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Many of you will be aware that Heath was shooting a movie when he died - it was called The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus and was being directed by the Monty Python star Terry Gilliam.
From Comingsoon.net:
Production Shut Down for Ledger's Parnassus?
Source: Us Magazine, Variety
January 23, 2008
According to Us Magazine, crew members on the Vancouver set of Heath Ledger's new fantasy, The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, were sent home after the actor's death yesterday.
"I just got the call [Tuesday] saying everyone was being let go," the on-set source said. "We were supposed to start this weekend, but obviously they fired everyone today. They don't know yet what they are doing with the footage that was already shot," the source added.
Ledger was on a break from filming Terry Gilliam's $30 million indie film when he died Tuesday. Shooting had begun in London last December. He was last photographed on set Jan. 19.
Variety says that blue-screen work was due to start next week in Vancouver and continue until early March.
The producers have yet to issue any statement about how or whether they plan to proceed without Ledger.
Ledger was the biggest name in an ensemble cast including Christopher Plummer, Lily Cole and Tom Waits. It's the story of an ancient travelling show which arrives in modern London with a magical mirror that can transport its audience into fantastical realms of the imagination.
Plummer plays the impresario Doctor Parnassus, and Ledger took the role of a mysterious outsider who joins the troupe on a quest through parallel worlds to save the doctor's daughter (Cole) from the clutches of the devil (Waits).
The movie is produced by Samuel Hadida, Bill Vince and Amy Gilliam, and largely financed through Hadida's Paris-based Davis Film.
Ledger's involvement in the project was a key factor in raising the finance. He had a strong relationship with Gilliam from their last pic together, The Brothers Grimm.
In November 2000, Gilliam was forced to abandon his $32 million indie project The Man Who Killed Don Quixote after just a week of shooting, when his star Jean Rochefort was too ill to continue.
Ledger's death also came as he was working on what would have been his feature directing debut, an adaptation of the Walter Tevis novel "The Queen's Gambit," with British writer/producer Allan Scott.
The leading role of a young female chess prodigy had been offered to Oscar nominee Ellen Page. Ledger, himself a highly rated chess player, was due to play a supporting role.
What I didn't realise was that Heath was a major financer of this film. The biggest apparently.
Also, Heath had been in London only days before - he had finished shooting in london and would be moving to canada to do the last part of the film.
Principal photograpy was completed and wrapped three days before he died.
The canada part was apparently the films photography, post-production photography such as the special effects, green screen and soundstage photography - so they are less then half way thorugh its production process.
So will this film come out? - well I guess it depends on financial backing - will Heath's money still be in place? And what about financers who had backed because Heath was in it?
It also would be dependant on what and how much is already shot, and if they can finish in a dignified and cost-effective manner. Replace him and refilm everything? or use CGI and stunt doubles and changes to the scripts like in Gladiator and The Crow?
Only time will tell I guess. I really hope its finished with him in it. It'll be a lasting legacy
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Gilliam has already had his fair share of badluck when it comes to his movies, so I found out today....
Trivia
He started to direct "The Man Who Killed Don Quixote" in 2001 (in Spain) with Johnny Depp, Vanessa Paradis and Jean Rochefort but the shooting was unfortunately stopped a couple of days after it started because of Jean Rochefort's health problems (he couldn't ride a horse any more). But Terry Gilliam said that he won't give up and that he will try again later because he dreams about making this movie!
During the filming of Brazil (1985) he became so stressed that he temporarily lost the use of his legs, which only returned to normal several weeks later.
J.K. Rowling, creator of the "Harry Potter" book series, originally wanted Gilliam to direct Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (2001), but Warner Brothers studios wanted a more family friendly film and eventually settled for Chris Columbus.
Was slated to direct an adaptation of the novel "Good Omens" by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett. The project languished in development for three years before finally being abandoned.
Also turned down directing Braveheart (1995), when briefly solicited by Mel Gibson to direct an abandoned film version of Charles Dickens's "A Tale of Two Cities".
...............I hope he can overcome this one. The fact this is a wierd mysterious fantasy tale means they can probably play about with the story writing to allow Heath's part to remain in without ruining the story too much...
Here's an IMDB synopsis (warning some spoilers)
The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus is a fantastical morality tale, set in the present day. It tells the story of Dr Parnassus and his extraordinary 'Imaginarium', a travelling show where members of the audience get an irresistible opportunity to choose between light and joy or darkness and gloom. Blessed with the extraordinary gift of guiding the imaginations of others, Dr Parnassus is cursed with a dark secret. Long ago he made a bet with the devil, Mr Nick, in which he won immortality. Many centuries later, on meeting his one true love, Dr Parnassus made another deal with the devil, trading his immortality for youth, on condition that when his first-born reached its 16th birthday he or she would become the property of Mr Nick. Valentina is now rapidly approaching this 'coming of age' milestone and Dr Parnassus is desperate to protect her from her impending fate. Mr Nick arrives to collect but, always keen to make a bet, renegotiates the wager. Now the winner of Valentina will be determined by whoever seduces the first five souls. Enlisting a series of wild, comical and compelling characters in his journey, Dr Parnassus promises his daughter's hand in marriage to the man that helps him win. In this captivating, explosive and wonderfully imaginative race against time, Dr Parnassus must fight to save his daughter in a never-ending landscape of surreal obstacles - and undo the mistakes of his past once and for all...
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Thanks for starting this thread, Kelda. Where did you hear that Heath was the main financer?
In the Christopher Plummer interview I read today, he said that the film was less than half-finished being shot. I guess we'll hear more as the days go by. In a disquieting way, everything seems mixed.
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from the Daily Telegraph, Australia:
Depp poised to finish Heath role
January 25, 2008 12:00am
DIRECTOR Terry Gilliam hopes Johnny Depp will step into Heath Ledger's role and allow him to finish the movie that will go down in history as the Aussie hunk's last.
Ledger was less than two months from finishing Gilliam's fantasy film The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus.
And the acclaimed director reportedly now wants Depp to shoot the remaining scenes.
A studio insider told Britain's The Sun newspaper: “There is a point in the film when Heath falls through a magic mirror. He could change into another character after that and that is where Johnny would come in.
“It’s a weird, fantasy, time-travel movie so Heath’s character could easily change appearance. It would be a poignant moment.
“Johnny’s not working at the moment so everyone is praying he will do it.”
The paper adds that Ledger had a blazing row with film bosses just three days before he died after they refused to reshoot a scene he was unhappy with.
“It’s a big clue as to the state of mind Heath was in," one source said.
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The paper adds that Ledger had a blazing row with film bosses just three days before he died after they refused to reshoot a scene he was unhappy with.
“It’s a big clue as to the state of mind Heath was in," one source said.
Exactly HOW is that a clue to WHAT state of mind Heath was in? God, the bullshit that comes out of these so-called "sources".
:( >:(
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http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/7208524.stm
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From today's New York Times:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/25/movies/25parn.html?_r=1&ref=movies&oref=slogin
January 25, 2008
Actor’s Death May Mean Film’s End
By DAVID M. HALBFINGER
LOS ANGELES — Heath Ledger’s death has created an enormous marketing challenge for Warner Brothers in promoting its Batman sequel, “The Dark Knight,” in which he plays the Joker. But that is nothing next to the predicament confronting Terry Gilliam, who was less than halfway through directing his next film when Mr. Ledger, one of its stars, was found dead in a New York apartment on Tuesday.
Mr. Gilliam’s $30 million morality tale, “The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus,” stars Christopher Plummer as the title character, the leader of a traveling theater troupe that tempts its audiences with the chance to “transcend mundane reality by passing through a magical mirror into a fantastic universe of limitless imagination,” according to an official synopsis. Mr. Ledger played a troupe member who romances the character’s daughter.
The earthbound exterior portions of the film were shot on location in England in December and January, said Graham Smith, who served as a publicist for the film up to its London wrap last weekend. The production was then set to shift to Vancouver, British Columbia, where the fantastical portions of the action were to be shot using special effects on a soundstage.
Mr. Ledger’s death leaves the producers with few desirable options: recast and reshoot, rewrite and adjust, or abandon the project altogether. Mr. Gilliam wrote the movie with Charles McKeown, his collaborator on “Brazil” (1985) and “The Adventures of Baron Munchausen” (1988). (Mr. Gilliam has been famously plagued by production problems: his movie “The Man Who Killed Don Quixote” was abandoned after a flood and a $15 million insurance payout.)
Joanne Camacho, an insurance broker on “Imaginarium,” declined to comment Thursday. But Brian Kingman, managing director of Aon/Albert G. Ruben Insurance Services, a leading entertainment insurance underwriter, said that only 18 days of filming had been completed on the film, suggesting that about $14 million had been spent, and that Mr. Ledger had been named an “essential element” under the film’s cast-insurance policy.
That means the producers would have the right to abandon the film and recoup their spending on the project before his death. “Producers always try to complete the movie,” Mr. Kingman said. “The question is, can it be? They’ll have to analyze what’s been shot, what additional shots are needed, and can the missing scenes be doubled?”
He speculated that it might cost $10 million to reshoot Mr. Ledger’s scenes with another actor, but said the producers might not want to if they financed the movie based on his box-office appeal. (The film does not yet have a domestic distributor.)
Calls and e-mail messages to William Vince, one of the producers, were not returned. A woman answering calls at the movie’s production office declined to comment, saying, “We don’t know what’s happening; nobody’s told us anything.”
Hollywood has not seen a high-profile star’s death in the middle of a movie in some time. When Brandon Lee was killed in 1993 on the set of “The Crow,” Mr. Kingman said, the filmmakers “were very clever and creative and completed the movie with a double, and that movie turned out to be successful enough to entice people to do a sequel.” (It made more than $50 million at the domestic box office.) River Phoenix died of an overdose in 1993, halfway through making “Dark Blood,” which was abandoned. John Candy died in 1994 with a third of his scenes left in “Wagons East,” which was finished after the insurance company paid a reported $15 million settlement.
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Thanks for starting this thread, Kelda. Where did you hear that Heath was the main financer?
I did read that in some article but for the life of me I dont know where... buy it was def that he was a major financer rather than his imvolvement guaranteed financing.
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I did read that in some article but for the life of me I dont know where... buy it was def that he was a major financer rather than his imvolvement guaranteed financing.
The comment is in the comingsoon.net article, right here on this thread.
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The reliability of this is unknown, but it could be an interesting solution to finishing Dr Parnassus.
http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/showbiz/bizarre/article724412.ece
Johnny to be Heath stand-in
JOHNNY DEPP is poised to stand in for tragic HEATH LEDGER in what was to be his latest film role.
Brokeback Mountain star Heath - found dead in his New York apartment earlier this week - was six weeks from finishing fantasy flick The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus.
Now director TERRY GILLIAM wants his pal Johnny to film the remaining scenes. A studio source said: “There is a point in the film when Heath falls through a magic mirror. He could change into another character after that and that is where Johnny would come in.
“It’s a weird, fantasy, time-travel movie so Heath’s character could easily change appearance. It would be a poignant moment.
“Johnny’s not working at the moment so everyone is praying he will do it.”
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Producers put Ledger film on hold
The makers of Heath Ledger's most recent film have suspended production following the actor's death.
Ledger, who was found dead on Tuesday, had recently completed filming in London on The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, directed by Terry Gilliam.
The $30m (£15.1m) production had moved to Vancouver, Canada for interior and bluescreen scenes.
The film's makers issued a statement saying: "Terry and the producers will be assessing how best to proceed."
The producers also paid tribute to the 28-year-old, calling him "a great actor, a great friend and a great spirit."
Force majeure
"We are still in a state of deep shock, saddened and numb with grief," the statement continued.
The Australian star of Brokeback Mountain had previously worked with Gilliam on The Brothers Grimm.
Greg Chambers, business manager for craft union ACFC West, told the Vancouver Sun newspaper that the production is "currently listed as a force majeure".
Force majeure is a clause which allows producers to end contracts in extraordinary circumstances.
Mr Chambers added that some 100 crew members had been laid off as a result.
A post mortem on Ledger, whose body was found in his New York apartment, was inconclusive, with further tests under way.
The star's other recent role was playing The Joker in forthcoming Batman film The Dark Knight.
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From New York Magazine
1/25/08
Apropos of Nothing
Will Johnny Depp Replace Heath Ledger in Ridiculous New Gilliam Movie?
(http://nymag.com/images/2/daily/entertainment/08/01/25_heathandjohnny_lg.jpg)
Oft-reliable British tabloid The Sun reports today on unsubstantiated rumors that Johnny Depp could replace Heath Ledger in The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus, Terry Gilliam's in-production fantasy movie which Ledger's death threw into uncertainty this week. According to a "studio source": "There is a point in the film when Heath falls through a magic mirror. He could change into another character after that and that is where Johnny would come in."
But for as ridiculous as that sounds, the Times this morning has details on why such a switch might actually work. Apparently the film's "earthbound exterior" portions were all completed in London this month and last, and the rest of the movie — about a traveling carnival that "offers audience members the chance to transcend reality by passing through a magical mirror" — was to be shot on a Vancouver soundstage, incorporating special effects for its more fantastical scenes. So, any radical changes to the appearance of Ledger's character could probably be explained away as magic or something. Also, The Sun says that Depp isn't working right now, so he might just do it as a favor to Gilliam, with whom he remains friends despite the way Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas turned out.
Another reason this could work: None of Terry Gilliam's movies make any damn sense anyway!
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http://www.people.com/people/article/0,,20174404,00.html?xid=rss-fullcontentcnn
(Posted by Louise in the News thread but thought also interesting here)
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Someone posted this on IMDB - I'm thinking of buying this book now... its a really lovely portrait of the brothers grimm and heath and terry etc...
http://imdb.com/name/nm0005132/board/flat/96307882
I was keeping up to date with the news about Heath's last film The Imaginarium of Dr Parnassus, and reading all the posts about Heath and Terry and Heath's thoughts on Terry and vice versa, it occured to me that I have a copy of Bob McCabe's book Dreams and Nightmares: Terry Gilliam, The Brothers Grimm and Other Cautionary Tales of Hollywood on my shelf. Here are some extracts concerning Heath. The first selection is from Gilliam himself.
TERRY ON HEATH
Wednesday 11th June
…so Samantha [Morton, originally suggested by Terry for the role of Angelika]’s getting off the plane to discover that Lena [Headey, who was cast by the Weinsteins without consulting Terry or the rest of the cast]’s been cast and we all came here to Café Colonial, we were sitting in this very room here – Matt, Heath, myself, Samantha – just getting pissed, and Heath sat on the phone to his agent screaming and shouting. And Matt’s going crazy.
Thursday 19th June
[in rehearsal, to Heath]: I love your terrible French. Play it straight at this point.
Thursday 26th June
Heath wants to make his own Grimm notebook – he’s been shown some props but he wants to make his own. He’s getting confused.
Thursday 28th August
The first time we talked about this thing our first choice was Johnny Depp and Heath Ledger, but Johnny didn’t want to come back to Prague. That was our original cast…
Heath was there because of Nicola [Pecorini, cinematographer], as Heath had done Sin Eater, the Brian Helgeland film, with him. “This guy’s really good”, Nicola said. “Like Johnny. He’s really got the stuff.” So Heath was the first one on board. I was still talking to Johnny about it. But with Heath, I met him, talked to him on the phone and he was in without even reading the script.
The first thing [Harvey Weinstein] said was “Why do you want Heath Ledger?” I said, “Because he’s perfect, and really good.” Heath had had a run-in with them on Four Feathers, coming to Wes Bentley’s defence and Shekhar Kapur’s defence and they didn’t like that.
More coming if anybody wants it! :)
it goes on with lots more quotes... go visit the thread if you're interetsed in readiong on.
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That's interesting, Kelda. Thanks for posting that. I'll certainly go over to IMDb and read more. :)
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Now I took flak for posting this somewhere else, so if this is not your cup of tea, kindly give the link a miss:
The following link is for a site that's got footage (filmed with a cell phone by a annoyed neighbour who filmed that to have documentation because she was going to complain about the noise - how ironic is that?) of Heath filming a scene of Imaginarium on the last day before he returned to the States. Relatively poor quality, but very poignant nevertheless to see him one more time doing the work he loved to be part of....
http://www.thelondonpaper.com/cs/Satellite/london/news/article/1157150395117?packedargs=suffix%3DArticleController
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That's interesting, Kelda. Thanks for posting that. I'll certainly go over to IMDb and read more. :)
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Now I took flak for posting this somewhere else, so if this is not your cup of tea, kindly give the link a miss:
The following link is for a site that's got footage (filmed with a cell phone by a annoyed neighbour who filmed that to have documentation because she was going to complain about the noise - how ironic is that?) of Heath filming a scene of Imaginarium on the last day before he returned to the States. Relatively poor quality, but very poignant nevertheless to see him one more time doing the work he loved to be part of....
http://www.thelondonpaper.com/cs/Satellite/london/news/article/1157150395117?packedargs=suffix%3DArticleController
Mikaela - I've seen this - like you I'm sucking up everything going - its out way of dealing I guess.
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I guess it is... I've been online a lot the last 8-9 days.
I read the rest of the quoted notes, and liked them a whole lot. Recommend them as a good read. :)
One thing I noted is the impression they give of all the back-and-forth and ups&downs of getting a movie off the ground. This actor, that actor, new rounds of casting, who plays which role, negotiations, etc. etc. It sure takes time and efforts - and still partly is based on providence and coincidence in the end....
Also love how several of the people in their notes comment specifically on how active Heath was, how filled with energy, how positive and creative etc. etc. Well of course. It's a marked contrast to the stuff I've unfortunately read the last few days..... :(
I especially loved this bit, and would have paid good money to be allowed to be a fly on the wall here (as described by Bob McCabe):
"Wednesday 16th July
Heath and Matt hang out between shots, riffing on lines from Life of Brian. Heath is particularly fond of “I’m Brian, and so’s my wife.”
(I am a HUGE fan of Life of Brian. :) )
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heh, I thoguht that was cute to M.
BrokebackDev said she saw on www.iheartjake.com the following
I read on IHJ that Jake G, Johnny Depp, Sean Penn, and Christain Bale are going to help finish Heaths last film, Imaginarium of Dr Parnassus as a tribute to Heath.. They were all close friends to Heath.
i couldn't find it on the site at the moment but I'd be interested to know exactly what they would plan to do....
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Here's the link for you Kelda
http://iheartjake.suddenlaunch.com/index.cgi?board=gyllenhaalics&num=1201796156&action=display&start=0
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Wouldn't that be awesome if it were true? What a great tribute that would be...
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I'd love that to be true though I'm not sure whether the SUN is reliable..
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http://www.quickstopentertainment.com/2008/02/05/doctor-parnassus-lives/
Doctor Parnassus Lives
Quick Stop was contacted by a source within the production of Terry Gilliam’s upcoming The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus and they wanted to clarify the status of the film. It seems that Parnassus has been recently removed from Heath Ledger’s IMDB listing and Ledger has also been removed from the listing of Parnassus‘ cast. Also, the IMDB listing for Parnassus now shows the status of the film as being shut down.
The source within the production wanted to make certain the word gets out that the production is not in fact shut down but is moving forward and will feature Heath Ledger in his last role. This decision to keep Heath’s performance and rework the film to accommodate it was made out of respect for that performance and in memory of Heath. This despite somewhat shady efforts by certain parties, the source tells us, to paint The Dark Knight as Heath’s final role.
The Parnassus cast and crew, we are told, apart from a statement about the status of the production shortly after Heath’s passing, have been quiet about the matter out of respect for Heath and his family. Further casting announcements will be made in the near future. The official site for the film, doctorparnassus.com, will be launching later today (February 5th), and readers are urged to watch the site for future developments.
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thanks for that Bruce.
Frankly, I'm a bit relieved that The Dark Knight won't be Heath's final part.
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:)
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He's back on the list, but listed as "rumored" or "unconfirmed". >:( WTF?
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He's back on the list, but listed as "rumored" or "unconfirmed". >:( WTF?
That reflects the confusion in the status of what will happen.
