Behind The Films

The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus

Directed By: Terry Gilliam

Starring: Christopher Plummer, Heath Ledger, Lily Cole, with Johnny Depp, Jude Law and Colin Farrell

Reviewer: Eric Smigiel


Terry Gilliam has never had that much success in the America’s or even that much success as a profitable filmmaker.  Yet, his films still find a way to get made as he has ideas to share and more stories to tell.  The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus goes back to the likes of his earlier films, which is a step in the right direction.  It touches on ideas previously touched on in The Adventures of Baron Munchausen and a personal favorite, Brazil.  Gilliam – back to the basics. This review will attempt to demonstrate the worlds created by Gilliam and his team as well as the overall look of the film.


First of all, his use of wide-angle lenses is used prevalently throughout the film.  It gives the film a grander, and somewhat more delusional and deliriously twisted perception of the films’ realities.  Since the story follows a group of rag-tag circus travelers, the wide-angle lens makes them seem all that much more odd.  For instance, one of the circus folk is a midget(Verne Troyer) and the angling of the camera along with the wide-angle lens makes him look a little more imposing, or a little more twisted… depending on the mood of the scene. They also can help accentuate an actors facial expressions, or make something look a little more in your face.  Instead of having a flat look to the flat theatre screen, you have a bubbled more round look.  A sort of 3-D without the 3-D glasses.


The coolest aspect about the film is when the main character Tony(Heath Ledger) jumps into a magic mirror that enters a gateway to your imagination through the main man that runs the show, Dr. Parnassus(Christopher Plummer).  On the other side, Tony looks like what he wants to look like.  If he takes a woman with him, he looks like their dream man… whether it’s Johnny Depp, Colin Farrel or Jude Law.  The main reason this was done from a filmmaking aspect is because Heath Ledger passed away before he could film the scenes on the other side of the mirror.  Getting the other actors to play Tony works better as the imaginative worlds he enters are very grand, colorful, and an overall change of scenery.  Why not change the look of the man that goes through to that different looking world?


The worlds the film brings to life are truly spectacular.  A favorite in particular is when Tony(as Ledger) runs into the mirror as he’s being chased by three men.  Everyone’s imagination comes together to create a land that looks like the backdrops in The Wizard of Oz, complete with rolling hills, grass that is sectioned off in squares, lush with trees, and soft-looking clouds in the sky.  A bright paradise.  Tony sees a Forbes-esque paper blow by the landscape.  A wealthy man is pictured.  It’s Jude Law.  Since he’s being chased by the three men, he decides to look like the man on the Forbes-esque paper.  Also in this landscape are thousand foot tall ladders that start on the land, heading up into the clouds.  He makes a run for the ladder climbing high up as the men follow up.  This is taking him nowhere.  Tony kicks the rungs of the ladder causing it to snap in half all the way down, also causing the men to fall off.  Seeing that he may get away faster from the men through this higher vantage point, he uses the left and right “legs” of the ladder as stilts to swing across this land.  Some pretty trippy stuff indeed!  But, that’s what we all come to expect when we see a film by Terry Gilliam.  And the visuals – while reminding me of other films – are still truly something I’ve never seen before as original happenings occur within them.  Another treat is seeing a desert land that is separated with a pyramid and a body of water.  On one side of the pyramid it is day and on the other side it is night.  Then, the desert quickly falls off and is a vast body of water.


The story itself features the Doctor making a deal with the devil, and through Gilliam’s story techniques it is told in the most hypnotic way possible.  The Imaginarium of Doctor Parassus also features what one may call an unhappy ending.  Slightly bittersweet.  As the midget and the doctor put on a puppet show, a young boy asks, “Does it have a happy ending?”  The midget responds, “We can’t guarantee that.”


Rating: 3/5