Brazil nut
Today as the shuttle bus from our hotel was pulling up to the convention center, our driver suddenly slammed the brakes, cursing out what someone in a seat near me called a fat old man on foot who cut right across the designated roadway, in the process almost getting hit by said shuttle. Under his breath the driver said, “Who’s this guy think he is?”
“He’s Terry Gilliam,” I said. And, from the looks of it, he was utterly oblivious to the chaos in his wake. (Which gave me a new insight into the wreckage of his attempted version of “Don Quixote.”)
Later in the day I got in to see the screening of clips from Gilliam’s forthcoming film, “The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus.” These may be, to use Gilliam’s words, “the boring parts,” but they looked pretty amazing to me. The dream world scenes look like live-action (and, of course, CGI) counterparts to his old Monty Python animations. Someone asked Gilliam what was his inspiration for those Monty Python animations and he was gentlemanly enough to once again pay tribute to his mentor Harvey Kurtzman, the genius who taught him all about going to the library and swiping from the greats of art. (Unfortunately, he learned nothing about jaywalking.) I’m looking forward to seeing “Parnassus” — and given the visual feel of those scenes, I’m going to see it on a big screen somewhere.
July 26th, 2009 at 6:56 am
Do whatever it is you do.
July 27th, 2009 at 2:05 pm
To really appreciate the collapse of the Don Quixote movie, you have to see the documentary LOST IN LA MANCHA. Amazing and sad.
July 27th, 2009 at 2:09 pm
Yes, I saw that. But to lose the entire production because one elderly actor hurts his back seems like… bad planning. There isn’t somewhere — somewhere? — another person who could have stepped into the role? Heath Ledger died during the middle of filming of Gilliam’s new movie, and they found a creative way to finish the movie (divvying up the remaining scenes among other actors). On “Quixote” they had only a few days of film in the can; why couldn’t they have recast? Especially since their film insurance kicked in.
July 27th, 2009 at 2:10 pm
P.S. Gilliam also said his next film is a second attempt at “Don Quixote,” working from a revised script.
July 28th, 2009 at 10:11 am
It’s been awhile since I saw LOST IN… but I remember there were other problems as well. They had contracted for a facility to film in and it was primative beyond belief. Wish it had ended otherwise but at least we got a fascinating documentary out of it.
July 29th, 2009 at 5:24 am
There was terrible storm that washed away a bunch of their equipment. It was a plagued attempt all around, with Mother Nature contributing to the Quixote curse…