The Adventures of Baron Munchausen

Title: The Adventures of Baron Munchausen

Director:  Terry Gilliam
Released: 1988
Starring: John Neville, Sarah Polley, Eric Idle, Jonathan Pryce, Oliver Reed, Uma Thurman, Bill Paterson, Charles McKeown, Winston Dennis, Jack Purvis, Robin Williams, Valentina Cortese, Peter Jeffrey, Allison Steadman, Ray Cooper, Sting

Plot: The fantastical tale of 18^th century aristocrat and teller of tall tales Baron Munchausen (Neville) who along with his band of talented henchmen and theatre owner’s daughter Sally Salt (Polley) must band together to save a city from the invading Turk army.

 

Review: Opening in an unnamed and war-torn city in Europe, during the late 18^th century in a period dubbed “The Age of Reason” while more precisely on a Wednesday were a theatre troupe are putting on a production of Baron Munchausen’s life and adventures, despite the city currently being under siege and city official “The Right Ordinary Horatio Jackson” (Pryce) continues to reinforce the city’s commitment to reason or more precisely uniformity. Its at this moment that an elderly man claiming to be real Baron Munchausen bursts into the theatre critizing the players for getting his story wrong and essentially setting in motion the many strange and wonderful events which follow, while equally setting the tone for this third and final entry in Gilliam’s “Trilogy of Imagination” which started with “Time Bandits” and “Brazil” and which could in many ways been seen as the films that the Monty Python team would have made, had they not called it a day with “The Meaning of Life”.

This film is also the one which has since its release become something around of a millstone around the neck of Gilliam’s career thanks to its trouble production and spiralling costs which saw his original budget of $23.5 million balloon into $45.63 million by the end of production, while Columbia’s new CEO Dawn Steel refusing financing previously agreed by her predecessor David Puttnam. The situation also not being helped by the film failing at the box office despite highly positive reviews it would only claw back a paltry $8 Million. Despite the film going on to become a cult favourite it has however continued to dog Gilliam career ensuring that he’s constantly had to fight for funding for the films which followed and no doubt explaining why he’s remained more of an indie director in the years which followed starting with his “Trilogy of Americana” made up of The Fisher King, 12 Monkeys and Fear and Loathing In Las Vegas.

Unquestionably this film is one of Gilliams most fantastical films as he seemingly sets out with a vision to try and top the imagery of Brazil and Time Bandits, while crafting what could almost be seen as a “Gulliver’s Travels” style adventure as we follow this fantastical creation on a series of ever more fantastical adventures as he rides a cannonball, escapes a city in a hot air balloon made of women’s undergarments, meets the king of the moon (Williams credited here as Ray D. Tutto) and the roman god Vulcan (Reed) and even gets eaten by a large fish. It’s really the sort of film that only Gilliam could think about attempting while one he is yet to top in terms of imagery with “The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus” being the closest he’s come, though even that film doesn’t really come close to matching the feeling of scale and grandeur that this film has, no doubt as the result of this film being shot purely with the use of practical effects.

While it is easy to get caught up in the all the visual flair, this is actually a surprisingly straightforward tale with the Baron and Sally escaping the city and along the way meeting up with the older versions of the Baron’s loyal henchmen made up of Bethold (Idle the world’s fastest runner, Adolphus (McKeown) the crackshot marksman with superhuman eyesight, Gustavus (Purvis) the dwarf who not only has super hearing but also the ability to blow down an entire army and finally the super strong Albrecht (Dennis). More amusing is seeing these heroes as their younger selves in the Baron’s first tale of how he avoided being beheaded by Sultan Mahmud (Jeffrey) and then as we follow the Baron on his journey seeing them all as old men, with Gustavus now pretty much deaf while Adolphus is by all appearances now blind. Seeing them all pull it together for a final showdown with the Sultan unsurprisingly left me with a dopey smile especially when this battle contains so many comical moments such as Bethold attempting to outrun a snipers bullet only to turn it into the world’s greatest trick shot.

One of the real strengths of the film is in its casting especially when it comes to the supporting cast which amongst them sees Robin Williams here working for free camping things up as the king of the moon, whose head and body are able to work separate from each other, while more surprising is the fact that this role had originally been written for Sean Connery only for him to deem it not kingly enough for him. Oliver Reed meanwhile is equally fascinating to watch as the roman god Vulcan when the baron and his followers seemingly get sent to hell and were Reed seems to be more concerned with projecting his own performance and giving us odd little touches such as turning a piece of coal into a diamond. These stop off each coming with something different and it’s these characters we encounter on these stop off which make the journey so fun that you never really question the fact that none of it really makes a lick of sense.

For the established fans of Gilliam's work there is much to enjoy here, especially when he is playing up the visual side of things as much as he does, especially using some great touches such as theatrical flat screens to tell his story and while some aspects might not work such as the reoccurring character of the Angel of death whose effects are especially ropey and some of the plot might be more plodding than it needs to be this is still a highly memorable and entertaining film and one which is truly deserving of its cult status, even with its confused ending this is still a fun fantasy film directed in a way that only Gilliam can.  