Someone had removed it from IMDb earlier, so this listing is a reinstatement.
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Here is a thread on the Parnassus IMDb page of photos from production.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1054606/board/flat/92471423
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I'm very glad to hear that we still have that last role of Heath's to look forward to. It will be a kinder, gentler goodbye. :( :)
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From the New York Observer:
http://www.observer.com/2008/terry-gilliam-picks-jude-law-colin-farrell-and-johnny-depp-replace-ledger (http://www.observer.com/2008/terry-gilliam-picks-jude-law-colin-farrell-and-johnny-depp-replace-ledger)
Terry Gilliam Picks Jude Law, Colin Farrell and Johnny Depp to Replace Ledger?
by Joe Pompeo | February 15, 2008 |
(http://observer.cast.advomatic.com/files/imagecache/article/files/0215depp.jpg)
It seems like the rumors may have been confirmed: Johnny Depp, Jude Law and Colin Farrell will each fill in for Heath Ledger in Terry Gilliam’s The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus, Cinematical reports via Ain’t It Cool News, the insidery movie and comics blog that broke the scoop early this morning. The film was still in production when Mr. Ledger died on Jan. 22 of what has been ruled an accidental overdose of prescription drugs, leaving questions as to how filming would be completed. Now, it looks like Mr. Ledger’s character will appear alternately as himself, Mr. Depp, Mr. Law and Mr. Farrell at different points in the movie, a “fantastical” story about a traveling showman who’s made a deal with the devil. More from Cinematical after the jump.
I cannot wait to see what this looks like -- imagine watching half a film with Ledger, only to see it switch and be Depp, then Law and then Farrell (or some variation)? What will that look like? Either way, I'm sure Gilliam will probably open to his biggest box office take in years (fingers crossed), and the film could go down as something very very special. No official word on this one yet, but AICN seems to feel this one is locked and ready to roll. What do you think?
When it's all said and done, this whole Parnassus mess would probably fit nicely into a biopic on the life and times of director Terry Gilliam. When Heath Ledger passed away during production on the latest Gilliam flick, The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus, we all wondered what would happen to the film. Would Gilliam be forced to dump another project (a la Don Quixote), or would someone step in to save the day. Early rumors suggested (and here's where life always comes full circle) that Johnny Depp (Gilliam's Quixote star) would fill in for Ledger and shoot his remaining scenes. Then there was word Gilliam may create a CGI Ledger to tape up the missing pieces.
From Cinematical:
http://www.cinematical.com/2008/02/15/johnny-depp-jude-law-and-colin-farrell-to-replace-ledger-in-pa/ (http://www.cinematical.com/2008/02/15/johnny-depp-jude-law-and-colin-farrell-to-replace-ledger-in-pa/)
Johnny Depp, Jude Law and Colin Farrell to Replace Ledger in 'Parnassus?'
Posted Feb 15th 2008 9:32AM by Erik Davis
(http://www.blogsmithmedia.com/www.cinematical.com/media/2008/01/depp012508.jpg)
When it's all said and done, this whole Parnassus mess would probably fit nicely into a biopic on the life and times of director Terry Gilliam. When Heath Ledger passed away during production on the latest Gilliam flick, The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus, we all wondered what would happen to the film. Would Gilliam be forced to dump another project (a la Don Quixote), or would someone step in to save the day. Early rumors suggested (and here's where life always comes full circle) that Johnny Depp (Gilliam's Quixote star) would fill in for Ledger and shoot his remaining scenes. Then there was word Gilliam may create a CGI Ledger to tape up the missing pieces.
Now, however, AICN claims they know exactly how it will go down, and that Depp, Jude Law and Colin Farrell will all fill in for Ledger in a weird sort of I'm Not There-esque tribute to the actor. Needless to say, I cannot wait to see what this looks like -- imagine watching half a film with Ledger, only to see it switch and be Depp, then Law and then Farrell (or some variation)? What will that look like? Either way, I'm sure Gilliam will probably open to his biggest box office take in years (fingers crossed), and the film could go down as something very very special. No official word on this one yet, but AICN seems to feel this one is locked and ready to roll. What do you think?
From: Ain't it Cool News
http://www.aintitcool.com/node/35623 (http://www.aintitcool.com/node/35623)
AICN EXCLUSIVE! We Know Who’s Paying Tribute To Heath Ledger In DR. PARNASSUS Now!
Hey, everyone. ”Moriarty” here.
Have I mentioned how much I love this idea? Because I do. I think it’s beautiful that the script loaned itself to this sort of idea, that we’re going to see Heath Ledger’s work in Terry Gilliam’s new film, and that we’re also going to see three very interesting actors step up to offer interpretations of him as a way of paying one final tribute to this actor whose career was cut so sadly short.
We’ve heard rumors about who might be stepping in, but now we’ve got the names verified. Count on it.
JOHNNY DEPP.
JUDE LAW.
COLIN FARRELL.
Nice choices, Gilliam. Can’t wait to see what happens inside the IMAGINARIUM OF DR. PARNASSUS, and I’d love to get a look at the script they’re going to use as they start this next stretch of shooting on the film.
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from the BBC News:
Stars to replace Ledger in movie
Jude Law, Johnny Depp and Colin Farrell will appear as Heath Ledger's character in unfinished film The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, the BBC has learned.
A spokeswoman for Law confirmed the three would play the role of Tony in the film, but said she did not know how the role would be restructured.
Production on the Terry Gilliam directed film was suspended after Ledger, 28, died from a drug overdose.
Ledger had been filming scenes for the movie in London just before his death.
It is thought that original footage of Ledger will remain while Law, Depp and Farrell will play different incarnations of his character, Tony.
The fantasy film follows a travelling theatre troupe which offers audience members the chance to pass through a magical mirror to alternate dimensions.
Depp, Law, and Farrell are each expected to "become" Ledger's character in one of these new worlds.
Law's spokeswoman said the actor, who is on holiday, was unavailable for comment.
'Great actor'
Ledger died from an accidental overdose of six different types of prescription drugs in his New York apartment.
After filming for the movie had finished in London, the $30m (£15.1m) production then moved to Vancouver, Canada for interior and bluescreen scenes before it was suspended upon news of Ledger's death.
At the time, the film's makers described Ledger as "a great actor, a great friend and a great spirit" and said Gilliam and his producers would be "assessing how best to proceed".
Last weekend, international film stars were among mourners at a memorial service for the Ledger in his home town of Perth.
Speakers at the service, which was followed by a private burial for close family only, included actress Cate Blanchett and film director Neil Armfield.
Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/entertainment/7250685.stm
Published: 2008/02/18 13:30:16 GMT
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Production on the Terry Gilliam directed film was suspended after Ledger, 28, died from a drug overdose.
F**K! Why do they continue to do this? Accidental. Prescription Drug. Overdose. Is that so difficult to write for them?
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I was just going to post that BBC article leslie - so its confirmed....... I'm glad he'll still be in it in some shape or form.
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(http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/44438000/jpg/_44438862_ledgerwhite_getty_416.jpg)
How do you replace a film star?
By Jonathan Duffy
BBC News Magazine
Heath Ledger is being replaced by three A-list actors in the film he was mid-way through making when he died. It's a new solution to an age-old problem in the movie business.
The location work in London was in the can and filming for Terry Gilliam's latest production had been about to move to Vancouver in Canada. Then came the untimely death of actor Heath Ledger.
Ledger, 28, had been the biggest name on the cast list of Gilliam's work in progress, the Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, and, according to co-star Christopher Plummer, the American-born director had been a "very good friend" of Ledger's.
As tributes poured in for the actor, the future of the $30m (£15.4m) film lay in doubt. "'Parnassus' is shut down," said the Hollywood Reporter. But while Plummer speculated to the press that Ledger could be digitally recreated to finish the film, Gilliam seems to have been hatching a more creative solution - enlisting three big name actors to play incarnations of Ledger's character.
According to Jude Law's spokeswoman, Law, Colin Farrell and Johnny Depp will play the role of Ledger's character, Tony, in the film, subject to negotiation. It is thought that original footage of Ledger will remain.
Bottom line
The plan lends a new twist to a problem that has dogged filmmakers since the early days of cinema - how to complete a movie when one of the headliners dies before it's a wrap.
While Gilliam's close friendship with Ledger appears to be an important motivator in his wish to complete Parnassus, the bottom line is often a more compelling reason to keep rolling.
As casting director Carol Dudley recalls being on the MGM lot during the aftershock of Natalie Wood's death, while making Brainstorm in 1981.
"People wanted to get their money back. They had to find a way to make it work."
The film was completed with a stand-in and clever camera angles designed to obscure the fact that the screen siren in the frame was not the same as the name which graced the posters for the film.
The body double approach to making up for a death in service has been around at least since 1937 when Jean Harlow died, aged 26, during the making of Saratoga. With filming 90% complete, a lookalike and two Harlow sound-a-likes (voice doubles) took up where the star left off.
But in those days before computer-generated imagery (CGI), pulling off the body double trick convincingly was a tall order - never more so than in the notorious B-movie Plan 9 From Outer Space. Director Ed Wood had only bagged about two minutes of footage of lead actor Bela Lugosi for the film when the actor died of a heart attack.
Wobbly gravestones
Undeterred, Wood rewrote the script and enlisted chiropractor Tom Mason, who stood a foot taller than Lugosi, for the role. Wood tried to conceal the stark difference in height between the two men by having the stand-in stoop. As for the lack of facial similarity, Mason cloaked his face with a Dracula-like cape.
The film was panned, but Dan Jolin, features editor of Empire magazine, says it was all part of Wood's charm.
"Ed Wood was a singular filmmaker and wouldn't let anything stop him from making the film he wanted to make. It's so obvious the guy standing in for him is a different height. But in a film with wobbly gravestones and flying saucers hanging from bits of string it actually works."
The advent of CGI lent a more professional edge to filling in for newly deceased actors. Probably the first film to use computers to this effect, says Jolin, was John Candy's last movie, Wagons East.
"They finished the film without him and used footage of him that was tweaked but it was weird and uneven and it felt like Candy wasn't really in it."
By the time of Oliver Reed's death, on the set of Gladiator, in 1999, computer effects had progressed to such an extent that Reed's living, breathing absence was barely noticeable. If there was a crack, says Jolin, it was more in the continuity.
"The only slightly jarring thing was [Reed] was going to live in the film. There was a line he said to Russell Crowe in the film and that was used as the final line and it felt clunky."
By comparison, Gilliam's novel solution to Ledger's death is consciously low-tech. But the director's biographer, Bob McCabe, says he believes the solution is a "brilliant idea" and characteristic of Gilliam's "fantastic imagination".
"If you are a filmmaker you have a responsibility to try to get the film made, but it has to be true to itself."
Carol Dudley notes Gilliam's idea would be unthinkable in a "straight thriller. [But] filmmakers like Terry Gilliam are walking a line between hyper-reality and fantasy and so can get away with this sort of idea."
"It's something his films can rise to," says Dudley. "Why not make lemonade from the lemon rather than sweep it under the carpet."
Send us your comments using the form below.
I have seen Brainstorm countless times and, being unaware of the fact that Wood died during filming, have never noticed her absence.
Nancy Bang, Esbjerg, Denmark
Bruce Lee's last film, Game Of Death, features stand-in doubles, cardboard cutouts, and an actor wearing a paper mask with Bruce's photograph printed on it!
Andy, London
It's worth mentioning the first effective use of CGI to complete a film where one of the leads has "died in service" was The Crow. After Brandon Lee's tragic death, the film was completed using digital composites from existing footage of Lee.
Dermot Canniffe, Galway, Ireland
I find it amazing what can be achieved these days. I recall watching The Crow - where Brandon Lee died mid-way through filming - and being totally unable to see what is 'genuine' Brandon and the late fill-ins. I'm sure Gilliams fix will be most effective. I just continue to find it very sad that events have occurred which means he has to do this.
Merson Tuffers, Staffs, UK
The notion that Gilliam's solution is novel though, I find hard to believe. Its seems very similar to the idea of 'I'm Not There' - the film in which Heath Ledger himself was just one of the actors playing the character of Bob Dylan along with the likes of Christian Bale and Cate Blanchett.
Charlie, Cambridge
Gilliam's idea is nothing new - David Lynch did it purposely in 'Lost Highway', when Bill Pullman's character is incarcerated, and the next morning has transformed into Balthazar Getty, playing a completely different character - baffling both the police and the audience in typical Lynch fashion.
Martin Conaghan, Glasgow
It's nice to see the film industry using an idea first introduced in Doctor Who. But I bet they won't acknowledge it!
Mick Clarke, Elland West Yorkshire
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/magazine/7254480.stm
Published: 2008/02/20 10:36:02 GMT
© BBC MMVIII
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Colin Farrell has confirmed to be part of the trio to take over the remaining part of Heath's role, excerpt here:
Colin Farrell traumatised by stepping into Heath Ledger's role
IRISH Hollywood heartthrob Colin Farrell said he was honoured but traumatised to be finishing off the film Heath Ledger began before he died unexpectedly last month.
Ledger was more than half way through completing director Terry Gilliam's The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus before he accidentally overdosed on prescription drugs.
Yesterday, Farrell currently touring Europe promoting his latest flick In Bruge said he was honoured to have been approached to complete the $45 million Ledger film.
The 28-year-old Aussie heart throb had just completed filming in London with singer Lily Allen with production about to move to Vancouver in Canada when he went to his apartment in New York and accidently overdosed on a combination of a range of prescription drugs for anxiety, insomnia and stress.
Farrell said it was a hard decision to agree to complete Ledger's character Tony in the film but one he readily accepted.
Original footage of the Perth-born star will remain and it was unclear how Farrell as well as heart throbs Jude Law and Johnny Depp will fill the role.
"I will be honoured to be part of that," he said yesterday after confirming he had agreed to be part of the project.
"It makes me feel uncomfortable to think about it too much and to get into it really here but it's an incredibly painful honour to have, you know, and an honour I wish wasn't bestowed but an honour none-the-less.
"It's about getting Heath's work out there, get his work out there, he's too good for any of his work not to be seen, you know, and I'm really keen and looking forward to doing it and just doing the best job I can do."
Link to the full article:- http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,23250904-2902,00.html
We have yet to hear confirmation from Johnny Depp.
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"It makes me feel uncomfortable to think about it too much and to get into it really here but it's an incredibly painful honour to have, you know, and an honour I wish wasn't bestowed but an honour none-the-less.
"It's about getting Heath's work out there, get his work out there, he's too good for any of his work not to be seen, you know, and I'm really keen and looking forward to doing it and just doing the best job I can do." [/i]
I like Farrell's words.
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I like Farrell's words.
me too
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me too
Me three. And I don't usually like him.
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Ironically, right after I posted that I turned the TV on the show Scrubs, and Colin Farrell has a cameo.
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Ironically, right after I posted that I turned the TV on the show Scrubs, and Colin Farrell has a cameo.
;D when he pretends to be an irish priest!
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;D when he pretends to be an irish priest!
Yep! :D
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Interesting article when they make spelling mistakes AND mention singer Lilly Allen when it was clearly not her who starred in the movie, but the other Lily. Cole?
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lol yeah I hadn't noticed the allen - but yeah its cole.
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New pics in the Daily Mail about the resumed shooting of "Imaginarium"
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/showbiz/showbiznews.html?in_article_id=518728&in_page_id=1773
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Thanks for posting that article Louise. I must be very strange and difficult for the people involved in this.
If only they had used another picture of Heath instead of that awful one...
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I think that photo is a scene in the movie, his hair is dyed black and he is grubby.
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Filming is once more ongoing for "Imaginarium" - and now they're filming the scenes of the Heath replacement actors, at least one of them....
Here's some info about and pics of Jude Law arriving to film his scenes in Vancouver, stepping in for Heath...
http://justjared.buzznet.com/2008/04/03/jude-law-imaginarium-of-doctor-parnassus/#more-34684
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I am so pleased that they are using all Heath's scenes. One of my big fears was that I wouldn't get to have that last little bit of him
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http://nymag.com/daily/entertainment/2008/05/andrew_garfield_on_boy_a_and_h.html (http://nymag.com/daily/entertainment/2008/05/andrew_garfield_on_boy_a_and_h.html)
From New York Magazine:
Chat Room
5/ 2/08
3:00 PM
Andrew Garfield on ‘Boy A’ and Heath Ledger
(http://nymag.com/images/2/daily/entertainment/08/05/02_garfield_lgl.jpg)
Just 24, Andrew Garfield has already broken out in Britain as a hot young stage star — and now he's breaking into film, with roles in Lions for Lambs, The Other Boleyn Girl, and the lead part in the British indie Boy A, currently at Tribeca and opening in New York later this summer. Garfield plays Jack, a young convict who spent most of his adolescence in jail as a result of a childhood crime — and his contained, tense performance more than confirms theater-world rumors of his talent.
Boy A takes on a pretty archetypal story — an ex-con gets out of jail and readjusts to life on the outside. How did you make it feel fresh?
I try to just try to bring as much of myself to it as possible — which I guess is trying to make it as unique as possible. To not to be acting in a film you know.
What do you mean by that?
I try to avoid acting at all costs, all those obvious tricks and traps you can fall into.
It's just so easy to do a performance that's been seen before. My main concern was: Why the hell does this girl fall for him? We had to bring in some more lightness, some more joy and funniness between them. I think it's wicked. I'm really chuffed, actually. I wasn't sure if it was gonna be any good or not.
As a young actor, do you find yourself trying out new methods each time out?
I'm totally trying out different things every time. I've been so lucky to be working with very established actors and young actors who have different ways of working. Peter Mullan plays my social worker, and he's the most fantastic, naturalistic, weighty actor. But he would do no preparation. Before scenes, he'd be chatting and I'd go, "Sorry man, I'm not in the mood to talk. I have to work myself up into a state." Peter was very Brechtian. He says: You're a human being before and after action and cut. Just remember you're relating to human beings all the time. Acting isn't so different. It doesn't take so much effort.
You worked with Heath Ledger on Terry Gilliam's Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus. What did you pick up there?
The amount of stuff he left me with was astonishing. I will never ever lose hold of what he had to offer. He just had this total spontaneity and the ability to do anything at any point: fly off the handle or joke. It was electrifying and I never knew what he was going to do — like punch me, you know? But how he did it is a mystery to me.
Mark O'Rowe, who wrote Boy A, also wrote that terrific, very show-offy script for Intermission. This is much more restrained. I love that line, "They're so fucking delicate, people. They die so easy."
He has a real ear for regional rhythms — and a kind of lyricism. Lines are very simple, but these mundane things become kind of poetic. He lifts it just slightly. It's all very simple and pure, and not clever.
How'd you get into this kid's skin?
It's difficult to say. I guess I go inside myself, and use my own life as reference. Usually there is some way to relate to everyone in the world if you look hard enough. You'll find common ground with a suicide bomber, with a transvestite who likes having sex with pigs. You'll find some kind of perversion of your own. Everything's inside of you.
When are you going to do theater here?
I might be coming to do a play reading in New York soon. Right now, I don't have to be the actor who works for the sake of working. Going from Imaginarium to something I'm half-assed about, that would just be so depressing.
Is it all going to be such dark stuff?
I really would like to do something light. Terry's movie is hilarious, it's ridiculous vaudeville. I do stupid things and it was fun as hell — just fucking stupid stuff. It really made me think this is what I should do next. Judd Apatow is genius, I think. He's defining this decade of comedy, like what Monty Python did for their generation. I'd love to work with him.
—Logan Hill
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Love you Heath!
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Thank you John. :-*
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Thank you Elle. :)
And--
'I love that line, "They're so fucking delicate, people. They die so easy."'
Yes. :(
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Thanks John, that was a great article. :-*
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Thank you John. I stumbled over the same line you quoted. :(
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http://news.bbc.co.uk/newsbeat/hi/entertainment/newsid_7536000/7536731.stm
Ledger 'brilliant' in last film
Director Terry Gilliam said replacing Heath Ledger's part with three actors to complete his final film after he died has worked.
