Terry Gilliam - C/D, S/D

I was once thinking of making a thread for bad cgi but the majority is so bad that thinking of good examples might be more interesting. Parnassus and Brothers Grimm suffered from bad cgi. And the sad thing is that I imagine even a lot of the bad stuff was really hard work.

Zero Theorem was better than I'd heard. It wasn't great (the ending in particular just kind of falls apart) but bits of it were ... alright. It's not as good as Parnassus by a long shot though.

Just watched Zero Theorem. I'm not surprised it wasn't a success but I was puzzled just how near non-existent the response was. It must have been expensive so the flop might have hit quite hard.

I felt like I just barely heard half the dialogue so I was confused a lot of the time and even if I understood the ending I really doubt it would have been very satisfying (I have doubts that Gilliam knew how to end it).
But even considering those flaws I still enjoyed this a lot. The design work is amazing, it's the prettiest shitty looking cyberpunk future I've ever seen. The main scene with the vortex looked great. I liked watching the characters. Even though it doesn't seem the proceedings added up to much, I'm surprisingly satisfied.

critics were muted and fairly negative. it never got a wide theatrical showing (in the us) or, seemingly, any promotional push. throw in a bleak and sometimes cryptic story, and its failure isn't too surprising. agree that the production design is marvelous, and christoph waltz was quite good in the lead. i enjoyed it, for the most part, but can't say i was satisfied.

I've seen Brazil, Time Bandits, Fisher King, & Baron Munschausen. I may have seen some portion of the Grimm movie, too, but who can remember? I cannot say I truly hated any of them. But after each of them I felt to some degree marked by muddy paw prints and assailed by the aroma of wet dog.

Yeah I've got quite warm feelings about Zero Theorem so I guess it exceeded my cautious expectations. I could see how some people would feel it's a weak retread of films like Brazil or doesn't have new things to "say".
But I think it has its own flavour.
Although Matt Damon is obviously kind of the villain, he doesn't seem nearly as powerful or sinister as I thought they would make him. There doesn't seem to be any grand menace or specific target to blame everything on. More realistic I guess.

Meantime he has a cameo in Jupiter Ascending, I gather.

A part in a western film too.

I assumed Zero Theorem was scripted by Gilliam but it isn't.

I could see how some people would feel it's a weak retread of films like Brazil...

...Although Matt Damon is obviously kind of the villain, he doesn't seem nearly as powerful or sinister as I thought they would make him. There doesn't seem to be any grand menace or specific target to blame everything on. More realistic I guess.

― Robert Adam Gilmour, Sunday, February 8, 2015 7:22 AM (2 hours ago)

yes to the former, though much more intimate. as for the latter, i saw qohen as his own villain.

Just watched a Gilliam interview and he said this was his cheapest film since the Python films. Really doesn't look like it but good for him.

even if I understood the ending I really doubt it would have been very satisfying

This was the only glaring flaw with it really, I liked it quite a bit overall.

Some other things he mentioned in interview.
He said it was largely about him wanting people to disconnect more and try to enjoy their isolation again because many of us are losing that. Learn to distance ourselves from the nonstop buzz of needing to be connected all the time.
The script had extra longer endings that were written to get the studios interested then Gilliam cut them out. I think he might have said the extra alternate endings would be on a DVD as extras but maybe he was joking because I don't know why he'd film them if he didn't like them from the beginning.

I felt like I just barely heard half the dialogue so I was confused a lot of the time and even if I understood the ending I really doubt it would have been very satisfying (I have doubts that Gilliam knew how to end it).

I got very frustrated by this and kept having to rewind. Gave up on it in the end.

This has lingered in my mind like few films have in the past year. I liked it better than Dr Parnassus.

