Ok, I couldn't wait any longer!
HAPPY BIRTHDAY, GILLY!! WE LOVE YOU!!
Friends, if you have a youtube account, please leave him a birthday comment there too!!
>>>>>>> CLICK HERE <<<<<<<
You could also leave a comment on my blog post. That would be lovely!
>>>>>>> CLICK HERE <<<<<<<
You don't have to be on Blogger to comment. You can just choose "Anonymous" or choose "Name/URL" and type in your name :D
Comments
Screaming Queen: I know I'm a bit late but I knew I had to check on here to see if there were any posts! HAPPY BIRTHDAY, TERRY!!! Hey, this video is really really really great! I like it a lot, it's very him...you did a wonderful job there! :D It was just so out there, so that's also why it's so him. Very funny...nice photos! There were at least like two I haven't seen! Keep it up!
arkennedy: Happy Birthday Terry
mrsCutout: HAPPY BIRTHDAY TERRY!!!!!!!!!!!One of the best directors of our time indeed!
So I saw the discussion and it's lovely! I'd just like to say that even though that Gilly doesn't think so Baron Munchausen is one of the best films ever made! Well all of his films are but anyway haha! My fave is Brothers Grimm.I obsessed with the film and it's director and this lead me to watch Life of Brian and to Monty Python!
That's awesome! I like people's 'how I got into Python' stories, so I think I might go off and start a thread now.
Hahah I saw the thread! :D
TheRealGilliamFan: Good idea Genji! And to keep the thread from bleeding into page 3 and 4 and so on, I’ll post my reply to your most excellent discussion starter at the top (because I hate thumbing through pages to find the newest reply Genji!! =) ;)
I could easily choose several films as my favorite, for totally different reasons. What many of his films have in common for me is that they look like paintings. And I think rather than list them off in a pecking order, I will start with one or two that the critics like to bash - for reasons which seem incomprehensible to me.
I’m really not an egghead so I will try not to be too egg-heady here. And I don’t think Gilliam fancies the egghead approach to dissecting his films, like, “it’s unequivocally about this or that.” Though I think Brazil has undeniable themes that everyone agrees on.
Baron Munchausen absolutely appeals to the child in me. And not just for its fantastical elements, but because it made me think. It made me think in a way that kids do. They ask questions. Gilliam’s execution of the King of the Moon scene is the epitome of surrealism. It is totally dream like. The kind of dream where you wake up and say whoa that freaky. And it sticks with you. And I remember the first time I saw it, my first thought was, “oh this is silly.” Then it started to make me a little uncomfortable. And then all these questions went through my head. Like, what would it be like to be a disembodied head (if one could actually be a disembodied head)? Would you have phantom sensations, and would you miss your body, and is that what it’s like to be dead?
I actually think there is somewhat of a preoccupation with death in (at least some of) Gilliam’s films.
And moving on to Tideland … also appeals to the kid in me. (More disembodied heads haha). It appeals to me because I was a loner as a kid and am still a loner as an adult. I actually felt, watching that film, like someone understands me. It made me laugh and made me cry. The last line of the film - about the fireflies – always makes me cry. And I thought propping Jeff Bridges up at the dinner table was hilarious. I found myself emotionally attached to Mustique, Glitter Gal, Baby Blonde and Sateen Lips. The critics are so focused on the junkie parents and the “dangerous” silly kissers and the “child abuse.” And I don’t know exactly how to express this, but I think people that didn’t like the film…. I think they might be people who don’t spend too much time alone with their own thoughts… and I think they’re taking it all too seriously. The film for me was about loneliness.
….I should probably expand upon these thoughts and make a blog post at some point.
And now…
A random list of things I love:
The Grand Central Station scene in Fisher King
Baron Munchausen and Venus dancing
The house filled with water in Tideland
The last scenes on the cliff with Tony, Mr. Nick and Parnassus – the visuals are kickass.
Fear and Loathing lounge lizards sequence
Sam Lowry’s lobotomy – disturbed the shit out of me
Harry Tuttle getting eaten by newspapers
One of the best scenes from Brothers Grimm is a deleted one! :(
What a fucking beautiful post. I can identify with so many elements of the way you describe it all. What a fitting tribute to a genius on his birthday. I could expand on my own reaction but I think that would just detract from what you've expressed. Well done, mate.
No! Expand, expand! This is a discussion :)
Ohhh... I suppose.
Well, first, I totally identify with being an outsider. I've always had friends around physically, but only ever temporarily made a connection on an 'other' level (emotional, spiritual, intellectual, whatever). So that perspective opens up Tideland for me in a way I didn't actually pick up on first time round. I didn't empathise with Jeliza Rose, even though I sympathised with her, partly because I've known girls like her and they're somehow more earthy and grounded in themselves. When a bloke is disconnected we don't earth ourselves in the same way and kind of float about, not knowing who to depend on - a bit like Dickens, I suppose.
Second, Munchenhausen and disembodiment - being cut off is not the end, it's just a snapshot.
Thirdly, death and the representation of death throughout Python and all the movies. I'm terrified of death, I admit, but when I watch his films I feel like it's not such a big deal.
Jack, go ye to the nearest liquor store, find ye the Jack of Daniels and get ye shitfaced - brilliant.
Anyway, mostly about Tideland and the focus on a dead dad, a playground romance with an older guy, the 'exploitation' - and if anything it's Jeliza Rose who does the exploiting, for totally justifiable reasons. IMO, anyway.
And then a big list of things that really prick one's memory.
One thing I would say is that, not being a particularly visually inspired person myself, although I buzz off Mr. Gilliam's visual expressions, I get so much more from his concepts. His ideas are beyond beyond.
I agree, it is totally a playground romance. And she is much older than Dickens, mentally and emotionally. I think people just refuse to separate the characters from the actors, because she is a little girl. Or they just want to paint her as a "victim" in that scenario - which really pisses me off.
I think if anyone is a victim in the story, it's Dickens. He's had a botched labotomy, for all intents and purposes. The surgery that he has had to cure his seizures -- people who have that procedure are supposed to have intense therapy afterward to restore their functionality. He's definitely the tragic figure in the story.
It's interesting, the word you chose -- "disconnected." Because she is totally disconnected or cut off from "normal" social interaction and so on, but she's totally connected to herself -- within herself. I think another thing that bothers people is that they interpret her as cold and not caring (moreso when Queen Gunhilda dies), but really she's processing both their deaths throughout the whole movie (her mother's death, through her relationship with Dell).
When I was 18 my grandfather died. A very close friend of the family (whose kids I babysat) attended the funeral. This was in the month of September. A month later, I was taking the 4-year-old who I babysat to a kid's birthday party. The leaves had changed and were falling. And while we were driving, he asked me "Is your grandpa gonna be alive again in the summertime." I'll never ever forget that.
I even cried a little for Dell when she lands on top of her mother and semi-crushes her. The whole thing is so grotesque (as in "the grotesque"), and yet fundamentally it serves the same purpose as keeping ashes in an urn -- not letting go. I love that Noah predicts (or forshadows) his own end with that bogman story.
And the film totally has the hamster factor all over it. That is why Gilly is such a genius, IMO. In so many interviews, he refers to himself as a collaborator (and he is) and says he just assembles really talented people (which he does, and is a talent in itself)... but it's how he puts it all together -- like a Bosch painting.