Filming of The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus was suspended when the star was found dead in January.
Jude Law, Johnny Depp and Colin Farrell will now appear as Ledger's character, but scenes he had previously filmed will be included in the movie.
"I've seen it and it works and it's great," said Gilliam.
Family blessing
"It's the last chance to see Heath and he's brilliant," he added.
"It [filming] stopped for a bit until the three heroes as they're now known Jude Law, Johnny Depp and Colin Farrell came to the rescue and finished off Heath's part.
"So you ended up with four actors playing one character."
Gilliam admitted he had been worried whether Ledger would have "accepted" the idea of having three actors replace him, but now he has seen it he is pleased with the decision.
In March the director admitted filming had resumed in Vancouver with the blessing of Ledger's family.
Ledger died from an accidental overdose of six different types of prescription drugs in his New York apartment.
Batman film The Dark Knight is currently being screened in cinemas across the UK, in which Ledger played the joker.
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When is the film set to premiere now?
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When is the film set to premiere now?
As far as I can remember sometime middle of next year. Yet again I will be dreading it in much the same way as TDK. There is the horribly distressing bodybag scene in TDK and in the Imaginarium, thre appears to be a scenr with Heaths' character hanging himself.It is all a bit too close for comfort.
I can recognise the amazing acting fom Heath as the joker,but for me, he will mostly be remembered for Ennis. The other problem with the Imaginarium is that it is absoloutely the very very last footage of Heath and that is a hard thing to have to face up to.
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*crickets chirp*
Here's a "preview" and promo for Imaginarium, that Terry Gilliam apparently put together (?). It looks more like a reminder of what fantastical films TG has made before that a straightforward promo for IoDP.... perhaps it's an attempt to get distribution in the USA?
Anyway, it's an interesting view for anyone who's invested in Heath and his films. He's not in here though, except for one short glimpse from Brothers Grimm and an image at the end. But they do explain what the "hanging" scene is about - the one we've seen pics from earlier as Heath was filming it.
[youtube=425,350]<object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="&hl=en&fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><embed src="&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object>[/youtube].
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Thank you, Mikaela, that gave me goosebumps.
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Looks like a real trip! I'm looking forward to it. Thanks, Mika. :-*
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Thankyou for posting that Mikaela. That's it then isn't it. The very last of Heath.
It will be very hard to bear ,that when the film comes out and the final credits role.That really is the finale.
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Looks very, very Monty-Python-esque. Which is of course no surprise.
I'm not sure if it'll be my type of movie (as with most Monty Python productions; some I find hilarious, some are too over the top for me).
But of course I'll see it anyway. Guess I'll just have to close my eyes at the "hanging" scene. I already found the pictures terrible before January...
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Yeah thanks it looks intersting and looking forward to seeing Christopher Plummer and Heath together.. I love Christoper Plummer!
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Yes, I love Christopher Plummer too. One of the things I thought, watching this, was "Wow - Heath has lead billing in front of Christopher Plummer."
That was a real find, Mika, thank you very much.
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http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-1080060/First-photos-tragic-Heath-Ledger-film.html (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-1080060/First-photos-tragic-Heath-Ledger-film.html)
First photos of tragic Heath Ledger in his last film
(http://images.huffingtonpost.com/gen/45198/original.jpg)
(http://images.huffingtonpost.com/gen/45199/original.jpg)
By Daily Mail Reporter
Last updated at 10:43 AM on 24th October 2008
Newly released photos show Heath Ledger in the film role he never completed.
The actor died of an overdose of prescription medicine halfway through filming The Imaginarium Of Doctor Parnassus in January.
The 28-year-old's death temporarily stopped work on the film, but it has now been completed and is due out next year. The photos are the first official shots to be released.
Following his death Johnny Depp, Jude Law and Colin Farrell all stepped in to fill his role for the remainder of the film, playing different incarnations of Ledger's character.
The £15 million fantasy film involves a supernatural mirror that takes people into different dimensions, allowing director Terry Gilliam to switch between actors.
Gilliam, who previously worked with Ledger on The Brothers Grimm, has retained the footage shot of the late actor.
A third of the movie was filmed in London's Clerkenwell, with Ledger dying in his Manhattan apartment three days after completion. His co-stars, including model Lily Cole, went onto film in Canada.
Last month it was revealed that Ledger's fortune would go to his daughter, Matilda Rose.
In his will, which was probated behind closed doors at the Australian Supreme Court in Perth, Ledger left everything to his parents and three sisters. But the will was signed by the actor on April 12, 2003 - two years before Matilda was born.
It was expected that Ledger's former fiancee, Michelle Williams, would lodge a claim on the will on behalf of their two-year-old daughter. But Ledger's father, Kim, instead revealed that the family had decided to give everything to Matilda.
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Found this on IMDb, thought it was a nice sum up of what little is known about this movie. I'm so excited to see it. Hope it does Heath justice. But either way, I'm planing on seeing it at least three times on the big screen. I need to hold on as long as possible.
PREMISE: The immortal Doctor Parnassus (Christopher Plummer) has an imaginarium -- a traveling theatre -- which lets its participants enter a magical mirror and experience something of a parallel universe. He can do this thanks to a deal he made with The Devil (Tom Waits). Now, he's come to collect his due and targets Parnassus' daughter (Lily Cole).
Tony (Heath Ledger) joins Parnassus' troupe and eventually has to enter the imaginarium to rescue the girl. Upon entering, he changes into three different incarnations (Johnny Depp/Jude Law/Colin Farrell).
PRODUCTION: They shot all the real world scenes throughout December and completed about 2/3 of the film. When Heath died, he was on a brief break and only had two weeks left. That means, in spite of the three actors finishing his performance, Heath should be in most of the film or at least half of it. This is more than just a bit of footage, this is a real performance.
RELEASE: All we know is that LionsGate picked it up for a 2009 release. It's been in post-production for quite some time so it will probably be done soon. Expect a festival screening or two. We will all be able to see it, despite the skepticism that it will fall apart because of "the Gilliam curse." The Dark Knight is not Heath Ledger's last film. It's The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus. The end.
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Can´t wait for it to come out!
I really hope it will go up in the theathers here. I want to see him on the big screen one more time so badly.
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http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2008/dec/14/terry-gilliam-remembers-heath-ledger
Heath Ledger
The actor, who died aged 28 on 22 January from an accidental overdose, remembered by the director who was working with him at the time
by Terry Gilliam
The Observer, Sunday 14 December 2008
Heath Ledger. Photograph: Rex Features
Any time I try to describe Heath it becomes a series of clichés, because he was extraordinary and, unfortunately, most of those clichés have already been used up on lesser people.
I met him for the first time in LA around 2001, when we were working on The Brothers Grimm. He was a ball of energy, firing on all cylinders, and he had a magnetic quality. I liked him immediately and even though I hadn't actually seen Heath in anything at that point,
I said to him: 'You're on. Let's do it.'
He was one of those blessed human beings who have the facility to do so many things at the same time. When he wasn't acting, he was directing music videos and supporting young musicians. He was working on the script for a film he was preparing to direct. He had an incredibly artistic side, and he was practically a grand master at chess. That's why, when he died, it was as if half of the world had collapsed.
He died halfway through the film I'm currently making, The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus. We had finished shooting in London on Saturday night. On Sunday, I went to Vancouver to prepare for the next stage and Heath went to New York. He was supposed to be turning up in Vancouver on the Friday. On Tuesday he was dead.
None of us could deal with it. It was impossible - that was the problem. It was absolutely impossible that this could be a fact. But there it was. I was working in the art department when I heard the news, and we stayed there all afternoon. At sunset, thousands of ravens flew over the window and I thought: those are the ravens from The Brothers Grimm, and they are all going to salute Heath.
In terms of his acting, it still rankles with me that he's dead because he would have been streets ahead of anyone else in his generation. He just kept getting better and better. He was fearless. On Parnassus, he was improvising all the time and it was better than what we had written. I don't normally encourage that kind of improvisation, but in a sense I felt Heath was writing this film. He was an incredibly funny performer when he wanted to be - his comic timing was just extraordinary - and then he could break your heart the next minute.
Usually, with actors, it's all about themselves. But it was never like that with Heath. He was completely supportive of everything else around him. He got better performances out of other actors - he just drew it out of them. He was utterly generous and always aware of everyone else, and he behaved as if there was nothing special about him - he was just a guy.
His physicality was extraordinary, too. I remember Monica Bellucci turning up to make Grimms. She went into the make-up room and Heath's picture was on the wall. She hadn't met him and I don't think she knew exactly who he was, but immediately she went, whoosh, to that picture. That was the kind of attraction Heath had. Women adored him and men loved him.
We've all agreed to call Parnassus 'A film from Heath Ledger and friends' because I don't think it is a Terry Gilliam film. I think it's something that his life and death has created. When he died, I said it was over. We can't carry on. But everybody said, 'You've got to carry on' - for the film, for Heath's last performance. It wasn't possible for any one person to replace him so we made the quantum leap and got three people - Johnny Depp, Colin Farrell and Jude Law. The Holy Trinity. They came in and they pulled it off and I think it works brilliantly.
When he died, there were all these nonsensical stories coming out about Heath Ledger, James Dean and River Phoenix, all destroyed by the system - but that's bullshit. What happened was an absurd accident. I still don't understand it. I know he was exhausted - the last thing he said was that he was so tired and just wanted to sleep. You actually think at certain times angels come down to earth and Heath might have been one of them. And then he's gone and you think: this is all wrong, all the other people should be dead. He should be leading us all into a wonderful world of adventure.
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Beautiful article. Thanks for posting, Bruce, both here and in the Heath Remembrance forum. :-*
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http://www.khaleejtimes.com/CityHome.asp?xfile=data/citytimes/2008/December/citytimes_December130.xml§ion=citytimes&col=
Terry Nice to Meet You
David Light
14 December 2008
Off the wall director and ex-Monty Python animator Terry Gilliam gives an in-depth account of his latest projects, including directing Heath Ledger’s last film during which he tragically passed away and what receiving the lifetime achievement here in Dubai award means to him
THE DUBAI INTERNATIONAL Film Festival honours three individuals for their lifetime contribution to the art of cinema every year. This year’s Honouree from the west is director Terry Gilliam, one time Monty Python star and since then a hugely successful director famed for creating a rich visual tapestry in his regularly unconventional movies. He comes to Dubai on the back of completing his latest work ‘The Imaginarium of Dr Parnassus,’ the last film to star the late Heath Ledger. As well as collecting the award fans and industry professionals had the rare opportunity to engage in a discussion with Gilliam on Friday evening discussing the life and work of this remarkable man.
Film writer and DIFF programmer Sheila Whitaker has said on honouring Terry, “It is an honour to host Terry Gilliam at DIFF this year, since he has contributed so much to cinema as a director, providing audiences with wonderlands of imagination and creativity. Everyone at the One on One evening heard lively stories about working with some of today’s biggest stars, as well as a candid look at the business of film and the struggles of being a maverick filmmaker.”
Gilliam’s films are highly imaginative fantasies, often with a dark, paranoid atmosphere and a healthy dose of black comedy. After moving to the UK from the United States Gilliam started his career as an animator and strip cartoonist with Monty Python’s Flying Circus, his highly surreal, distinctive cartoons linking the show’s sketches together. His ‘Brazil’ (1985), set in a colourful, Kafka-esque world where characters battle with a senseless bureaucracy that aims to control every aspect of their lives, met with large cult success, and ‘The Fisher King’ (1991), starring Robin Williams, was nominated for five Academy Awards. ‘Twelve Monkeys’ (1995) starring Brad Pitt and Bruce Willis grossed over $168 million worldwide.
Gilliam’s current project is ‘The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus,’ now in post-production. Filming was temporarily halted following the death of star Heath Ledger in New York City in January 2008 but Colin Farrell, Johnny Depp and Jude Law volunteered to continue as three different versions of Ledger’s character furthering the ‘magical’ world of the film.
“Basically the movie (Dr Parnassus) is finished apart from about 600 special effects shots which are not quite finished,” Gilliam told City Times. “We’re in the final stages of development. Some of the effects have to be reshot because of Heath’s passing. He’s never computer generated in the film, but certain other things have to be changed. We had to change the script in certain ways. It was also partly due to the schedules of Johnny, Colin and Jude because they were all involved in other projects and we had to shoot very fast and not as controlled as I would like to be just to get them done. We literally had Johnny for a day and a half and I had a lot of work to do. Trying to work the transitions out from Heath’s character to the others took longer in some instances so everything just started growing.”
Gilliam used everything he had already shot of Ledger despite the rewrites that occurred. “I used every inch of film. I managed to do it in a couple of days (the rewrite). It was a matter of making a few key decisions and just going for it. A few scenes Heath would have been in I tried to do them with some clever tricks but in the end decided not to. Things just got rearranged. I didn’t come here prepared to deal with the details of the film so I’m still trying to work out what I did.”
As with all director/ actor relationships during filming Gilliam and Heath got very close. Terry remembers the time he got the tragic news that Ledger had been found dead. “I was in the art department arguing over the set trying to save five thousand dollars. My daughter Amy who’s one of the producers of the film came in and said you better come into the office. I said I was busy trying to save five thousand dollars. But I went in the office and it was there on the BBC website that Heath had been found dead. My first reaction was that it was Warner Brothers, it was a publicity stunt. Of course it wasn’t. We were so close to Heath, he was like family, it was terrible so we just lay on the ground for the rest of the day and that was it. I still can’t believe it and there are days where I’m not quite sure he is dead because I work with him every day in the editing room.”
“I didn’t expect what happened in this film so I’m not giving anything away. You’ll have to go and see it. My original thought when we got the news about Heath was to close the movie down. Everybody around me said that would betray Heath and his work so there were suggestions of getting another actor to do the rest of the film. There is no way one actor can replace Heath so I made the leap to get several actors. Johnny was the first guy I called and he said, ‘I’m there when you need me.’ It was the same with Jude and Colin. They all knew Heath well and they all loved him and told me that whatever was necessary they would do.”
The three actors that replaced Ledger essentially worked for free as they donated all the earnings they made to Heath’s daughter.
In regards to rumours in the press that Heath was unhappy with his life in his final days Gilliam completely disagrees. “People have tried really hard to turn him into James Dean and said it was the system that killed him. That’s B*******! We were working the Saturday night in London and then I went to Vancouver and he went to New York. The Tuesday morning he was dead. He was so full of life and energy and was having fun doing this film. He did his own stunts, leaping and crashing to the ground, there was nothing he couldn’t do-he was so full of life.” There have also been reports that Ledger sank so far into his dark roles that it was difficult for him to resurface. Again Gilliam debunks those statements. “Heath would do a take and the minute it was over he would be telling jokes. He was never dominated with his character. He told me that the character of the Joker freed him up and he was enjoying it, doing things that he never normally got to do. The system has worked very hard to turn him into the new James Dean and he is not.
Gilliam’s other films whilst being visually stunning notoriously hit many snags along the way. One of his pictures, which he has recently returned to, ‘Quixote,’ has been on hold for seven years. “The problem is that it has been tied up in legal. We have finally managed to unravel it and have got the script back and we are in the process of rewriting it because having not seen it for seven years, what we thought was perfect I realise it isn’t and it’s time to go back. I think this film has had the most publicity of any film before its release.”
Gilliam is not one who usually goes in for awards. When asked whether he cares about the Oscars the answer was firmly in the negative. Success for him is making a film he enjoys and hearing stories of people that have been moved by his films. On his lifetime achievement award being presented to him at this year’s DIFF Terry was unusually enthusiastic, “Last night I said it was the most extreme honour anybody in the history of civilisation could ever receive. It is greater than being world emperor. It is the most important thing not only in my life but in your life as well, in all of our lives.”
On Dubai in general Gilliam told us, “I’m torn by this place. When I see the sun setting over it I think it’s beautiful but then of course you get close and see it’s fake. It’s a strange thing but I haven’t really seen the real Dubai yet because I haven’t escaped the resort. They are trying to get films made here which is good and may consider it one day for my projects. It is a work of someone’s imagination and it is very nice.”
DIFF 2008 will screen Twelve Monkeys on December 14 at 13:00, at Cinestar Mall of the Emirates.
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Lights, Camera, Action!
Sci-fi flicks top upcoming 2009 movie releases
By MEREDITH JEAN MORTON
News Chief correspondent
Published: Friday, December 26, 2008 at 4:01 a.m.
Last Modified: Friday, December 26, 2008 at 10:41 a.m
Rounding out the list of buzzed-about movies are "The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus" and "The Soloist."
"The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus" is set for release Sept. 24 and is directed by Terry Gilliam. Starring Johnny Depp, Heath Ledger, Colin Farrell, Jude Law and Christopher Plummer, the movie centers on a traveling theater company that gives its audience more than they were expecting.
http://www.newschief.com/article/20081226/NEWS/812260307/1024/ENTERTAINMENT?Title=Sci_fi_flicks_top_upcoming_2009_movie_releases (http://www.newschief.com/article/20081226/NEWS/812260307/1024/ENTERTAINMENT?Title=Sci_fi_flicks_top_upcoming_2009_movie_releases)
Hmm... Hope the release date is true!!! And I can't believe they didn't credit Heath first. Hmph. That ain't righ' >:( >:(
Good day! ;)
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*pencils in Sept 24th on the calendar*
I actually think this would be the first Midnight Show of a movie that I would attend, if they have midnight shows for this movie....
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I have seen one movie at that time of night before. I am somewhat tiffed about them putting Heath in second
lead however. He should certainly have gone in first....
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An early review
http://www.aintitcool.com/node/40933
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wow, that sounds very good.
Dare we hope... an award-winning role for Heath's last film? Does anyone know when it is going to come out and where?
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That review is a pleasure to read and my curiousity is piqued. I am not keen on the image of Heath hanging over a bridge.
It does however appear that at least one reviewer feels that Gilliam is back on form and has done what he always does best, let his imagination run riot, free from all constraints of the norm as we perceive it.
I loved reading that Heath's role seems to be a complete cameo and not some ludicrous squeezed in portion.
It also helps that after Heath, the actor I admire most is Depp. He has the same ability as Heath to completely immerse himself in a character.
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Ahh, some new pictures. However, once again, bittersweet feelings arose. :-\
http://www.screenweek.it/film/4794-Parnassus-Luomo-che-voleva-ingannare-il-diavolo/galleria/47009 (http://www.screenweek.it/film/4794-Parnassus-Luomo-che-voleva-ingannare-il-diavolo/galleria/47009)
*ignore the random Casanova picture stuck in the mix ::)
Also, according to IMDb, it's been given a PG-13 rating. It's making progress!!!! I need my Heathy.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1054606/ (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1054606/)
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from Imdb:
Ledger's Last Film To Hit Cannes
The film Heath Ledger was making when he died last year is set to premiere at the upcoming Cannes Film Festival in France after becoming a last-minute screening.
Film fans and the media are expected to flock to Terry Gilliam’s The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus when it opens on the eve of a day of publicity on 22 May.
The film will not be among those competing for film festival prizes.
As well as Ledger, the film features Christopher Plummer, Verne Troyer, Lily Cole and Tom Waits and Johnny Depp, Colin Farrell and Jude Law, who stepped in to complete the tragic actor's scenes.
Ledger died from an accidental drug overdose in January 2008.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1054606/news#ni0765407 (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1054606/news#ni0765407)
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That review is a pleasure to read and my curiousity is piqued. I am not keen on the image of Heath hanging over a bridge.
It does however appear that at least one reviewer feels that Gilliam is back on form and has done what he always does best, let his imagination run riot, free from all constraints of the norm as we perceive it.
I loved reading that Heath's role seems to be a complete cameo and not some ludicrous squeezed in portion.
It also helps that after Heath, the actor I admire most is Depp. He has the same ability as Heath to completely immerse himself in a character.
Are you a Gilliam fan? Have you seen his TIDELAND? Talk about the imagination running riot! I love that film but I seem to be in the small minority. Anyway, I thought he was in fine form as Director.
