 Monkeys." Plummer is joined by another Gilliam collaborator, Verne Troyer ("Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas") as Dr. Parnassus's irreplaceable dwarf assistant, Percy.

Lastly, but certainly most essentially is the reuniting of Gilliam with screenwriter Charles McKeown. Gilliam and McKeown had met during the heyday of Monty Python's filming of "Monty Python's Life of Brian." As Gilliam had said in an interview about their collaboration on "Brazil", the director was enamored with McKeown's ability as an actor to continually fall down a hole and make it repeatedly hilarious. This led McKeown to co-write the screenplay for Gilliam's masterpiece "Brazil" with heavyweight playwright Tom Stoppard. McKeown then wrote the screenplay for Gilliam's "The Adventures of Baron Munchausen."

McKeown and Gilliam's recent collaboration in "The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus"is a far greater accomplishment than the overambitious "Brazil", as McKeown is again able to blueprint the hyper-imaginative storytelling of Gilliam. "Brazil", while visionary and imaginative,seemed torn between Monty Python-esque absurdity (Gilliam and McKeown) and the lingering theme of British alienation (Stoppard). With "The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus", McKeown is able to give Gilliam a script where he can comfortably color outside of the lines.

"The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus"is, like author Jack Mathews writes of "Brazil", "Quintessential Gilliam...unrestrained imagination springing full-blown into view...In Gilliam's mental universe, there are no rules, just a canvas and ideas."¹ McKeown provides this canvas as the visceral, yet heady acting of Ledger, Plummer, Depp, and Tom Waits breathe the ideas to life.

Yes, Tom Waits who plays Mr. Nick, an incarnation of the devil himself, like an old friend from the dark corners of your memory. Anyone made intimate with Waits songwriting and deep throaty voice knows he is an ideal choice for the Devil in Terry Gilliam's realm of fantasy. Wait's interpretation of the devil is like a monkey on your back that brings comfort; that troubled companion who can't be denied a friendly wager.

Gilliam pits one of his trademark themes, imagination, as the solution to this Faustian tale. Storytelling is the fabric of the cosmos for Doctor Parnassus, and the devil tempts us instead to craft the greediest path in the story we tell ourselves. The gift of Doctor Parnassus, who is an oracle-like monk gone rogue as a traveling sideshow freak, is to guide audiences through the looking glass of their own imaginations. His goal is to empower the imagination so that it can realize salvation through acceptance of personal bliss.

This is a theme Gilliam and McKeown have returned to from "Brazil"; the power of imagination to transcend the shackles of the ordinary. As McKeown said in an interview, "It ("Imaginarium") is about the theme of imagination, and the importance of imagination...And that's very much a Terry theme."²

Like the dystopian society in "Brazil", the modern society we see in "The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus", is the death of imagination. We see youth numbing their existence in floods of alcohol, children locked into electronic oblivion and middle aged women lost in the futility of consumptive material pacification. This ever-present world is the disheartening realism of Gilliam's journeys into cinematic magic. Society's constant temptation by the devil of greed, alienation and intoxication is the gravity that Gilliam's fantastical rocket ship tries to lift us off from.

This is the Terry Gilliam of today; no less the force of imagination he was from animating the brilliance of Monty Python. Back in a 1981 interview Anne Thompson wrote, "Gilliam possesses the imagination and daring of an animator. He isn't bound by reality, and with his motion picture seasoning...he now knows how to make his visual conceits work with live actors operating in earth's gravity."³

Yet, as with "The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus", the core of the director's thematic travels is embedded in humanism. In writing about "Brazil"author Stephen Prince would agree writing; "Gilliam's outlook is fiercely humanistic."⁴ Gilliam's faith in the human spirit, love, intelligence and imagination is as fierce as his visual mastery on screen.

The scenes with Health Ledger in "The Imaginarium" seem haunted by what was the actor's expanding screen presence. Ledger had achieved mythological stature with his portrayal of The Joker in Chris Nolan's "The Dark Knight." The release of Gilliam's film posthumously takes on an eerily literal resurrection, as we first see Ledger's character hung by a rope from a bridge. He is saved by the imagination and compassion of Doctor Parnassus's troupe, just as Ledger's memory is preserved in Gilliam's troupe of filmmakers.

The shinning light born of this film is the breakthrough role of English model Lily Cole, who plays the troubled daughter of Doctor Parnassus. Cole's performance captures the materialistic ambitions of today's youth, and she lets her innocence find salvation in the creative mind of Parnassus, a metaphysical mirror for Terry Gilliam as father of the film. Her imaginative Innocence is purified, despite having romantic scenes with Health Ledger, Colin Farrell and Christopher Plummer in her debut as a leading lady.

Gilliam's "Imaginarium" is a triumphant for all these reasons; it resurrects recent and painful memories with grace, it gives birth to new stars and celebrates veteran talents. "The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus"is homage to filmmakers, who are the traveling troupes of America's sideshows, peddling the benefits of imagination. It is a rumpus ride that doesn't try to satirize modern society, but instead tackles it with the tact of a master street performer. Like Gilliam himself, it is a street performer who is both visionary in form, but sentimental for the storytelling that keeps the universe in ebb and flow.

References

1)--Mathews, Jack, The Battle of Brazil, Hal Leonard Corporation, 1998, pg. 20.
2)--Dreams: The Terry Gilliam Fanzine: http://www.smart.co.uk/dreams/parncmck.htm
3)--Thompson, Anne, "Bandit" in Terry Gilliam: interviews, University Press of Mississippi, 2004, pg. 4
4)--Prince, Stephen, American Cinema of the 1980s, Rutgers University Press, 2007, pg. 131.