Adam Driver is joining Michael Palin in Terry Gilliam‘s Don Quixote, “the film that has been in the pipeline for nearly 20 years,” reports Geoffrey Macnab for Screen. Shooting is slated for the fall.

http://www.screendaily.com/festivals/cannes/adam-driver-set-to-star-in-terry-gilliams-don-quixote/5103724.article

kinda more excited to learn Driver's in the new Jarmusch movie tbh

Filmed in my hometown! Jarmusch sure likes his faded industrial cities.

still may not happen...

http://theplaylist.net/adam-driver-confirms-terry-gilliams-man-killed-don-quixote-still-delayed-20161207/

Palin as Quixote? Huh.

the casting of rochefort was one of the very few things the original production had going for it, even with the thickly french-accented manchegan thing. Lack of depp can only be a good thing tho

like I said in the time bandits thread, this looked fucking horrible in 2000, it has pretty much no chance of being good in 2018

Gilliam hasn't felt worth watching for a long time which is sad to me because his early films are so great flaws and all

I couldn't bring myself to watch that last one about the guy with the magical computer program or whatever it was

although I was surprised that The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus was not actually as terrible as I expected

12 Monkeys was my last in fact

but i love Don Quixote so much i dunno i would be torn

it would not be the same as don quixote, so maybe that's the deciding factor for you

I'm just finishing up my first ever read of it, inspired by the ilb thread - it's so so so great and I would be interested in seeing quixotic attempts to film it whose synopses don't begin "an advertising executive called toby from our world"

I loved Tideland, reading back over this thread it looks like it was more divisive than I would have guessed?

I haven't seen 12 Monkeys in forever, all I really remember about it was finding Brad Pitt unbearable as the nervous tics asylum guy.

actually, isn't there a whole crew of awful wacky asylum inmate types in that film?

12 Monkeys is p dire, idk what ppl see in it

strangely, Chris Marker liked it

haven't felt the need to rewatch it in 20 years so *shrug*

iirc it isn't uniformly terrible

some good imdb trivia for 12 Monkeys:

Terry Gilliam was afraid that Brad Pitt wouldn't be able to pull off the nervous, rapid speech. He sent him to a speech coach but in the end he just took away Pitt's cigarettes, and Pitt played the part exactly as Gilliam wanted.

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A tagline originally suggested for this film was; "The future is in the hands of a man who has none." This was considered to be a confusing tagline, as it made it sound as though he had no hands, as opposed to having no future.

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don't know whats wrong with the three people who didn't find the cigarette thing interesting tbqh

tideland is… challenging, but i liked it a hell of a lot more than we're supposed to

Tideland is fucking creepy. Yes, I get that it's supposed to reflect how dark a young child's life can get, but there's just some stuff I don't want to indulge in fully. This movie is uncomfortable to the max.

I really liked Zero Theorem.

Still haven't seen 12 Monkeys in full and still don't feel like it. Haven't seen Time Bandits since I was 10 and I didn't like it back then so I might see it soon.

This movie is uncomfortable to the max.

it's hard work and not pleasant in any way. really it's the huge risk that i enjoyed most, and as a bonus it's visually mesmerising.

Tideland is one of the worst films I've ever seen

Tideland not just suit but ugly and dull

12 monkeys great, his best effort at an actual movie

Parnassus far better than expected

Trouble with Gilliam is that he's sure he's clever and his one message is worth half making a lecturing panto about every three years when he's patently quite stupid and has little to say beyond denigrating competence

God knows Tim Burton is total shit but his best and his career average shits on Gilliam despite sharing almost all the same flaws

XP hi jjj I knew praise for Tideland would get you in

Parnassus started out really great w lovely concept, great art design, but towards the end when he was chasing his alt selves it went down tohe tubes

Just for avoidance of doubt I'm voting D btw

having seen Time Bandits again recently, it still rules and is a whole lot of fun

it's hard work and not pleasant in any way. really it's the huge risk that i enjoyed most, and as a bonus it's visually mesmerising.

― Autumn Almanac, Tuesday, 7 February 2017 22:50

Really? I found it quite pleasant because a lot of the time she's having fun. I still think it's great.

Pleasant? Her father goes on a heroin infused journey and checks out of her life and she spends most of her time dissociating from the cruelty of adults through her puppets. I guess that's the beauty of interpretation.

PS. Robert, didn't mean that in any way as an attack

yeah 'pleasant' isn't the word i'd be using. her apparent happiness is the absolute consequence of everything that's wrong with her life imo (iirc; it's ages since i saw it).

"Mirrormask" did a similar theme well I thought.