Oh Yeah, I'm really pumped about the review harry Knowles gave Parnassus! I didn't read it all becasue I want as many surprises as possible. :D
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Are you a Gilliam fan? Have you seen his TIDELAND? Talk about the imagination running riot! I love that film but I seem to be in the small minority. Anyway, I thought he was in fine form as Director.
Oh Yeah, I'm really pumped about the review harry Knowles gave Parnassus! I didn't read it all becasue I want as many surprises as possible. :D
Big Gilliam and Python fan.
I am really pleased to see that the aborted Don Quixote seems to be back on again.
The holy Grail is one of my all time fave films.
If I ever feel fed up, I sit down to watch some M.P. either the lumberjack song or the dead parrot sketch. Some of my happiest memories are watching Monty Python with my dad, mum would leave the room, a puzzled look on her face as me and dad were convulsed.
I have no idea why it amuses me so much, it just tickles the right bones.
I am going to hunt out Tideland tomorrow, it is not one I have seen, so thanks for that.
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Big Gilliam and Python fan.
I am really pleased to see that the aborted Don Quixote seems to be back on again.
The holy Grail is one of my all time fave films.
If I ever feel fed up, I sit down to watch some M.P. either the lumberjack song or the dead parrot sketch. Some of my happiest memories are watching Monty Python with my dad, mum would leave the room, a puzzled look on her face as me and dad were convulsed.
I have no idea why it amuses me so much, it just tickles the right bones.
I am going to hunt out Tideland tomorrow, it is not one I have seen, so thanks for that.
Be warned though, Tideland is not the cheer-up type of movie.
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Ahh!!! A mini clip of Heath in Parnassus!!!!!
This is very short but still very exciting. It was featured during the opening ceremony of the Cannes Film Festival which you can watch here:
http://festival-cannes.direct.canalplus.fr/video/ceremonie-d-ouverture (http://festival-cannes.direct.canalplus.fr/video/ceremonie-d-ouverture)
The clip is about 21 minutes into the video. Enjoy. ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D
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Thank you but unfortunately I don't seem to be able to watch it. :( :( :( It must be my PC.
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Thank you, Kay. Very brief, but very exciting to see/hear Heath as Tony. "Can you put a price on your dreams?" he asks, in his commedia dell'arte mask.
(http://scrapetv.com/News/News%20Pages/Entertainment/Images/heath-ledger-in-the-imaginarium-of-doctor-parnassus.jpg)
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Thank you, Kay. Very brief, but very exciting to see/hear Heath as Tony. "Can you put a price on your dreams?" he asks, in his commedia dell'arte mask.
(http://scrapetv.com/News/News%20Pages/Entertainment/Images/heath-ledger-in-the-imaginarium-of-doctor-parnassus.jpg)
Thanks Kay. That video was amazingy quick to load - I was able to skip right to 21 mins and see Heath within 30 seconds.
:D and :'( at the same time.
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Thankyou, quite out of the blue I found myself in tears. :'( It really will be the very last we see of him and I am not sure I am ready for that.I stupidly thought I had moved on, but it would appear I am in denial.
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oh it is so bittersweet. I've watched that teeny clip several times already, and yet I still cannot figure out exactly how I feel about it. I find myself grinning as I start to tear up. :-\ :-\
But, here are some new pictures I found. At the top of the page it shows a small picture of Jude Law and Collin Farrel as Tony, and if you scroll down you'll see Heath :-\
http://imaginariumofdrparnassus.com/blog/?p=196 (http://imaginariumofdrparnassus.com/blog/?p=196)
And here's Johnny Depp as Tony.
http://img149.imageshack.us/img149/4043/photoparnassus.jpg (http://img149.imageshack.us/img149/4043/photoparnassus.jpg)
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Thankyou for the new to me, pic of Heath as Tony.In spite of knowing as I scrolled down what I was going to see, it still came as a shock. I am very unsure if I am ready for this film. I actually really like,Farrell,Depp and Law but knowing that they are replacing Heath, is going to be pretty hard to swallow. :(
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(http://imaginariumofdrparnassus.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2009/05/jude-colin-tony.jpg)(http://img149.imageshack.us/img149/4043/photoparnassus.jpg)
Jude Law, Colin Farrell & Johnny Depp as Tony
How weird to see those three attempting to look like Heath.
And Kay-Nasty, that Cannes film was great. I watched the whole thing. Isabelle Huppert is really something. And like others, I played and replayed the Heath bit. How does he change his voice again and again? It didn't sound like him. I remember when sound clips from The Dark Knight started surfacing, i couldn't be convinced at first that that was his voice.
<All the happy and sad emoticons here>
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Thanks for posting this Kay. As everyone else, I watched the precious few seconds several times.
oh it is so bittersweet. I've watched that teeny clip several times already, and yet I still cannot figure out exactly how I feel about it. I find myself grinning as I start to tear up. :-\ :-\
Yes, at first grinning ear to ear. But that didn't last long ....
Joy and sadness are so close together when it comes to Heath :-\.
But, here are some new pictures I found. At the top of the page it shows a small picture of Jude Law and Collin Farrel as Tony, and if you scroll down you'll see Heath :-\
http://imaginariumofdrparnassus.com/blog/?p=196 (http://imaginariumofdrparnassus.com/blog/?p=196)
And here's Johnny Depp as Tony.
http://img149.imageshack.us/img149/4043/photoparnassus.jpg (http://img149.imageshack.us/img149/4043/photoparnassus.jpg)
Ha, you beat me to it. I just found the same pictures maybe 10 minutes ago (per link from imdb) and saved the Heath pic. I wanted to post it over on HHH. Guess I'll post it anyway.
Thanks again for sharing :).
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To me, in those 17 seconds, Heath looked exhausted.
Very sad.
[youtube=425,350]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3wW03tsICrU&eurl=[/youtube]
[youtube=425,350]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p8Lhv7VdnpA&feature=related[/youtube]
[youtube=425,350]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jRYXNk-qZAs&feature=related[/youtube]
[youtube=425,350]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Id1NZBkL6DY&feature=related[/youtube]
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Thanks for these videos John.
As much as I always love listening to Heath's voice the interview has torn my heart apart.
I didn't know that after The Imaginarium of Dr Parnassus Heath was going to star in The Tree of Life. I thought his next project would be directing The Queen's Gambit.
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It feels very strange to see him (and hear him) in a new movie over a year after his death. Surreal.
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Thanks as always to all those who contribute to this thread. My blood ran cold when he was talking about his future projects and says and then I will drop dead !!!!!! OMG did I cry,,I know he went on to say for a year, but what a thing for him to say. :'(
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My blood ran cold when he was talking about his future projects and says and then I will drop dead !!!!!! OMG did I cry,,I know he went on to say for a year, but what a thing for him to say. :'(
Yeah, that gave me also a chill :-\
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Here is a link to a clip that I just became aware of:
http://gmy.news.yahoo.com/v/13549409
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Yes, the clip is certainly highlighted on Yahoo today. I was coming here to post about it when I saw all these posts already here.
Wow, it'll be a tough movie to watch. Does anyone know where it stands with regards to a distributor?
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Yes, the clip is certainly highlighted on Yahoo today. I was coming here to post about it when I saw all these posts already here.
Wow, it'll be a tough movie to watch. Does anyone know where it stands with regards to a distributor?
Last I read they were struggling to find a distributor, I hope things have changed since then.I am not optimistic though as there does not even seem to have been a whisper.
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It seems like a really shocking problem for this film given the number of major people (Depp, etc.) in the movie and associated with it. Obviously, on top of the special place this film will always have regarding Heath.
You'd think all of these factors would attract distributors as well as audiences
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It seems like a really shocking problem for this film given the number of major people (Depp, etc.) in the movie and associated with it. Obviously, on top of the special place this film will always have regarding Heath.
You'd think all of these factors would attract distributors as well as audiences
I could be way off the mark, but I think if there are distribution problems, it could be down to Gilliam and not the actors.
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The directorial career of Terry Gilliam provides a fascinating case study in independent artistry.
Since the '80s, Gilliam has gone through innumerable clashes with production companies and various other parties to get his vision on the big screen.
This has resulted in alternately strong creative achievements ("Brazil") and unfortunate misfires ("The Brothers Grimm"). In all cases, there's a great story lurking in the background.
But no previous Gilliam excursion offers quite the same remarkable history as "The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus," which premieres at Cannes tomorrow.
The movie, about a magical theater company and its immortal showman, halted production in January of last year when its star, Heath Ledger, died.
Eventually, Gilliam managed to complete a new version of the movie by casting Johnny Depp, Colin Farrell and Jude Law to play Ledger's character at various moments along the timeline of the story. At first, however, Gilliam thought the production was unsalvageable.
"I gave up," the director said in a public conversation with film critic James Rocci at the American Pavilion today. "I said the film was over. That was it. But then I started to think about it, and I said I had to finish it for Heath."
Since money and time had already been invested in the production, Gilliam had to work quickly on writing a new version.
"The rewriting was quite simple," he said. "In casting, I said there was no way I'm going to get somebody to take care of that part. Heath goes through this mirror in 'Imaginarium,' through time, as these three people. That's when I called Johnny [Depp], and Johnny said, 'I'm in.' I started calling people who knew Heath and were close to him. I only wanted people who were in the family involved with this film."
Gilliam added, "I don't get into my mystical mode. The film made itself -- and was co-directed by Heath Ledger."
The filmmaker also said he thought he had dodged a bullet by not adapting Alan Moore's "Watchmen" in the late '80s, noting that the R-rated version directed by Zack Snyder dealt with the consequences of working with such difficult material.
Overall, Gilliam seemed like he was in a positive mood and not particularly nervous about tomorrow's premiere. He took a jovial stance about some of his previous failures, such as the notoriously ill-fated production of "The Man Who Killed Don Quixote."
This week, at Cannes, it was announced that the movie might come to life after all. That might account for his sense of humor when a wall suddenly fell down in the back of the room during today's conversation.
"This is what happened on 'Don Quixote,'" Gilliam quipped.
Unlike Francis Ford Coppola, Gilliam said he preferred showing his new movie in an out-of-competition slot. "It would be unbearable in competition," he said. "It's just another day at the office for me. I wish I could get back to that -- the thrill of the cinema -- but I'm just too old now."
http://www.thewrap.com/ind-column/terry-gilliam-parnassus-film-was-co-directed-heath-ledger_3233 (http://www.thewrap.com/ind-column/terry-gilliam-parnassus-film-was-co-directed-heath-ledger_3233)
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From Variety:
http://www.variety.com/index.asp?layout=festivals&jump=review&reviewid=VE1117940343&cs=1&nid=2854
Cannes
The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus
(U.K.-Canada)
By TODD MCCARTHY
(http://i198.photobucket.com/albums/aa188/ffrraann/movies/Picture13-6.png)
An Infinity Features Entertainment and Poo Poo Pictures production, in association with Davis Film Entertainment produced in association with Telefilm Canada. (International sales: Mandate Intl., Los Angeles.) Produced by William Vince, Amy Gilliam, Samuel Hadida, Terry Gilliam. Executive producers, David Valleau, Victor Hadida. Directed by Terry Gilliam. Screenplay, Gilliam, Charles McKeown.
Tony - Heath Ledger
Dr. Parnassus - Christopher Plummer
Percy - Verne Troyer
Anton - Andrew Garfield
Valentina - Lily Cole
Mr. Nick - Tom Waits
Imaginarium Tony 1- Johnny Depp
Imaginarium Tony 2- Jude Law
Imaginarium Tony 3 - Colin Farrell
Especially considering the trauma and difficulties stemming from Heath Ledger's death during production and the fact that Terry Gilliam hadn't directed a good picture in more than a decade, the helmer has made a pretty good thing out of a very bad situation in "The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus." Synthesizing elements from several of his previous pictures, including "Time Bandits," "The Adventures of Baron Munchausen" and "The Fisher King," the often overreaching director addresses a mad hatter of a story with the expected visual panache and what is, for him, considerable discipline. With Ledger onscreen more than might have been expected, the film possesses strong curiosity value bolstered by generally lively action and excellent visual effects, making for good commercial prospects in most markets.
"Imaginarium" joined the short list of films interrupted by the death of a star when Ledger died in January 2008, after an initial stretch of shooting in London and before the box office smash of "The Dark Knight." Gilliam struggled to figure out how to proceed before asking three other stars, Johnny Depp (who toplined for the director in "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas"), Jude Law and Colin Farrell, to step in to fill Ledger's shoes.
Many Ledger fans certainly will turn out just to see his final performance. But it's genuinely interesting to see how, under duress, Gilliam contrived to work the other actors into the role. The way it plays out in the finished picture is that Ledger's incarnation of Tony, a man rescued from death who provides a possible way for Doctor Parnassus to win a wager with the devil, occupies the London-set framing story, while his three successors play versions of the character in the CGI sequences set in fantastical other dimensions. It all comes off well, without terribly disruptive emotional-mental dislocations.
That said, Tony is not a demanding dramatic role, nor a particularly flamboyant one like the Joker, so this can't legitimately be described as one Ledger's most striking performances. Like most of the other actors here, he's antic and frantic, dirty and sweaty, as the principals flail around trying to cope with their desperate straits.
At first, it seems Gilliam's worst habits will get the better of him once again, as the early hectic action centers on a small group of traveling players who move about the seedier neighborhoods of modern London in a 19th-century-style carnival wagon that unfolds to allow the performers out to try to snare its few derelict customers.
At the center of the clan is Doctor Parnassus himself (Christopher Plummer, with a Lear-like countenance), who a thousand years ago made a pact with the devil for immortality. The downside to the bargain, however, as Parnassus is reminded when the devil comes to collect in the person of Mr. Nick (Tom Waits, forever the hipster); is that, when the doctor's daughter Valentina (Lily Cole) turns 16, she becomes Satan's property. Unfortunately, her birthday is imminent, so Parnassus makes another deal, which allows him to save his daughter if he can deliver five souls to his alternate world of the imagination.
This phantasmagorical domain exists as something like the anteroom to the doctor's wagon. Entered through a mirrored partition, it can assume multiple forms, and great comforts await there as well as considerable perils. It's another "Alice in Wonderland"-like playground for Gilliam, and while all the specific action may not be entirely coherent or exciting, it's always visually stimulating and allows the three incarnations of Tony to host assorted guests.
In a morbid touch, Tony is first seen hanging from a noose suspended from a London bridge and presumed dead. Once resurrected and done flopping about in the mud, the young man, who says "mate" a lot, joins Parnassus' small band, which, in addition to his kewpie doll-like daughter, consists of the over-avid Anton (Andrew Garfield), who's smitten with Valentina, and midget Percy (Verne Troyer). Seeing little upside among the drunks and homeless who generally witness and sometimes disrupt the troupe's appearances, Tony suggests a modernizing makeover and a move to snazzier environs.
A lot of the stage business consists of pratfalls and chaotic behavior, which quickly become overbearing, and the plot mechanics are scarcely more engaging. Fortunately, the central conception is sturdy enough to bear Gilliam's sporadic excesses, which in any case are better focused than is sometimes the case with him. Worst are the persistent and ineffectual flailings of Anton, a character poorly conceived in hapless 19th-century romantic mode.
It's 66 minutes into the picture when Depp first appears, and you have to look twice to make sure it's him, so closely has his pulled-back hair, moustache and beard been tailored to match Ledger's. At one point, Depp's Tony conducts a middle-aged woman to the river of immortality and says that there she can join the likes of Valentino, James Dean and Princess Di among those who never got old, which serves to ease Ledger's unspoken admission to that group.
Ledger reappears whenever the action returns to modern London, but the fact that Tony is always dressed in a white suit makes him instantly identifiable when Law takes over to deal with some Russian gangsters who pass through veil. Last and very much the best of the three new Tonys is Farrell, who brings great zest to Tony's efforts to become the crucial fifth soul who will save Valentina for Parnassus.
Pic's second half is resplendent with ever-changing CGI backdrops for the imaginary world the doctor has created with his gift. "Original designers and art directors" Dave Warren and Gilliam no doubt played a dominant role in conceiving the film's look, which is ornate without being a riot of detail, but production designer Anastasia Masaro, visual effects supervisors John Paul Docherty and Richard Bain and costume designer Monique Prudhomme certainly made major contributions as well. Other production values are strong across the board.
Plummer enacts the oldest man in the world with verve, and Troyer, Waits and Cole nicely hold necessarily caricatured work in check.
Pic is dedicated to the memories of not only Ledger but producer William Vince, who also died during production.
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Thanks for this article Fran.
This morning on the Italian radio (Radio 1) I heard that the film was well received and that it was a shame that it had been shown out of competition.
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I saw this today the hihglighted part really moved me to tears because it was if they were referring to Brokeback and Ennis:
Ledger and friends' present actor's final role
CANNES, France (AP) - Heath Ledger's zeal roused his co-stars to up their game in his final film, and his death inspired them - and three A-list friends who completed his role - to carry on with a story the late actor had wanted to see, director Terry Gilliam said Friday.
As Gilliam's "The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus" premiered at the Cannes Film Festival, the filmmaker said Ledger almost co-directed the film.
"Heath was enjoying himself so much, and he was ad-libbing a lot, which I don't normally allow ... but Heath was just brilliant at it, and he got everybody else going," Gilliam said. "Everybody was just energized by Heath. He was extraordinary. He was almost exhausting because he had so much energy.
"That just passed on to everyone else. Everyone's part grew because they were full of Heath's energy," Gilliam said. "What I thought was interesting was to watch people filling the void that Heath left. Everybody was just growing to make sure that there was no void left in the space that Heath had left us."
The movie closes with the dedication: "A film from Heath Ledger and friends."
Ledger's death by an accidental prescription drug overdose on Jan. 22, 2008, left Gilliam with some of the biggest hurdles he has faced in a career filled with tough breaks. Gilliam fought prolonged battles with studio executives over both "Brazil" (1985) and his previous Ledger collaboration "The Brothers Grimm" (2005).
In 2000, Gilliam saw his fantasy epic "The Man Who Killed Don Quixote" shut down after a few days of shooting because of a string of mishaps. On Friday, the director said he would soon restart production on the project.
Gilliam said that, when Ledger died with only about half of his performance for "Doctor Parnassus" filmed, his first thought was to scrap the film.
"Fortunately, I was surrounded by really good people who insisted that I couldn't be such a lazy bastard and that we had to go out and find a way of finishing the film for Heath," Gilliam said.
His solution was to cast Johnny Depp, Jude Law and Colin Farrell to play incarnations of Ledger during otherworldly portions of the fantasy film.
Ledger's character, Tony, is a slick-tongued fundraiser for children's charities who crosses Russian mobsters and is left for dead, hanging under a London bridge. He's rescued by a small theater troupe run by Parnassus (Christopher Plummer), an immortal monk who made a deal with the devil (Tom Waits) and now must find a way to keep the wily demon from taking the soul of his teenage daughter (Lily Cole).
Parnassus is overseer of a magic mirror that sends people to a world of imagination, and the script called for Tony to take three trips to the other side - portions of the film that had not been shot when Ledger died.
Depp, who worked with Gilliam on "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas" (1998) and the Quixote picture before it was aborted, stepped in with Law and Farrell to each play an incarnation of Tony on his through-the-looking-glass sequences.
"The real credit has got to go to Johnny, Colin and Jude, which was an extraordinary thing, to come in," Gilliam said. "They're all doing other films, they're involved in other projects, and they came to the rescue of this thing.
"They did it solely, basically, for nothing. The money they would have been paid went to Matilda, Heath's daughter. To me, they're the real heroes."
Ledger won the supporting-actor Academy Award in February for his last completed role as the maniacal Joker in "The Dark Knight."
"Doctor Parnassus" includes allusions that eerily parallel the mythic aura that has grown around Ledger. The movie has references to unforeseen death, remaining forever young - even James Dean, to whom Ledger has been compared as another rising star who died before his time.
Gilliam said those parallels were in the script before Ledger died, and he decided they should stay because "this is the movie Heath wanted to see, and this is the movie that we will do. And I hope he would be pleased with it. I think he would be."