The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus

Title: The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus
Director: Terry Gilliam
Released: 2009
Staring: Heath Ledger, Christopher Plummer, Verne Troyer, Lily Cole, Andrew Garfield, Tom Waits, Johnny Depp, Colin Farrell, Jude Law

Rating: 4 / 5

Plot: Doctor Parnassus (Plummer) is the leader of a travelling theatre troupe and having made a deal with the devil (Waits) years before, has gained the ability to allow members of the audience to explore the wildest parts of thier imaginations, by travelling through his magic mirror. The group however is soon thrown into disarray when they rescue Tony (Ledger) who despite claiming to have amnesia, hides his own set of secrets, setting to work as a barker for the show, while meanwhile the devil returns with a new wager for Parnassus to help him save the soul of his daughter Valentina (Cole).



Review: It’s been awhile but it’s safe to say that Terry Gilliam, has finally returned to his fantastical roots, after having spent what seems like an eternity hanging around in the real world, rather than the fantastical landscapes he showed us during the early years of his career with “Time Bandits” (1981), “Brazil” (1985) and the seriously underrated “The Adventures of Baron Munchausen” (1988), which it could be said was responsible for Gilliam shifting his focus into the real world to begin with, especially more so when the film is frequently seen as the black mark on his career, thanks largely to numerous problems it suffered during production.
Despite this shift in focus, Gilliam has continued to make exciting an interesting films and personally I was excited to see him return to his more fantastical self, which could be said is due to the the mixed and frequently controversial reaction recived by his last film “Tideland” (2005).

Despite the film suffering a major set back, with the sudden death of Heath Ledger, an event which lead to Gilliam hiring Johnny Depp, Colin Farrell and Jude Law to fill in the breaks in filming, which after seeing the finished film it would appear to luckily be, from what I can see, to be mainly the scenes in which Ledgers character journeys into the Imaginarium with members of the audience, acting as their guide through the fantastical world, with these three taking on his guise, but due to the way which Gilliam sets these scenes up, it’s almost as if he planned it all along, for Tony’s features to change with every trip he takes in the Imaginarium, only to return to his original face upon leaving. Still these moments also seem to mark out different aspects of Tony’s personality such as his womanising charm (Depp), his desire to raise his social profile (Law) and finally his ruthless nature (Farrell) especially when it comes to keeping his secret which is hinted at throughout. Still as creative as this idea is, it does however make the portrayal of Tony, extremely uneven with Depp and Ledger having fun with the character, while both Farrell and Law struggling to portray their respected sides, making me wish that they’d just let Depp handle these scenes, especially when he sets the bar to high for both Farrell and Law to follow, even if Farrell does provide several great moments, the more frustrated and overwhelmed he becomes during this final trip inside the Imaginarium.
The rest of the cast are none the less surprising with the casting choices, with Troyer clearly greatful to break away from being Mini me / drunk reality TV star as he embraces the chance at a rare serious role, while model turned actress Cole gives a great playful performance as Valentina as does Waits as the devil, a role it would seem he was born to play, as he lurks always in the background, teasing and playing with Parnassus while truly coming alive during his scenes in the Imaginarium, were he frequently turns up in the most unusual of places, frequently becoming part of the scenery, as he attempts to lure the souls of the visitors to the Imaginarium, as part of the on going game between himself and Parnassus.

It’s clear from the start that Gilliam is doing something for himself with this film, even more so with the Imaginarium scenes, which are almost like taking a trip inside the brain of Gilliam, especially seeing how these parts are when he truly lets his creativity loose, with each trip seemingly being tailored to suit the visitor, with a materialistic woman finding a land of over sized shoes and jewellery, while for a young box it becomes more of a giant balloon popping game. Even the real world, he has still found a way to bring some magic to the screen, with the giant lumbering horse drawn carriage, which folds out to create the stage the troupe form upon and it’s a fascinating creation, from the moment we first see it slowly moving down the streets of London, which was also when I found my first disappointment with the film, finding that the film is actually set in a modern day London, free from any form of fantastical elements, outside of the ones being brought by Parnassus and while it’s true that it makes the world inside the Imaginarium, all the more fantastical it did however feel like Gilliam wasn’t quite ready to fully to commit himself to a fully submerse world, like he did with his earlier films in particular “Brazil” which not only presented a strange and fantastical world (while also strangely playing like it was the missing Monty Python movie), but sucked you into this world allowing you to completely loose yourself in the story, were as the constant switches often prove distracting with your trip to through the imaginarium often cut short, though despite this it’s clear that Gilliam has still not lost his keen eye for the more fantastical elements.

While it might not be the last great Heath Ledger some of us were hoping for, it is still a fascinating film and nice to see Gilliam once again flexing his creative muscle, which certainly welcome, especially when the new wave of visionary directors such as Spike Jonze and David Fincher continue to become more mainstream with each film they make, it’s nice to know that Gilliam is still making films which still push visuals and storytelling in increasingly new and interesting directions and while it might not be his best work, it is thankfully a step back towards doing what he does best.