___
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Thanks for those articles, Fran and Rich.
Yeah, that part with the river, about those who never grow old because they die young, got to me, too. :(
-
As Gilliam's "The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus" premiered at the Cannes Film Festival, the filmmaker said Ledger almost co-directed the film.
"Heath was enjoying himself so much, and he was ad-libbing a lot, which I don't normally allow ... but Heath was just brilliant at it, and he got everybody else going," Gilliam said. "Everybody was just energized by Heath. He was extraordinary. He was almost exhausting because he had so much energy.
"That just passed on to everyone else. Everyone's part grew because they were full of Heath's energy," Gilliam said. "What I thought was interesting was to watch people filling the void that Heath left. Everybody was just growing to make sure that there was no void left in the space that Heath had left us."
The movie closes with the dedication: "A film from Heath Ledger and friends."
Thank you so much for posting this, Rich.
I have so many thoughts reading this: I think this is one of the most clue-filled bits we've read since Heath died, as to what was going on for him. I almost get this image of him as a shooting star exploding/burning out as it streams across the sky.
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NEW EXTENDED IMAGINARIUM OF DR. PARNASSUS CLIP
[youtube=425,350]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mPY2jxTDu_0&feature=channel_page[/youtube]
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PRESS CONFERENCE FOR IMAGINARIUM OF DOCTOR PARNASSUS AT CANNES
Part 1
[youtube=425,350]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IowKKSM1rws&feature=channel_page[/youtube]
Part 2
[youtube=425,350]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o70hhaqBSNE&feature=channel_page[/youtube]
Part 3
[youtube=425,350]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MKbhxCB-FnQ&feature=channel_page[/youtube]
Part 4
[youtube=425,350]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p6NC-9jcMac&feature=channel_page[/youtube]
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Thanks Sel and Fran! Those were great!
I honestly think we were so blessed to share space on this planet at the same time he was among us.
That may sound corny but I think he was so special and people like him, that talented, that gifted are few and far between.
I almost get this image of him as a shooting star exploding/burning out as it streams across the sky.
I agree! I think Jim Morrison said it best "It's better to burn out than fade away" I just with it hadn't happened so quickly! :(
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I agree! I think Jim Morrison said it best "It's better to burn out than fade away" I just with it hadn't happened so quickly! :(
Neil Young?
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l'ultimo lavoro di Heath Ledger.
[youtube=425,350]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TnOzE-5oJ5I[/youtube]
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Neil Young?
I always thought it was Jim Morrison that said that!
Well, what te hell do I know anyway?
Y'all get the idea! :laugh: :laugh: :laugh:
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I always thought it was Jim Morrison that said that!
Well, what te hell do I know anyway?
Y'all get the idea! :laugh: :laugh: :laugh:
Jim Morrison did that. Neil Young wrote and sang about it.
[youtube=425,350]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IA-DjpLitCA[/youtube]
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Jim Morrison did that. Neil Young wrote and sang about it.
[youtube=425,350]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IA-DjpLitCA[/youtube]
WOW!
That was AWESOME!!!
Thanks for sharing that!! I'm putting that on my youtube favorites!! ;D
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Also posted simultaneously in the 'The Culture Tent ,' Re: NYMag and as per Vanity Fair: 'Parnassus' interviews: The Last of Heath: http://bettermost.net/forum/index.php/topic,36727.0.html (http://bettermost.net/forum/index.php/topic,36727.0.html)
http://nymag.com/daily/intel/2009/06/vanity_fairs_heath_ledger_prof.html (http://nymag.com/daily/intel/2009/06/vanity_fairs_heath_ledger_prof.html)
Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus Director
Kind of Harshes On Michelle Williams
in Vanity Fair
(http://images.nymag.com/daily/intel/20090629_heathandmichelle_250x375.jpg)
By: Jessica Pressler
6/29/09 at 12:32 PM
When Heath Ledger died while filming The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, his colleagues mourned in the best way they knew how: "For a couple days we locked ourselves in a room with red wine and prosciutto and Parmesan,” Amy Gilliam, the daughter of director Terry Gilliam and a producer on the project, tells Vanity Fair this month. But self-medicating with cured meats and cheese apparently did not help to cure this bunch of their anger, because throughout the lengthy piece — a rehashing of the affair timed to the release of the movie — Gilliam and cinematographer Nicola Pecorini take the opportunity to lash out at Michelle Williams, Ledger's ex-girlfriend and the mother of his child. It's pretty uncomfortable.
For starters, they infer, they were never right for each other to begin with:
“My impression was that they had nothing in common,” says Pecorini. “They didn’t fit. They kept two separate lives. She never mingled with his friends — he never mingled with her friends.” The two men say the couple’s relationship mimicked the marriage between the characters they played in Brokeback Mountain, with hers, lonely and resentful, watching his go off on his mysterious fishing trips.
Ouch. Also, Ledger was an artist, they inferred, while Williams was more commercial, kind of a careerist:
For him, they say, the Oscars were a kind of game that he went along with grudgingly, whereas Williams took the hoopla more seriously. “The whole machinery started growing up around them,” Gilliam says. “That was the moment when it changed, when he realized, Uh-oh. We perceive the world differently. He didn’t care about things like those awards.”
She practically tormented Heath regarding the custody of their daughter, Matilda, they say, and he put up with it, because he was so nice.
According to Pecorini, “Heath was always blaming himself, asking, What did I do wrong?” Adds Gilliam, “Because he’s a much nicer person than I am, he really thought he could do the right thing. He was trying to be decent and graceful, give her whatever she wanted — the house, every fucking thing. But once it started going south, it went very quickly. He was overwhelmed by lawyers, and there were more and more of them, as if they were breeding. I said, ‘This is bullshit. Heath, just end it. Get out — it’s bad. You’ve got to just walk away from it.’ The stakes kept going up. He wouldn’t listen to any of us … He was absolutely obsessed about Matilda."
Yeah, how about that weird attachment he had to his own child. And Michelle was just so difficult about it, she like kept her away from him, like when she decided she didn't want to put her 2-year-old on a nine-hour plane ride all by herself. If you ask these guys, that might have maybe had something to do with Heath's death:
According to Gilliam, the separation from Matilda “was really destroying Heath, just ripping at his heart.”
Ew. Of course, this group of sophisticates would never come right out and say, "That's what killed him!" That would be in bad taste.
See
http://www.vanityfair.com/online/daily/2009/06/why-was-heath-ledger-so.html (http://www.vanityfair.com/online/daily/2009/06/why-was-heath-ledger-so.html)
VANITY FAIR
The Magazine
The Last of Heath
(http://mtblog.vanityfair.com/online/daily/2009/06/26/0908-HEATH-LEDGER.jpg)
by Vanity Fair
June 29, 2009, 12:01 AM
Why was Heath Ledger so ambivalent about his own stardom, and what happened at the end of his life? Vanity Fair contributing editor Peter Biskind sheds new light on these difficult-to-answer questions as he writes about the actor’s remarkable talent and untimely death in the August cover story, “The Last of Heath.”
In his article, Biskind explores Ledger’s final movie role, his uncertainty about Hollywood, his devotion to his young daughter, and what happened in the days and weeks leading up to his death as he battled chronic insomnia, pneumonia, and exhaustion. Here are some of the revelations contained in Biskind’s story.
How he cleaned up his act
• Cinematographer Nicola Pecorini, who worked with Ledger on his last film, The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, says Ledger “used to smoke marijuana on a regular basis, like probably 50 percent of Americans.” But after it became an issue, Ledger “went clean as a whistle.” And vocal coach Gerry Grennell, who worked and lived with the actor during the filming of The Dark Knight, says Ledger even stopped drinking: “Heath would happily go to the bar, buy a round of drinks for friends, and come back and have a soda or juice, never once drinking alcohol.”
How chronic insomnia may have led to his death
• Ledger’s use of sleeping medication to combat chronic insomnia at the end of his life was of more concern to Grennell. “I’d say, ‘If you can possibly bear it to stop taking the medications, do, because they don’t seem to be doing you any good.’ He agreed. It is very difficult for me to imagine how close he came to not taking them.”
Ledger would typically spend night after night awake, diverting himself with time killers, Biskind reports, such as re-arranging the furniture in whatever space he happened to be living in at the moment. Grennell coached him in the Alexander Technique, which helped him to sleep for a few hours at a time, but he still struggled.
“Everyone has a different view of how he passed away,” Grennell tells Biskind. “From my perspective, and knowing him as well as I did, and being around him as much as I was, it was a combination of exhaustion, sleeping medication … and perhaps the aftereffects of the flu. I guess his body just stopped breathing.”
How his relationship failed
• Terry Gilliam—Ledger’s friend and mentor, and the director of Doctor Parnassus —agrees with Pecorini that the romance between Ledger and Williams began to unravel during the Oscar campaign for Brokeback Mountain. “The whole machinery started growing up around them,” Gilliam says. “That was the moment when it changed, when he realized, Uh-oh. We perceive the world differently. He didn’t care about things like those awards.”
According to Pecorini, “Heath was always blaming himself [about the relationship], asking, What did I do wrong?” Adds Gilliam, “Because he’s a much nicer person than I am, he really thought he could do the right thing. He was trying to be decent and graceful, give her whatever she wanted—the house, every fucking thing. But once it started going south, it went very quickly. He was overwhelmed by lawyers, and there were more and more of them, as if they were breeding. I said, ‘This is bullshit. Heath, just end it. Get out—it’s bad. You’ve got to just walk away from it.’ The stakes kept going up. He wouldn’t listen to any of us.”
As Ledger’s relationship with Williams unraveled, and the pair started dealing with lawyers and custody issues, according to Gilliam, Ledger fell apart. “The thing that really made Heath snap” was legal wrangling over his daughter, Matilda, Gilliam says. “He said, ‘Just fuck all of you! I’m not giving Michelle anything.’???” Recalls another source, when it came to Matilda’s care, “there were definitely heated conversations, and emotions were high.” (Ledger’s lawyer declined to comment on any aspect of the separation or custody dispute.)
His devotion to the job
• The strife in his personal life coincided with the shoot for Gilliam’s Parnassus, but rather than distract him from his work, Gilliam believes it helped him concentrate on the task at hand, he tells Biskind. He appeared one day on set “clearly bloody sick,” Gilliam says. The doctor told him it was the beginning of pneumonia and that he ought to take antibiotics and go home and rest. According to Gilliam, Ledger said, “No way. I’m not going to go home, because I can’t sleep, and I’ll be just thinking about the situation. I’d rather stay here and work.”
Although “he would arrive in the morning completely knackered,” Gilliam says, “by the end of the day he was beaming, glowing with energy. It was like everything was put into the work, because that was the joy; that’s what he loved to do. The words were just pouring out. It was like he was channeling.”
Ledger’s apathy for stardom
• Ledger’s friend and agent, Steven Alexander, tells Biskind that Heath “was always hesitant to be in a summer blockbuster, with the dolls and action figures and everything else that comes with one of those movies. He was afraid it would define him and limit his choices.” According to friends of Ledger’s, one of the reasons he agreed to do Dark Knight was that the unusually long shoot would give him an excuse to turn down other offers.
Alexander tells Biskind that Ledger had a pay-or-play deal on The Dark Knight —meaning he’d get compensated no matter what—so he felt he had the freedom to do whatever he wanted as the Joker. According to Pecorini, Ledger hoped his performance would be so far-out he’d be fired, and thus become the beneficiary of a lengthy, paid vacation.
“He was ready to bust out of the gate, but he didn’t want to step on the gas and become something that he didn’t want to become: a matinee idol,” says Alexander. “He was a private person, and he didn’t want to share his personal history with the press. It just wasn’t up for sale. That’s part of the reason he initially tore down his career. He wasn’t motivated by money or stardom, but by the respect of his peers, and for people to walk out of a movie theater after they’d seen something that he’d worked on and say, ‘Wow, he really disappeared into that character.’ He was striving to become an ‘illusionist,’ as he called it, able to create characters that weren’t there.”
The August issue of Vanity Fair hits newsstands in New York and Los Angeles on July 1 and nationally July 7.
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Interesting post, thanks JM.
Everything that Pecorini is saying about Heath sounds extremely strange to me.
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Here are the scans of the whole Vanity Fair article:
http://www.imaginariumofdrparnassus.com/vanityfair (http://www.imaginariumofdrparnassus.com/vanityfair)
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Here are the scans of the whole Vanity Fair article:
http://www.imaginariumofdrparnassus.com/vanityfair (http://www.imaginariumofdrparnassus.com/vanityfair)
Thanks, MilAn! :-*
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Thanks, MilAn! :-*
Ditto from me !
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Great pics, thanks Milan
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I have got a copy of V.F now and it worries me that the movie has been shown in Cannes but still has no U.S distributed. I hope it doesn't vanish and become an art house film that very few ever see. By all accounts, Heath is as amazing as always.
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Maybe I'll come back in the morning and edit this, but
Fuck Terry Gilliam.
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Maybe I'll come back in the morning and edit this, but
Fuck Terry Gilliam.
As a temporary, volunteer moderator.......it's OK. It is what it is......Fuck Terry Gilliam
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Parnassus is scheduled to show here in November. But with the recent
interview crap Gilliam's been telling the press, I'm now debating whether or not to spend my money on this movie.
I'd love to see Heath on the screen again, but I don't want Gilliam to benefit. >:(
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I am really torn about whether to see the movie or not. It is Heath's very last role and that is too sad. :'(
I am none too keen on either Gilliam or Pecorini's comments, what is sad is that there is no doubt, Heath really was in awe of what he perceived as Gilliam's genius.
I have seen interviews when he says he pretty well would want to be involved in anything Gilliam did.
-
Also posted simultaneously in the 'The Culture Tent ,' Re: NYMag and as per Vanity Fair: 'Parnassus' interviews: The Last of Heath: http://bettermost.net/forum/index.php/topic,36727.0.html (http://bettermost.net/forum/index.php/topic,36727.0.html)
http://nymag.com/daily/intel/2009/06/vanity_fairs_heath_ledger_prof.html (http://nymag.com/daily/intel/2009/06/vanity_fairs_heath_ledger_prof.html)
Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus Director
Kind of Harshes On Michelle Williams
in Vanity Fair
(http://images.nymag.com/daily/intel/20090629_heathandmichelle_250x375.jpg)
By: Jessica Pressler
6/29/09 at 12:32 PM
When Heath Ledger died while filming The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, his colleagues mourned in the best way they knew how: "For a couple days we locked ourselves in a room with red wine and prosciutto and Parmesan,” Amy Gilliam, the daughter of director Terry Gilliam and a producer on the project, tells Vanity Fair this month. But self-medicating with cured meats and cheese apparently did not help to cure this bunch of their anger, because throughout the lengthy piece — a rehashing of the affair timed to the release of the movie — Gilliam and cinematographer Nicola Pecorini take the opportunity to lash out at Michelle Williams, Ledger's ex-girlfriend and the mother of his child. It's pretty uncomfortable.
For starters, they infer, they were never right for each other to begin with:
“My impression was that they had nothing in common,” says Pecorini. “They didn’t fit. They kept two separate lives. She never mingled with his friends — he never mingled with her friends.” The two men say the couple’s relationship mimicked the marriage between the characters they played in Brokeback Mountain, with hers, lonely and resentful, watching his go off on his mysterious fishing trips.
Ouch. Also, Ledger was an artist, they inferred, while Williams was more commercial, kind of a careerist:
For him, they say, the Oscars were a kind of game that he went along with grudgingly, whereas Williams took the hoopla more seriously. “The whole machinery started growing up around them,” Gilliam says. “That was the moment when it changed, when he realized, Uh-oh. We perceive the world differently. He didn’t care about things like those awards.”
She practically tormented Heath regarding the custody of their daughter, Matilda, they say, and he put up with it, because he was so nice.
According to Pecorini, “Heath was always blaming himself, asking, What did I do wrong?” Adds Gilliam, “Because he’s a much nicer person than I am, he really thought he could do the right thing. He was trying to be decent and graceful, give her whatever she wanted — the house, every fucking thing. But once it started going south, it went very quickly. He was overwhelmed by lawyers, and there were more and more of them, as if they were breeding. I said, ‘This is bullshit. Heath, just end it. Get out — it’s bad. You’ve got to just walk away from it.’ The stakes kept going up. He wouldn’t listen to any of us … He was absolutely obsessed about Matilda."
Yeah, how about that weird attachment he had to his own child. And Michelle was just so difficult about it, she like kept her away from him, like when she decided she didn't want to put her 2-year-old on a nine-hour plane ride all by herself. If you ask these guys, that might have maybe had something to do with Heath's death:
According to Gilliam, the separation from Matilda “was really destroying Heath, just ripping at his heart.”
Ew. Of course, this group of sophisticates would never come right out and say, "That's what killed him!" That would be in bad taste.
See
http://www.vanityfair.com/online/daily/2009/06/why-was-heath-ledger-so.html (http://www.vanityfair.com/online/daily/2009/06/why-was-heath-ledger-so.html)
VANITY FAIR
The Magazine
The Last of Heath
(http://mtblog.vanityfair.com/online/daily/2009/06/26/0908-HEATH-LEDGER.jpg)
by Vanity Fair
June 29, 2009, 12:01 AM
Why was Heath Ledger so ambivalent about his own stardom, and what happened at the end of his life? Vanity Fair contributing editor Peter Biskind sheds new light on these difficult-to-answer questions as he writes about the actor’s remarkable talent and untimely death in the August cover story, “The Last of Heath.”
In his article, Biskind explores Ledger’s final movie role, his uncertainty about Hollywood, his devotion to his young daughter, and what happened in the days and weeks leading up to his death as he battled chronic insomnia, pneumonia, and exhaustion. Here are some of the revelations contained in Biskind’s story.
How he cleaned up his act
• Cinematographer Nicola Pecorini, who worked with Ledger on his last film, The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, says Ledger “used to smoke marijuana on a regular basis, like probably 50 percent of Americans.” But after it became an issue, Ledger “went clean as a whistle.” And vocal coach Gerry Grennell, who worked and lived with the actor during the filming of The Dark Knight, says Ledger even stopped drinking: “Heath would happily go to the bar, buy a round of drinks for friends, and come back and have a soda or juice, never once drinking alcohol.”
How chronic insomnia may have led to his death
• Ledger’s use of sleeping medication to combat chronic insomnia at the end of his life was of more concern to Grennell. “I’d say, ‘If you can possibly bear it to stop taking the medications, do, because they don’t seem to be doing you any good.’ He agreed. It is very difficult for me to imagine how close he came to not taking them.”
Ledger would typically spend night after night awake, diverting himself with time killers, Biskind reports, such as re-arranging the furniture in whatever space he happened to be living in at the moment. Grennell coached him in the Alexander Technique, which helped him to sleep for a few hours at a time, but he still struggled.
“Everyone has a different view of how he passed away,” Grennell tells Biskind. “From my perspective, and knowing him as well as I did, and being around him as much as I was, it was a combination of exhaustion, sleeping medication … and perhaps the aftereffects of the flu. I guess his body just stopped breathing.”
How his relationship failed
• Terry Gilliam—Ledger’s friend and mentor, and the director of Doctor Parnassus —agrees with Pecorini that the romance between Ledger and Williams began to unravel during the Oscar campaign for Brokeback Mountain. “The whole machinery started growing up around them,” Gilliam says. “That was the moment when it changed, when he realized, Uh-oh. We perceive the world differently. He didn’t care about things like those awards.”
According to Pecorini, “Heath was always blaming himself [about the relationship], asking, What did I do wrong?” Adds Gilliam, “Because he’s a much nicer person than I am, he really thought he could do the right thing. He was trying to be decent and graceful, give her whatever she wanted—the house, every fucking thing. But once it started going south, it went very quickly. He was overwhelmed by lawyers, and there were more and more of them, as if they were breeding. I said, ‘This is bullshit. Heath, just end it. Get out—it’s bad. You’ve got to just walk away from it.’ The stakes kept going up. He wouldn’t listen to any of us.”
As Ledger’s relationship with Williams unraveled, and the pair started dealing with lawyers and custody issues, according to Gilliam, Ledger fell apart. “The thing that really made Heath snap” was legal wrangling over his daughter, Matilda, Gilliam says. “He said, ‘Just fuck all of you! I’m not giving Michelle anything.’???” Recalls another source, when it came to Matilda’s care, “there were definitely heated conversations, and emotions were high.” (Ledger’s lawyer declined to comment on any aspect of the separation or custody dispute.)
His devotion to the job
• The strife in his personal life coincided with the shoot for Gilliam’s Parnassus, but rather than distract him from his work, Gilliam believes it helped him concentrate on the task at hand, he tells Biskind. He appeared one day on set “clearly bloody sick,” Gilliam says. The doctor told him it was the beginning of pneumonia and that he ought to take antibiotics and go home and rest. According to Gilliam, Ledger said, “No way. I’m not going to go home, because I can’t sleep, and I’ll be just thinking about the situation. I’d rather stay here and work.”
Although “he would arrive in the morning completely knackered,” Gilliam says, “by the end of the day he was beaming, glowing with energy. It was like everything was put into the work, because that was the joy; that’s what he loved to do. The words were just pouring out. It was like he was channeling.”
Ledger’s apathy for stardom
• Ledger’s friend and agent, Steven Alexander, tells Biskind that Heath “was always hesitant to be in a summer blockbuster, with the dolls and action figures and everything else that comes with one of those movies. He was afraid it would define him and limit his choices.” According to friends of Ledger’s, one of the reasons he agreed to do Dark Knight was that the unusually long shoot would give him an excuse to turn down other offers.
Alexander tells Biskind that Ledger had a pay-or-play deal on The Dark Knight —meaning he’d get compensated no matter what—so he felt he had the freedom to do whatever he wanted as the Joker. According to Pecorini, Ledger hoped his performance would be so far-out he’d be fired, and thus become the beneficiary of a lengthy, paid vacation.
“He was ready to bust out of the gate, but he didn’t want to step on the gas and become something that he didn’t want to become: a matinee idol,” says Alexander. “He was a private person, and he didn’t want to share his personal history with the press. It just wasn’t up for sale. That’s part of the reason he initially tore down his career. He wasn’t motivated by money or stardom, but by the respect of his peers, and for people to walk out of a movie theater after they’d seen something that he’d worked on and say, ‘Wow, he really disappeared into that character.’ He was striving to become an ‘illusionist,’ as he called it, able to create characters that weren’t there.”
The August issue of Vanity Fair hits newsstands in New York and Los Angeles on July 1 and nationally July 7.
wow. very harsh..
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Hmmm. I guess I'm the only one here not having a huge issue with what Gilliam said. I more see it as Gilliam is upset at the loss of Ledger, and Gilliam seems to think the relationship with Williams was what started his downward spiral. So, he's sort of lashing out at her, and also airing lots of dirty laundry that maybe nobody knew about.
Don't forget Gilliam also worked with Ledger on The Brothers Grimm, before Brokeback, before Williams, before the Joker role, etc. I can imagine it's hard for someone as a director and a friend, to see a good actor and friend beforehand, and then watch them go downhill... IMO, In lots of ways, Gilliam is defending Ledger quite a bit in this article.
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I have got a copy of V.F now and it worries me that the movie has been shown in Cannes but still has no U.S distributed. I hope it doesn't vanish and become an art house film that very few ever see. By all accounts, Heath is as amazing as always.
High-profile PR such as a Vanity Fair cover article should pretty much assure US distribution. I'll bet that was the entire objective of the article anyway.
It could be that its author's conversations with Gilliam was much broader and contained a lot of less controversial points, but it was edited to be as juicy as possible for better sales and visibility.
In any case, I know I'd have a very hard time staying away from Heath's last performance, Gilliam notwithstanding!
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Hmmm. I guess I'm the only one here not having a huge issue with what Gilliam said. I more see it as Gilliam is upset at the loss of Ledger, and Gilliam seems to think the relationship with Williams was what started his downward spiral. So, he's sort of lashing out at her, and also airing lots of dirty laundry that maybe nobody knew about.
Don't forget Gilliam also worked with Ledger on The Brothers Grimm, before Brokeback, before Williams, before the Joker role, etc. I can imagine it's hard for someone as a director and a friend, to see a good actor and friend beforehand, and then watch them go downhill... IMO, In lots of ways, Gilliam is defending Ledger quite a bit in this article.
Nope, I'm with you. Nothing will keep me from seeing a film by Gilliam, especially one with Heath's last performance! Mind you, I haven't read the article yet, lol! I'll report back once I do.
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Well, I won't stay away from "Imaginarium" - I want to see it. But Gilliam's pathetic dishing of subjective hearsay dirt is in the poorest of taste and he is obviously trying to shift blame over on Michelle Williams - partly to avoid taking any himself.
I am rooting for Michelle, - I hope she'll rise far above pettiness of the Gilliam kind to become a more acknowledged name in movies than she is.
Be that as it may;
At this link are 3 short clips from Parnassus; the first one includes Heath.
http://movies.yahoo.com/movie/1809961111/video/14649920
(I am ambivalent about the film's prospects after seeing these. Lily Cole doesn't seem like much of an actress.)
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Well, I won't stay away from "Imaginarium" - I want to see it. But Gilliam's pathetic dishing of subjective hearsay dirt is in the poorest of taste and he is obviously trying to shift blame over on Michelle Williams - partly to avoid taking any himself.
I am rooting for Michelle, - I hope she'll rise far above pettiness of the Gilliam kind to become a more acknowledged name in movies than she is.
Be that as it may;
At this link are 3 short clips from Parnassus; the first one includes Heath.
http://movies.yahoo.com/movie/1809961111/video/14649920
(I am ambivalent about the film's prospects after seeing these. Lily Cole doesn't seem like much of an actress.)
thanks for posting those clips, i loved them and the one with heath is amazing. i am sure his performance will be absolutely fantastic.
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Oilgun, you'll be happy to hear (if you haven't already) that Heath's last film will be shown at the Toronto Film Festival (next month, I think).
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I'll totally see the movie. And I feel like I understand Terry Gilliam's motives, and even have compassion for him. But I wish he could have taken a higher road.
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Oilgun, you'll be happy to hear (if you haven't already) that Heath's last film will be shown at the Toronto Film Festival (next month, I think).
Thanks, I read that this morning. It's one of the Gala films for which tickets can be more difficult to get, but I'll try. :)
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Next month? Wow. If you see it, you'll have to let us know how you liked it!
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Next month? Wow. If you see it, you'll have to let us know how you liked it!
I just remembered that I will be living in Montreal by then so I won't be able to see it. Man, I better start packing and find a place to live pronto... :o
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Finally, a trailer. It looks pretty wild! Heath gets first billing of course.:
[youtube=425,350]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7IE3btjbYZQ[/youtube]
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Thank you for posting the trailer. It actually looks very cool!
And very Gilliam-esque.
But my heart truly did seize up a little when Johnny Depp in Heath's character's get-up declares there at the end; - "nothing's permanent, not even death!" :-\
It's a strangely tragi-ironic comment to the reason why Depp is in the film at all. Which Gilliam knows all to well, of course - that has to be why it's included as the trailer's spoken punchline.
I don't think that's particularly classy, actually - seems to me almost as if Gilliam is using Heath's passing to structure the marketing around... ???
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Oh I don't know about that, Mikaela. It says in the beginning how Dr. Parnassus bargained with the devil for Immortality. It totally makes sense with the plot.
I think it's a sensitivity thing for us, who are particular fans of Heath and all. It would be like saying The Dark Knight was attempting the same thing with the "You either die a hero..." line.
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It's crazy: right at 1:52 when Heath says "Voila" — he looks so much like Johnny Depp there. He tightens the muscles around his cheekbones exactly as Depp does sometimes. Serendipitous since Depp would later help take up the role... they're hard to tell apart in this trailer!
Heath did look a bit like Depp in his brunette moments.
(http://i101.photobucket.com/albums/m47/Penthesilea06/Heath/orderbts003.jpg)
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Thank you for posting the trailer. It actually looks very cool!
And very Gilliam-esque.
But my heart truly did seize up a little when Johnny Depp in Heath's character's get-up declares there at the end; - "nothing's permanent, not even death!" :-\
It's a strangely tragi-ironic comment to the reason why Depp is in the film at all. Which Gilliam knows all to well, of course - that has to be why it's included as the trailer's spoken punchline.
I don't think that's particularly classy, actually - seems to me almost as if Gilliam is using Heath's passing to structure the marketing around... ???
Mikaela, exactly what I was about to post on too.
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Well, it could have been that Heath's death affected them so deeply that it subconsciously affected their choices of trailer dialog? I think even that's taking it too far. The film is about immortality (aka cheating death) after all.
I think Brokie fever is affecting us here.
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I don't know what Brokie Fever is, exactly - but what I do know is that the movie industry is cynical, and that it's all about making the bucks, - and also that Gilliam has shown he's able to do decidedly un-classy things. (Ref. his diatribe against Michelle Williams). So I think the choice of that punchline does indeed deliberately reference Heath's death (and the way his role was "resurrected" by Depp and others).
Gilliam/the distributers/whoever is responsible for the trailer may even tell themselves that in riffing on the main star's mid-shoot death and in using the interest and attention the film gets specifically because of that, they are actually honouring Heath and his art. After all, it's a way to get more people come watch his final film.
But when all is said and done, I personally think it's about the money. They use what they have. Cynically. Or maybe just realistically.
The film itself still looks cool, though, all marketing ploys aside. That's the main thing.
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It's crazy: right at 1:52 when Heath says "Voila" — he looks so much like Johnny Depp there. He tightens the muscles around his cheekbones exactly as Depp does sometimes. Serendipitous since Depp would later help take up the role... they're hard to tell apart in this trailer!
Heath did look a bit like Depp in his brunette moments.
(http://i101.photobucket.com/albums/m47/Penthesilea06/Heath/orderbts003.jpg)
I agree 100% with the Heath/Depp similarities. It is all the more poignant as Depp was my all time favourite and most talented actor until seeing BBM and Heath. I find it pulls so much on the heart strings, as I realise that after a brief fling with the "in posse" Depp finally took root in France with his wife and children. There he seems to live a rural idyll away from all the trappings of celebrity and the constant siege laid down by the paparazzi.
I thought Heath would ultimately choose that lifestyle, leaving it only for very special projects.
Both actors had a taste of the celebrity lifestyle and neither seemed at ease with it. A wonderful and vastly underrated actor, Dirk Bogarde also made Southern France his home. His part in the caretaker was a masterpiece, yet he too for different reasons took refuge away from all the major trappings of the hedonistic life style of so many artists.
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thanks for posting the trailer but it is with a better sweet feeling I am watching it. its mixed emotions between joy and sadness. first seeing heath makes you go crazy :D and then suddenly your awareness a wakes you with johnny depp and it gives you confusion. :-\
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It just makes me sad! :'(
I want to see it but it'll be hard.
It wasn't like that in the dark knight because you realy had to look hard to see Heath but in this you can see him so clearly.
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I watched the trailer today. It gave me chill bumps. I could barely tell Heath and J. Depp apart---the movie looks amazing.
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Here's a link for a terrific hi-def version of the trailer. Click the middle icon on the bottom right and it will go to full screen mode. 8)
http://www.imaginariumofdrparnassus.com/
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Well I am really looking forward to this. And my mother is a Johnny Depp obsessed fanatic, so maybe I'll take her to see this. :)
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It was like seeing into the past, to see Heath in that trailer. I am so so glad they finished it. They all loved him,
and his personal way. He was honored and his daughter will receive the money that she never would have gotten,
if it had just all been ashcanned. I for one cannot wait to see it. I would go and see it, if he was only in it for a
short time of say two minutes. It is like truly watching magic, to see him in his acting glory.
Thus far I have been very unsatisfied with Gilliams movies. They start well and then just kind of die on the vine.
I hope and pray that this one has better fate. I would love to see a truly outstanding finish to this career that we
all know had so much more to contribute.
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'Parnassus' finds Stateside buyer
Sony in advanced talks to pick up Ledger film
By SHARON SWART
'The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus'
Heath Ledger’s final film has finally found a Stateside buyer.
Sony Pictures Worldwide Acquisitions Group is in advanced talks to pick up "The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus," with plans for it to go out theatrically, likely this year, via Sony Pictures Classics.
Pic is expected to be a lucrative homevideo title due to the Ledger angle and the other star power. Terry Gilliam’s adventure also features Johnny Depp, Jude Law and Colin Farrell, who replaced Ledger in various fantasy scenes after the thesp died during the film’s production in January 2008.
"Parnassus" was officially unveiled at Cannes this year in an out-of-competition slot toward the end of the festival. Several buyers screened the film just before Cannes, but a deal didn’t immediately emerge.
Sony Pictures Worldwide Acquisitions Group has been a key player in a number of pic deals lately, including for "The Young Victoria." That film will go out theatrically via Bob Berney and Bill Pohlad’s new Apparition label, and SPWAG will handle all ancillaries as part of a three-way deal on the pic.
SPWAG has a homevid deal with Apparition.
The "Parnassus" deal with Sony has long been in the works and could be made official this week.
Reps on the deal, including sales agent John Sloss, remained mum.
The film goes out in the fourth quarter through various distributors in European territories including the U.K., France, Germany and Italy, plus Australia and New Zealand.
http://www.variety.com/article/VR1118007231.html?categoryid=13&cs=1 (http://www.variety.com/article/VR1118007231.html?categoryid=13&cs=1)
I had been worried for awhile that I wouldn't be able to see this in the theaters. A straight to DVD in the US would have been horrible. >:( >:( >:(
Now I just hope it comes out sooner than later. Preferably Christmas time, when I'm out of school and have time to scout out the theaters showing it, as it's likely to have a limited release. Plus, I plan on seeing it multiple times. ;)
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'Parnassus' finds Stateside buyer
Sony in advanced talks to pick up Ledger film
By SHARON SWART
'The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus'
Heath Ledger’s final film has finally found a Stateside buyer.
Sony Pictures Worldwide Acquisitions Group is in advanced talks to pick up "The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus," with plans for it to go out theatrically, likely this year, via Sony Pictures Classics.
Pic is expected to be a lucrative homevideo title due to the Ledger angle and the other star power. Terry Gilliam’s adventure also features Johnny Depp, Jude Law and Colin Farrell, who replaced Ledger in various fantasy scenes after the thesp died during the film’s production in January 2008.
"Parnassus" was officially unveiled at Cannes this year in an out-of-competition slot toward the end of the festival. Several buyers screened the film just before Cannes, but a deal didn’t immediately emerge.
Sony Pictures Worldwide Acquisitions Group has been a key player in a number of pic deals lately, including for "The Young Victoria." That film will go out theatrically via Bob Berney and Bill Pohlad’s new Apparition label, and SPWAG will handle all ancillaries as part of a three-way deal on the pic.
SPWAG has a homevid deal with Apparition.
The "Parnassus" deal with Sony has long been in the works and could be made official this week.
Reps on the deal, including sales agent John Sloss, remained mum.
The film goes out in the fourth quarter through various distributors in European territories including the U.K., France, Germany and Italy, plus Australia and New Zealand.
http://www.variety.com/article/VR1118007231.html?categoryid=13&cs=1 (http://www.variety.com/article/VR1118007231.html?categoryid=13&cs=1)
I had been worried for awhile that I wouldn't be able to see this in the theaters. A straight to DVD in the US would have been horrible. >:( >:( >:(
Now I just hope it comes out sooner than later. Preferably Christmas time, when I'm out of school and have time to scout out the theaters showing it, as it's likely to have a limited release. Plus, I plan on seeing it multiple times. ;)
That's great news! It really does look like the kind of film that would lose considerably by being seen on a small screen. Something to look forward to. 8)
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Doesn´t look like it´s gonna open at all in Sweden :P
Might be worth taking a little trip to see it as this is the last chance to see Heath on the big screen.
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Doesn´t look like it´s gonna open at all in Sweden :P
Might be worth taking a little trip to see it as this is the last chance to see Heath on the big screen.
I hope for you that it will be shown in Sweden. Or maybe not, since you wouldn't mind a little trip. Who knows what possbilities will come from a little trip?
Here are the release dates from IMDB:
France 22 May 2009 (Cannes Film Festival)
Germany 26 June 2009 (Munich International Film Festival)
Italy 16 October 2009
UK 16 October 2009
Australia 29 October 2009
New Zealand 29 October 2009
Argentina 5 November 2009
Belgium 11 November 2009
France 11 November 2009
Germany 3 December 2009
Netherlands 3 December 2009
USA 25 December 2009
This year already? I somehow expected the movie to come out in 2010. I don't want it to be over. I want to have a new Heath movie to look forward to a little while longer. :-\
:'(
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This year already? I somehow expected the movie to come out in 2010. I don't want it to be over. I want to have a new Heath movie to look forward to a little while longer
You can wait till Christmas and come see it with me!!! ;D :-*
Boy Howdy talk about pawin the white outta the moon!!!
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You can wait till Christmas and come see it with me!!! ;D :-*
Boy Howdy talk about pawin the white outta the moon!!!
Aw, shucks. Pawin the white outta the moon with you is definitively on my must-do-list!
If only the US weren't so far away ...
:-*
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*happy face*
TIoDP *will* open in Sweden after all. The exact date isn´t set yet but it will be in November/December. I´ve read about it in several newspapers now.
There is quite some buzz about the movie here in Sweden after the trailer came out. Many Terry Gilliam fans here, seems like.
Yay!
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Lily Cole talks about Heath in new interview:
She is disconcertingly doll-faced. Pale bow lips that look like they’re drawn on. Cornflower-blue eyes like giant orbs. Red Crystal Tipps cartoon hair. It’s a round face that manages to look wise and gormless at the same time. It’s the face of a Marks & Spencer model who appeared controversially on the cover of French Playboy, hair in bunches, cuddling a teddy, naked except for little white socks. In the flesh, the look is more minx than exploited girlie.
It was the same extraordinary face, both sweet and uncompromising, that catapulted Lily Cole to fame after she was discovered by Storm model agency while shopping with friends in London. How could she look so babyish and so sophisticated? How could she earn so much when she was so young? (The Sunday Times Rich List estimates that she is worth at least £4m.) How could she miss so much school and earn a place at Cambridge, gaining a first this summer in her first-year exams.
It was perhaps inevitable that, after a short period of catwalk adulation, Cole would turn to acting. She had a small part in the 2007 remake of St Trinian’s, but now she is poised for a meatier role as the female lead in a film that has become memorable before it has even opened. It was an experience both wonderful and blighted, because her co-star died in the middle of filming.
The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus has had a troubled genesis. Prior to production, its iconoclastic director, Terry Gilliam, faced a series of obstacles: the dithering of backers, the usual wrangling over money.
Gilliam took a risk on Cole, then just 19, who had never performed such a huge and integral role. There was considerable stress over how exactly she had to raise her game, but there was absolute devastation when her co-star Heath Ledger was found dead by his housekeeper in his New York loft in January 2008. Most of her scenes were with him. She worked with him perhaps more than any other member of the cast. She got to know his generous spirit. “He definitely helped me. From the beginning he understood that I would be overwhelmed and scared by the size of this project. He encouraged me and said he was really proud of me, constantly fed me support.”
Ledger’s death has been talked about so much — was it self-destruction or an accident with sleeping pills? He had chronic insomnia. He was in turmoil that he might lose his daughter, Matilda, then two, from his broken-down relationship with Michelle Williams, who he met on the rebound from Naomi Watts on the set of Brokeback Mountain. When I met Ledger I found him spiritual, wise beyond his years, a huge force of life, never someone who would have taken his own. The conundrum of his death has become an intellectual exercise.
When I saw the film I wasn’t prepared for the impact of seeing Ledger suddenly alive, real, vibrant, filling the screen, spiky with charisma. “I felt exactly the same,” says Cole. She has talked about this at length in private but never in public, until now. All those I spoke to who are connected to the film seem keen not to appear to be using the tragedy of Ledger as a marketing tool for the film. Yet still the ghouls will swell the box office.
Cole plays Valentina, Parnassus’s 16-year-old daughter. Her father, played by Christopher Plummer, has made a deal with the devil to seal her fate on her 16th birthday. She pouts when she says she is “sweet 16”, as if to say there is nothing sweet about her. She is never a victim. In the film she falls for Ledger’s rakish character. Their chemistry was real and they became very close. How hard was it to carry on without him? “It was incredibly hard. He became the driving force.” In death as in life, she means.
During the shoot, Ledger, along with many other cast members, including Lily, got the flu. After his death it was even said he had been suffering from pneumonia. He had certainly stopped drinking, and Cole recalls a consummate professional who worked meticulously. Perhaps he wanted to expunge the pain through his work. “He never told me he had pneumonia; there was no whimpering, no ‘Can I take a break?’ ”
When news of Ledger’s death broke, the cast were completely undone. They were deprived of a much-loved colleague and feared the film was unlikely to be finished. Thanks to Gilliam’s own determination and guile, it was salvaged. “Terry is the kind of person who has balls if he believes in something,” Cole says.
Ironically, the replacements that Gilliam lined up for Ledger — Johnny Depp, Colin Farrell and Jude Law — were arguably bigger names than Ledger himself. “People who were close to Heath wanted to do it for Heath,” Cole says. It’s as if, through them, he lived on. Her voice trails off; there is more than a note of sadness. “Johnny slipped seamlessly into the role, but that didn’t stop it being bizarre. I’m playing the same character; they are playing a character that is familiar to me but not the same actor. But when you look at the script, it could have been written that way. There are so many references to death.”
Sometimes Cole doesn’t say anything. Sometimes she gives a strange, all-knowing, echoey laugh. “In the film, everyone was part of one unit. That’s what helped us carry on. On top of that, everyone loved Heath… For everyone who knew him, it was devastating. The practicalities of continuing the production were difficult, but it seemed irrelevant. If you lose somebody you love, whether it’s at the beginning of shooting or at the end — it didn’t really matter. We were creatively challenged, yes. It was a bizarre experience. Heath was such a lovable human being. I thought I was in at the deep end at the beginning, and then look what happened.” I’m not sure if she realises what the film will do for her. It shows her as feisty and strong, with a poise and a face that could carry a film.
We’re talking after a photoshoot in LA, where she spends a lot of time. She’s wearing denim cut-offs, sandals with a big white flower between the toes, a rose-gold ring that matches her hair, and a black sweater. She’s tall, very tall, around 6ft. She’s got big breasts and there’s nothing about her that looks waif-like, frail or modellish. But maybe she has redefined what is modellish. She seems super-confident in her own skin. I say her performance as Valentina seems natural and feisty, and she giggles: “That works!” I ask if Gilliam might have been inspired by her naughty schoolgirl role in St Trinian’s. “No,” she says. “He hadn’t seen it. It came about after I’d been asked to do Rage with Sally Potter.”
Rage is a behind-the-scenes look at the modelling industry: mini-monologues, documentary-style but scripted by Potter. It features Jude Law’s alarming portrayal of a transvestite (I didn’t realise it was him until I read the credits) and Cole playing a model called Lettuce Leaf. Her delivery is drily perfect, full of irony. I recognise her special ironic laugh as one from her performance as Lettuce Leaf.
I wondered if she’d improvised a lot around the original script of Rage. “Everyone asks that, but the script didn’t change that much from when I first read it.” In Rage, she didn’t work with any of the other actors. Each performance is made up of monologues, so she too was shocked when she saw Jude Law take on a role as a transvestite. “Lots of people couldn’t believe it was him.”
Her performance as Lettuce Leaf is freshly observed, measured and shows an ability to send herself up — or at least her model self. Discussing another model becoming undone by anorexia, Lettuce Leaf says: “The way to be big is to be little.” Does that still sum up modelling? Was she ever asked to be smaller? “There’s definitely still a fascination with being thin and skinny in the modelling world. I also think there’s a celebration of curves. I have breasts. I love my breasts. There are models now who have more curves, and that’s seen as a good thing. I’ve never studied the correlation between the decades of plenty and the size of models, but it’s interesting, for sure. I was never asked to lose weight. I’m assuming people who are less successful are the ones who are told they need to be teeny to be so.”
One imagines that Cole was always instilled with confidence and cleverness. At the same time she is fresh, funny and doesn’t take herself seriously. In 2003, Steven Meisel photographed her for Italian Vogue. By 2004 she was British model of the year, and by 2007 she was making tabloid headlines — “Model Risks Career for Learning” — after deciding to start at King’s College, Cambridge. She is bemused that people find it strange that you can be gorgeous and clever. She isn’t at Cambridge to have her intelligence validated, nor does she think it will lead to a specific career.
“People change direction all the time; there’s a lot of value in that. I fell into modelling. It wasn’t a choice; not that I was forced into it. I just got asked one day to do it, and I believe in taking opportunities.”
When she arrived at Cambridge there was already a sense of her separateness. She had deferred her place for two years, and had done Gilliam’s film. Cambridge was not a means to an end; she just wanted to learn things. She doesn’t yet know where she will live next term, maybe in a flat, maybe a hall. As much as she can, she pursues a normal student life. Does she find it hard to make friends? She must be far richer and more accomplished than most girls her age. Doesn’t she find girls spiteful and jealous?
“I know what you mean about girls being like that, having gone to a girls’ school, but I wouldn’t want to attract those kind of people as friends and they wouldn’t attract me. I’ve been blessed with friends who are just happy for me.”
Is she expected to buy all the rounds of drinks? “No, a lot of my friends are working. A lot of them are doing well. None of us spend money extravagantly, so there’s not a huge disparity. So that’s never an issue,” she sighs, irritated.
“I was with my sister just last week. I know she really loves me. Within that love there’s no jealousy. There’s an acceptance of her life and my life and their differences. I don’t think she’d want my life, running around all the time, being recognised, all those things that come with it.” She pauses, then laughs: “But I’m sure she’d like to make as much money as I’m making!”
Cole grew up in a bohemian family that moved from Torquay to London when she was a baby. Her mother, an artist and a writer, was left on her own with two small daughters. I ask if she is more like her mother or father. She says her mother thinks she’s very much like her father, and Cole is not sure if that is meant as a compliment. He went to live in Spain about 15 years ago. She doesn’t really know why. “I guess he just preferred it there. He likes to make things. He built a boat, a 64ft yacht, because he wanted to sail around the world. He’d already built that by himself when he met my mum on the Bayswater Road. He was selling jewellery that he’d made and she was selling paintings.
“I don’t know him that well. I lived with my mum growing up in London. I take after my mum as well, because she’s an unusual, free-spirited person. She’s often said I take after my dad, his wild personality. Perhaps she’s just assigning the bad things to him. She thinks my stubbornness and my being quite smart comes from him.”
Does she see him at all? “Every year, every few years.” There is no hint of sadness, instead a hint of intrigue: intrigued by the father she doesn’t really know, intrigued by the maleness missing in her upbringing. There was no stepdad. And her mother still doesn’t have a boyfriend. At home there were just three 6ft redheaded females. Was that as fiery as it sounds? “Sure. I don’t think we clashed. Mum is a very peaceful woman. But me and my sister... What can I say? I’m calm now, but as a child I was very passionate. Either very happy or very loving or very raging. I was quite sure about things. Me and my sister fought a lot.” They get on well now, and her sister teaches at the primary school that she used to attend.
When she was a little girl she had a spell at the Sylvia Young Theatre School, which she hated.
“I went to a state school which did a lot of performing arts. I acted a lot there. I had a scholarship. Then I went to Latymer [in Hammersmith], and they had an amazing theatre department, but I was always away modelling so much, it didn’t make sense for me to do drama, because you have to rehearse with the whole group. But acting was the thing I always loved.”
Cole excelled at both arts and sciences. She did her maths GCSE a year early. “The logical part of me loved the idea of maths. I found the creative aspect of English harder because the marking is so ambiguous, whereas maths stuff is either right or wrong.” Her love of maths strikes me as odd. Everything else about her seems so spontaneous, fluid, ambiguous. Perhaps it partly explains why university is so important to her. Maybe it’s the intellectual challenge of maths that appeals to her.
Will she finish her degree? She deliberates. “I’m going to see. I would like to. I like learning. I was going to do social and political science, then I switched to history of art, but I could have done either. I can get impassioned about politics, but I find studying it can lead to a boxy way of looking at the world, so I was put off studying it.”
And her own personal politics? “I don’t think there’s one political system that’s watertight. I believe in freedom, personal liberty.”
She doesn’t want to be pinned down about this. She admires Obama, doesn’t commit her thoughts on Brown, and we go into a brief if vague discussion about the nature of freedom. She would make a great politician. She gives something of herself in every answer, but never necessarily answers the question you ask her.
Cole is not sure how her future will play out, but a bad boy, a yacht and a beach in the south of France would never be enough for her. Would she say she was conventional in any way? “What is the implication of that question? You don’t ask a person who you think is conventional that question. So the implication is you don’t think I’m very conventional.” She’s laughing rather than irritated. “My family is important, and my close friends are important, and believing in love is important. I haven’t got a lot of stability, because I’m running around, but I’m seeking stability in relationships with friends, family and lovers. So in those ways I am quite conventional. And I want to get married and have children. That’s quite conventional. It’s human nature.”
I wonder if she plans to marry her boyfriend, the LA-based 36-year-old American actor Enrique Murciano, who starred in the long-running detective series Without a Trace and who she’s been with for a year.
“Who knows?” she says, with a look that suggests she might really like that. “Yes,” she concedes. “I love him and he knows that. And he loves me. So we’ll see.”
I am sure she will mostly get what she wants. Parnassus, with all its dramatic background, is an incredible showcase. She went into it a model and has emerged as a rare talent who will one day be a draw in her own right.
http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/film/article6812668.ece (http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/film/article6812668.ece)
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The US release date was finally made official as of Aug 31 (I guess wiki had jumped the gun a while ago and passed the info around. But apparently they got lucky ;))
The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus to Open Christmas Day
Source:ComingSoon.net August 31, 2009
ComingSoon.net has learned that Sony Pictures Classics plans to release Terry Gilliam's new movie The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus on Christmas Day, confirming earlier conjecture about the possibility.
Featuring the final screen performance by the late Heath Ledger, who earlier this year won a posthumous Oscar for his performance in Christopher Nolan's The Dark Knight, the film will be making its North American premiere at the Toronto Film Festival on September 18 and be released in the UK on October 16.
The movie also stars Johnny Depp, Colin Farrell, Jude Law , Christopher Plummer, Tom Waits, Lily Cole, Andrew Garfield and Verne Troyer.
http://www.comingsoon.net/news/movienews.php?id=58533 (http://www.comingsoon.net/news/movienews.php?id=58533)
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http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2009/sep/27/heath-ledger-parnassus-terry-gilliam (http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2009/sep/27/heath-ledger-parnassus-terry-gilliam)
Terry Gilliam: 'Parnassus was star Heath Ledger's film even after he died'Terry Gilliam was devastated by the death of his friend Heath Ledger before they finished shooting his latest movie, but it was the actor's spirit that drove him to complete it
Tim Adams The Observer (British newspaper), Sunday 27 September 2009 Article history
Terry Gilliam's The Imaginarium Of Doctor Parnassus, starring Heath Ledger
The first time we see Heath Ledger, the star of Terry Gilliam's forthcoming film The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, he is hanging under Blackfriars Bridge in London with a noose around his neck; he is subsequently brought, coughing and choking, back to life. Given that, in January 2008, Ledger himself died during the making of Parnassus, from a probably accidental combination of sleeping tablets, it is an unnervingly shocking moment.
The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus Production year: 2009 Directors: Terry Gilliam Cast: Colin Farrell, Heath Ledger, Johnny Depp, Jude Law, Lily Cole More on this film It is also a pointed reminder that film routinely deals in immortality: Ledger, who won a posthumous Oscar last year for his performance as the Joker in The Dark Knight, has never looked as alive as he does in what follows.
When he first heard of Ledger's death, Gilliam didn't know how he could go on with the film. Ledger, who had worked with him on The Brothers Grimm in 2005, had become like a son and a muse rolled into one. Over a late-morning margarita in a Soho hotel, Gilliam tells me that while making Parnassus "Heath had been running full pelt, carrying the whole film on his shoulders. Telling me what to do; insatiable, exhausting."
Full of grief and despair, Gilliam's first instinct was that it would be impossible to finish what Ledger had started; only two-thirds of his role had been filmed. Moreover, on the morning after the news of his death emerged investors began pulling out. "You can't believe how quickly the money ran away from this thing," he says.
It was Gilliam's 31-year-old daughter, Amy, working for the first time as a producer, who persuaded him that it could be done. "She turned out to be really fantastically pig-headed and good," Gilliam says. "It was like a mother instinct took over." They turned off the phones and locked themselves in a room with "some red wine and prosciutto and parmesan" and, along with Gilliam's cinematographer Nicola Pecorini, worked out a plan. This involved finding someone who could complete Ledger's role, because as Amy Gilliam put it at the time, "a dead star wasn't big enough. Now we needed a bigger star to continue the movie."
Gilliam called Johnny Depp, who had been Ledger's friend, and when Depp immediately said he would do whatever was needed they felt they might just be able to go on. In the event, Depp's schedule allowed him to fill only some of Ledger's remaining scenes, so Gilliam persuaded Jude Law and Colin Farrell to cover the rest and then rewrote the script to add an almost seamless capacity for shape-shifting to Ledger's already mercurial character.
If that solved the logistical problem, however, there was also the emotional fallout to negotiate. Though he knew Ledger had been suffering after the breakdown of his relationship with the actress Michelle Williams and a custody battle over their two-year-old daughter Matilda, there had been no particular reason for Gilliam to fear for his friend. "He was so strong," he says. "That's why none of it makes sense. The last night before he died we were shooting in Clerkenwell in London, this scene where Dr Parnassus's wagon collapses. The last piece of film of Heath is of him holding on for dear life to the back of a runaway travelling theatre. What a way to go! He was doing everything that night, all his own stunts. You really felt as a director there was nothing he wasn't capable of."
The only worry that Gilliam had for Ledger at the time was his insomnia, which seemed to leave him strung out on occasion. "In real life, the one thing he could not do, it seemed, was sleep. He would arrive in the morning and look awful, but then after an hour he would be – bam! – full on. It was like he was going wooooooooooo, and then stopped for no reason."
Gilliam talked to Ledger's family about his plans to continue with the film. "It was the following weekend, I think," he recalls. "Everything was spinning. We all wept, it was one of those awful lunches when it seemed like there would be nothing to say, but then about halfway through we just started telling stories about Heath and we couldn't stop; we were all giggling and laughing by the end."
Gilliam managed to carry some of that spirit back to the film set with him. "The thing about Heath was that he was all positive," he says. "There wasn't a darkness about him, and we had to hold on to that. It eased the grief, in a way. Because even after he died we were still working with him every day. It was still his movie. We'd be like: 'Fuck, that bastard Ledger hasn't shown up again, he better have a good excuse this time.' That's how you deal with it. It was only when the film was finally finished that it hit me."
All of Gilliam's films, particularly the imaginative epics like Brazil and The Adventures of Baron Munchausen, have seemed on one level to be running commentaries on the creative nightmare of the film industry and the near impossibility of making anything other than formulaic movies. This film takes that impulse further. Gilliam can certainly see himself in Dr Parnassus, played by Christopher Plummer, who is in eternal combat with the Devil (Tom Waits) for human souls, and is armed only with his clapped-out theatre and some half-forgotten tricks. "Parnassus is a transparent kind of self-portrait," Gilliam says, laughing at the idea. "Man with imagination wants to share it with the world, and the world doesn't want to listen. And he is getting really old before our eyes."
Gilliam is 69 now, though you'd never guess. He recently attended the latest reunion of the Monty Python team, their 40th anniversary – "a good one because we just spent hours talking about John Cleese's divorce settlement, and privately asking ourselves, where does he get that kind of money?" If his career has had anything as grown-up as a purpose, he suggests, it is to bring some Python-like surprise to films. "Because the world is such a complete mess," he says, "people increasingly go to the cinema for tidiness. They want to exist for an hour or two in a world where everything is explained, and everything is logical.
"I, however, am inherently messy, and have a feeling that is what a lot of being human is about. I seem to have a perverse side to myself that I have to make it as difficult as possible both for me and the audience, but still try to entertain."
Sometimes, as almost happened with Parnassus, the chaos of the world simply overwhelms Gilliam's best-laid plans. Almost 20 years ago now he set out to make what might have been his defining film, a reimagining of Don Quixote, to be filmed in La Mancha, in Spain. It took him a decade to raise funding, and a couple of years to engage the perfect Don (Jean Rochefort, a Frenchman). In the first week of filming Rochefort suffered a herniated disc and was hospitalised, then a freak mudslide carried away all of the cameras and equipment and the film itself was buried under insurance claims. A documentary of the events, Lost in La Mancha, preserves Gilliam's anguish.
A less hopeful man than Gilliam, I say, might consider himself to be jinxed. "I don't think I would even describe it as hope any more," he says. "I'm just a fatalist. I try to do my best to make things happen, and then they either do or they don't."
Gilliam is planning to start shooting The Man who Killed Don Quixote again next year, believing the script has been improved by returning to it after a long hiatus. Johnny Depp is still promising to be in it. Does Gilliam believe it will happen this time? "I'm very confident that it will," he says, "but then as I've got older I've become more Sisyphean in my thinking: I believe a lot of it is all about pushing a rock up a hill and endlessly watching the fucking thing roll down again."
To that extent, I suggest, each time he finishes a film it must feel like a little act of defiance against the prevailing forces of the world. Given the tragic circumstances, in the case of the new film, Parnassus, I guess that feeling has been magnified?
"I think it is important that we got it done," he says. "Heath would have wanted to see it finished. I mean, there is this feeling that in the face of death we have to do something appropriate, we have to be polite or something, but that wasn't Heath at all." Gilliam grins. "My attitude is that the only way we keep death away from us is to keep giggling. Death really hates laughter, it just has no sense of humour at all."
The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus will be released on 16 October.
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Great article, thanks.
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This evening The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus premieres in London.
This BBC video includes footage of the movie I had never seen before.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/local/london/hi/people_and_places/arts_and_culture/newsid_8293000/8293697.stm
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More about The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus from Sky News:
http://www.lbc.co.uk/heath-ledger-back-two-years-after-his-death-14185
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Yup, its out here soon there has been adverts on the telly for it.
It has a quote from a review that says
"Jonny Depp is Brilliant" and I was like >:( :o what about Heath!?!
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it was nice to log onto the yahoo webpage and see Heath on the front page. nice and sad
http://movies.yahoo.com/feature/movie-talk-imaginarium.html
Not much new info in the article though
Heath Ledger's Friends Complete His Last Movie
by Jonathan Crow · October 7, 2009
Heath Ledger was on a break from shooting the fantasy film "The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus" when he tragically died in January of 2008. It was the latest and saddest unexpected turn of events for the movie's director, Terry Gilliam, who has a legendary track record of seemingly cursed film productions. In 1984, Universal Pictures refused to release the his masterpiece "Brazil" until critics dubbed it the best movie of the year. His next movie "The Adventures of Baron Munchausen" was crippled by studio politics and a shiftless producer. More recently, the production of "The Man Who Killed Don Quixote" suffered one disaster after another until it was shut down after only a week of filming.
So when the star of his latest effort died after only about a third of the film was completed, "Imaginarium" looked like yet another casualty to Gilliam's freakishly bad luck. Yet he pulled it off, earning raves at this year's Cannes International Film Festival.
So how did he do it? If Gilliam made quiet domestic dramas, the movie would have been completely derailed. But as it happens, Gilliam makes films that are so hallucinatory and surreal that he can even change the actor playing the lead character and still make the story work. In this case, he enlisted Ledger's friends Johnny Depp, Jude Law and Colin Farrell to step into his role. The three A-listers not only jumped at the chance to make sure Ledger's final work made it to the screen, but they also donated their salaries to Ledger's young daughter, Matilda.
The movie tells the story of the titular Dr. Parnassus (Christopher Plummer), a thousand-year-old traveling showman who invites audience members to venture into an alternate reality through his magical mirror. He gained his unusual abilities and eternal life through a bet with the Devil (Tom Waits), and when the evil one tries to collect, a mysterious figure named Tony (Ledger and friends) comes to save the day.
The one bit of luck that Gilliam did have during the making of "Imaginarium" was that he shot all of the "real world" scenes before Ledger died. So when the character of Tony steps through the magic mirror into a fantasy world he is transformed, allowing Depp, Law and Farrell to take over the role.
It's a bold and risky way to salvage the project. The question with "Imaginarium" becomes, will these shifts between Ledger and the other actors will feel natural or they will feel forced? According to Gilliam, the transition happens so smoothly that a sound mixer who worked on the movie assumed it was always intended to be that way.
Gilliam has clearly taken out all the stops, making "Imaginarium" as visually wondrous and bizarre as anything he's put on the screen since "Baron Munchausen." To get a look at the movie's startling images, and to see how Heath Ledger's pals look in his role, watch the exclusive trailer below. "The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus" opens on Christmas Day.
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Finally! A release date for Sweden - December 4.
Sophia (Sophylicious) and me are planing on seeing it in Stockholm. If anyone else is in town, feel free to join us!
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Of all the articles I have seen on IDP, this is the most informative. Also it was great to hear Gilliams
point of view on life, and its obstacles. I hope this film gets the play it deserves.
Thanks for posting.
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*sigh* I was in London just days before the premiere there, and saw the ads. If RL had permitted, I'd have stayed on to go see the 16th October premiere. But no such luck!
The release date for Norway is 4th December too - but I bet that's only in Oslo.
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You Scandinavians will see it sooner than I will. Release date for Germany is Jan 7th 2010.
On the 5th is my birthday.
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In Italy it will be in cinemas this weekend, although it might not get to my town until next. As long as my
not-so-good health allows me to I intend to see it. Never mind that it will have been dubbed, this time I will make an exception.
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You Scandinavians will see it sooner than I will. Release date for Germany is Jan 7th 2010.
On the 5th is my birthday.
so close to your birthday it must mean something. perhaps that your birthday present from your husband will be that he takes care of your kids and buy you a ticket to Stockholm so you can have a Brokieweekend with Heath and us. :D :D :D :D
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so close to your birthday it must mean something. perhaps that your birthday present from your husband will be that he takes care of your kids and buy you a ticket to Stockholm so you can have a Brokieweekend with Heath and us. :D :D :D :D
If only. I'm dreading to see this movie, because it will be the last effin piece, but I'll be in the theater first chance I get. Would be much easier to do it with fellow Brokies.
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If only. I'm dreading to see this movie, because it will be the last effin piece, but I'll be in the theater first chance I get. Would be much easier to do it with fellow Brokies.
((Chrissie))
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ME Tooooo
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If only. I'm dreading to see this movie, because it will be the last effin piece, but I'll be in the theater first chance I get. Would be much easier to do it with fellow Brokies.
That is exactly how I feel, the Imaginarium, then no more. OMG how bad does that sound. :(
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IODP opens grand in Europe:
http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/news/doctor-parnassus-makes-grand-debut-in-european-box-offices-1810670.html (http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/news/doctor-parnassus-makes-grand-debut-in-european-box-offices-1810670.html)
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I just happened to see that this is supposed to open in limited release in US Dec 25. Couldnt' figure out where, etc...
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There was a showing at the Denver International Film Festival, which I missed because I had this mistaken idea that I should be working instead. But now that I am a lady of leisure again, I am searching the papers for some sign of its debut, and not finding ennithing!
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Parnassus has had 4 nominations at the 2009 Satellite Awards:
- Best art direction
- Best costume design
- Best original song
- Best visual effects
http://www.filmmisery.com/?p=1919 (http://www.filmmisery.com/?p=1919)
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Great to hear! IMO, not only does Heath deserve accolades for his last role and body of work, but also Terry Gilliam, who seems to have the worst luck as a director. Did anyone see the documentary "Lost in La Mancha" about his efforts to bring the Cervantes epic to film?
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Great to hear! IMO, not only does Heath deserve accolades for his last role and body of work, but also Terry Gilliam, who seems to have the worst luck as a director. Did anyone see the documentary "Lost in La Mancha" about his efforts to bring the Cervantes epic to film?
I have always thought Gilliam was a "jinxed" genius. He was plagued with problems during filming Don Quioxte and yet he has still not given up on it as a future, to be revived project.
Sometimes we only appreciate true inspirational genius when it has died.
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I completely agree that seeing this film will be extra, super hard. And, that going to a viewing with Brokies would be much, much better than going alone. Getting through it will take a good deal of support (for a lot of Brokies) I assume.
Going to see it alone just seems unimaginably depressing to me. :(
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In the words of a young friend of mine who died, "Don't mourn that it's over, rejoice that it happened at all!" We also have cause to rejoice that Heath's last work made it to film, thanks to the efforts of his friends and the crew.
Go to the movie! And know that everyone in the theater with you is a Heath fan. Maybe you'll make some new friends there? But if the idea is too upsetting, then wait for your next trip to get together with Brokies like you did with us when The Dark Knight came out. :-*
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Turns out the movie didn't open in Sweden on December 4 after all, but will open on Christmas Day. At this point I'm trying to find out where it will open. Hopefully i won't have to go all the way to Stockholm to see it.
I'm really looking forward to seeing it, although of course it will feel....immensely sad....to know it will be the last time I'll see his name up there on the big screen.
But I wanna go and see it, applaud loudly when his name appears, and pay my tribute to his last movie. There is really not much else I can do for him at this point but that. But I´m looking forward to be able to say "thank you Heath" one last time in my own small way.
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I'm really looking forward to seeing it, although of course it will feel....immensely sad....to know it will be the last time I'll see his name up there on the big screen.
But I wanna go and see it, applaud loudly when his name appears, and pay my tribute to his last movie. There is really not much else I can do for him at this point but that. I´m looking forward to be able to say "thank you Heath" one last time in my own little way.
:'(
:-*
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...to know it will be the last time I'll see his name up there on the big screen.
Surely you'll see Heath's films when they are shown in retrospectives and revivals over the years, and you'll probably own a selection of his firms on Blu-ray or whatever comes after it! My friends use a large piece of dry wall to make a screen for our periodic high definition showings of BBM and other films we like.
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A nice article with lots of pictures from the Tribeca Film Festival site:
http://www.tribecafilm.com/news-features/features/The_Imaginarium_of_Terry_Gilliam.html
The Imaginarium of Terry Gilliam
By Kristin McCracken
The visionary director discusses the challenges of making his wildly inventive The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus—in particular, the sad, sudden death of his star, Heath Ledger.
Terry Gilliam has been making movies for 40 years, with standouts like Brazil, The Fisher King, and Twelve Monkeys holding their own with Monty Python classics The Meaning of Life and Monty Python & the Quest for the Holy Grail. In his new film, The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, Gilliam has made one of the most talked about movies of the year, chiefly owing to the fact that Parnassus is the film on which Heath Ledger was working when he suddenly passed away in early 2008.
That’s not to say Parnassus, which Gilliam also co-wrote (with Charles McKeown), should not be viewed, regardless, as the next logical step in Gilliam’s fantastical career. Doctor Parnassus (the inimitable Christopher Plummer) is an old-as-the-hills (and immortal) mystic who has made a deal with the devil, aka Mr. Nick (a wry and sinister Tom Waits, perfectly cast), regarding his coming-of-age daughter (the lovely model-turned-actress Lily Cole). Parnassus is the proprietor of a traveling show, transported in a ramshackle old truck throughout modern-day London; customers step through a magical mirror into spectacular worlds of their own imaginings. The alternate realities are swirling masterpieces, which take advantages of cutting-edge advances in CG imagery.
In a recent roundtable interview, Gilliam opened up about Ledger’s death and the subsequent accommodations he made to his film, which most notably included the casting of Jude Law, Johnny Depp, and Colin Farrell as the three alter-egos (of sorts) of Ledger’s character. He also contemplated his career’s evolution, Monty Python’s dry-and-silly legacy, and the neverending rumors around his never-dead Don Quixote project.
With a film like this, you could tinker forever. How do you know when you’re done?
Terry Gilliam: Because I get bored! And when the money runs out. [Laughs.] There are things I would still fiddle, but they are so minor, that they’re not worth fiddling with. You just know. It kind of comes down to: That’s as good as we can make it. People seem to still believe there might be a perfect film out there. I’ve never seen a perfect film in my life.
How did the new advances in technology effect you? We remember when you were doing lots of stuff with just cut paper.
TG: Well, that’s all it is! Some of the stuff we are doing here is the same aesthetic, except it’s 3-D. Not 3-D as in Avatar, but 3-D because we have a world that has layers. I love all that. I still use models when necessary, but it’s just mixing these various techniques. The advantage we had here was because we were not dealing in realistic worlds, the CG works really well.
I’ve had my own effects company since right after Holy Grail, so I know how to do all of it. The advantage of having my own company was that I could be there everyday, sitting over this guy’s shoulder, saying, “No, do it this way, do it this way.” Sometimes I just want to do it myself, and cut out the piece of paper and wiggle it around.
How much of your vision of the film changed after Heath’s passing? With the addition of Johnny Depp, Jude Law, and Colin Farrell [as the other-side-of-the-mirror alter egos], it still seems cohesive.
TG: Basically, what happened was that we had shot everything on this side of the mirror [the present-day reality]. At one point, I was going to say it was co-directed by Heath, because he was [the one] creating these situations. As far as Johnny, Colin and Jude taking over, that was inherent in what we had, because it had already been [established] that when two people go to the other side of the mirror, one imagination may be stronger than the other. So the middle-aged shopping lady could be dreaming of Johnny Depp and not Heath Ledger!
Other than [one minor change to establish the principle that faces can change across the mirror], the dialogue, everything, is exactly as it was before. It was important to me. The scene with Princess Di, James Dean—a lot of people think it was written as a eulogy to Heath, but it was exactly what was written before he died. And that’s the advantage of it not being a studio film, because how many studios would have let me introduce Heath’s character as we do in the film? [Redacted to avoid spoilers.]
And after Heath died, Christopher Plummer didn’t want to say the line, “It could be a comedy, a romance, a tale of unforeseen death.” I said, “You have to say it. That’s the film that Heath and I were making. You don’t change these things.”
Was there anything of Heath’s that was cut? That will end up on a DVD?
TG: It’s all in. We didn’t throw anything away. Every bit is in there. For him to die when he did was—how could you do it so tidily—I don’t know what other word to use. He didn’t destroy the film. He somehow got all the important work of his done, and then died. It’s still a very strange experience, which I haven’t completely sorted out in my head.
Is that another instance of letting the film go? You were staring at him up on a screen in an editing room for more a year after he died.
TG: Well, that’s it. He was still alive. It was a very good way of grieving. Your friend is still up there, and [you’re saying], “Why is he doing that? Oh, Heath!” [Laughs.] You’re having dialogue with a man who’s no longer around.
Is that delaying the grieving, or is that part of it?
TG: Well, I think it’s part of it. By the end of dealing with it, it’s done. You know, the loss is still a shock, and it’s partly because it shouldn’t happen. A guy with that potential, with that kind of extraordinary talent, and just, as a human being, to suddenly not be there. It’s like, “What? This is not right.” But then, the world has never been right, so why should it change now?
Was there any discussion with the three other actors as to how they would portray this character? Because they all seemed to get the essence of the character Heath was playing.
TG: That was why they had to be friends of Heath—luckily, these three were able to do it. Colin, at one point, said he felt like he was channeling Heath, like he was there.
There was no time to rehearse—I had given them all a DVD of a few bits we had cut together of Heath, so they saw what he was doing, and off we went. We had Johnny for one day and 3 ½ hours—that’s all. That tells you a lot of things: 1, how brilliant he is, and 2, how well he understood Heath. So he just turned up, no rehearsal, and Go!
It was a very unnerving time, because none of us knew whether it was going to work or not. We just didn’t know until we got back to London and cut it together and showed the film to some people who didn’t really know the story, and they just assumed it had been written that way.
It seemed like it was the way it was supposed to be.
TG: That’s why you start believing in the movie gods [he said with an impish twinkle]. There was a movie god up there that was making this movie—he didn’t give a shit who was alive or dead at the end of it. It’s very strange how smooth it works. For me, the disturbing thing is when people say it may be a better movie for this—I can’t quite deal with that, because we don’t know what the movie would have been like. It might have been a far more dramatic, powerful movie, to see Heath carry the character all the way through. This way it might be a more entertaining film—it’s certainly a more surprising film, because you don’t know who you are going to see next.
Can you talk about the initial casting?
TG: I think Christopher was the first on, because who else is that age and could be a mountain of talent? We’d worked together on 12 Monkeys, and I just thought he was wonderful. And Tom [Waits] came because [we talked and] he said, “Do you have anything for me?” He didn’t know what I was doing, but I said, “Well, we just wrote this part of the devil,” and he said, “I’m in.” He didn’t read the script—he was just in.
Speaking of actors Christopher Plummer’s age, it recently came out that Robert Duvall might be in the Don Quixote film—
TG: —I’ve read that as well. [Laughs.]
Can you talk about what’s happening with that?
TG: Mr. Blabbermouth Duvall, you mean? [Laughs again.] Well, it’s up, and we’re getting it going again. We don’t have the money yet, but I just think he’s phenomenal. I sent him the script, and he was so excited about it. And I thought, if I can get Robert Duvall with that excitement and energy, and just childish enthusiasm… I think it will be great, because he does the tango, and I think he’s extraordinary.
What about Johnny Depp? Is he involved?
TG: He’s out. He’s too busy doing swashing and buckling and Tonto-ing.
Where does your fascination with time travel and alternate realities come from?
TG: It comes from reality! Isn’t that what we live in? I mean, I was in London one minute, and suddenly I’m in New York. When Concorde used to fly, I’d arrive in New York before the time it was when I left London. It’s not so much time travel as it is being able to throw yourself into time mentalities. I just don’t want to be limited by the world that’s just out here.
We’re beaten to death daily by whatever Fox News says the world is, and we buy some of that, and then NBC says it’s like this, and somebody else says it’s like that—we’re surrounded by various versions of the world, and I think it’s about choosing your own. So for me it’s making it as flexible—it’s a mindset, and I just want to encourage people to invent their own worlds. My films are really just studies on the borderline between reality and fantasy, and how each influences the other and dictates what the other is. I don’t know what the answers are—I just like playing in the mess.
So many comedians have been influenced by Monty Python. What does that mean to you?
TG: You’re part of a continuum, a long continuum. Think of all the comedians that influenced us, and that’s why we did what we did, and then it passes on. That’s all. I’m glad we were able to pass on certain kinds of humor that others have picked up. I never thought we were that original, I just thought we were taking what Spike Milliken and the Goons had done, the Marx Brothers stuff—it’s all there, you can trace it. We were just in the middle—like South Park, I want to take all the credit for South Park. [Laughs.]
There’s always a darkness and a twisted sense of humor to your work. Were you always this way?
TG: Twisted and dark? [Laughs.]
Well, the time you spent in England, with Monty Python, the other things you’ve gone through, the darkness you’ve experienced pursuing your art, do you think that has influenced the kinds of films you make?
TG: I’ve always had a dark side, because that’s what the world is, both light and dark, beautiful and horrible, and I hate missing out on any part of it. And the way I think you get through it is by having a sense of humor. I don’t know how else you deal with death and destruction and the horror that’s out there, unless you can laugh at it and find humor in it.
Humor to me is even more important to me now, because everyone is so frightened. Everyone is so timid about saying the wrong thing. We might offend somebody—what’s wrong with offending people? Aren’t people thick-skinned enough to take a little bit? I mean, somebody hitting me in the face, that will hurt me, and bad reviews hurt—but those are the things you learn to live with. People have become so timid, and that worries me—when you are closing the world in, and the world gets more and more crushing, and I just want to break through it.
That’s the great thing, I think, that came out of Python, that you could both be very British [adopts a formal air] and very silly—you could be very intelligent and very stupid, all at the same time. I always divided the world into those who giggled and those who didn’t.
I think that’s the way I can get through some of the shit I’ve been through—that I can find it funny. For example, Heath and what happened on Parnassus is, I say, a warning to all actors: You don’t turn up for work, and there are three A-list actors ready to take over your part. It’s a joke. People go, “Oooohh, how can you say that?” Well, he was my friend, that’s why I can say it. And he would have laughed as well.
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It was reviewed in the Wall Street Journal today! How can they tease us like this?
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Another year went by so quickly. Hope all is well with my old friends.
--Jenny
CNN has a video/article with the director talking about making of the film. It's a good read. You can go here to watch the video http://www.cnn.com/2009/SHOWBIZ/Movies/12/17/terry.gilliam.interview/index.html (http://www.cnn.com/2009/SHOWBIZ/Movies/12/17/terry.gilliam.interview/index.html).
The making of 'The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus'
By Andrea Mineo, CNN
December 18, 2009 2:09 p.m. EST
New York (CNN) -- When you meet Terry Gilliam you get the feeling that you have known him all your life. Perhaps it's his easy way of communicating or his ever present laughter. When he arrived at CNN for our interview he confessed quite freely that he had consumed a few margaritas beforehand. That pleased me, since I figured Mr. Gilliam would be open to discuss anything in a more relaxed state.
Our interview wouldn't be covering the silliness of Gilliam's time with his Monty Python cohorts. The topic was Gilliam's lastest film, "The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus." The film is a tour de force of sorts, through the director's imagination.
The 1,000-year-old Doctor Parnassus (played by veteran actor Christopher Plummer), finds himself on a journey to undo a deal he has made with the devil.
Parnassus is a mystic, or maybe he's a charlatan traveling through modern-day London, England, with his antiquated sideshow, replete with a band of misfits and a magical mirror. He might hold the key to people's imaginations or it may all be an illusion.
The film is layered and complex. But nothing in this script could have prepared Gilliam for the the real-life plot turn that presented itself while making "Parnassus."
Nearly midway through production, one of the film's stars, Heath Ledger, died, leaving Gilliam shattered over the loss of his friend and ready to give up on the film. What took place is a Hollywood story that even Gilliam himself finds magical.
Seen "Parnassus?" Share your review
CNN was given exclusive footage from the set during the filming of "The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus." Clips include all three actors who stepped in to complete Heath Ledger's role; Johnny Depp, Jude Law and Colin Farrell.
CNN: Who is Dr. Parnassus?
Terry Gilliam: Who is Dr. Parnassus? He's actually quite complicated. I just love the idea of somebody, some guy claiming to be ancient, that he's there to enlighten the world nobody's paying attention to. When we're working on the film and Plummer plays it and he's very dignified, his secret suspicion was that I was a con man, a fraud, and maybe the movie was a big lie. But he represents almost any artist, somebody who tries to enlighten people, have them look at the world with fresh eyes. And nobody's paying attention. That's the fate of most artists.
Everybody thinks I'm Parnassus. Let's be honest. In moments of self-pity, I feel like that.
CNN: Do you think you achieved your original vision of the film?
Gilliam: Yeah. It's not exactly what we set out to make, because of circumstances: Heath didn't last the course. Johnny, Colin and Jude came to the rescue. But the story, ideas, essence, tale are exactly what we had set up. The tale is just a little bit more bouncy.
CNN: The movie was quite an undertaking.
Gilliam: I know how to do it. I'm really good at fooling myself into thinking I can do it. That's the key. The key is self-deception and also lack of memory. If you forget about the hard time that preceded. That's rather a hubristic attitude, so I was punished. There was Heath's death. I thought "uh oh." The film gods reminded you that it's not like that. Films are difficult. Films are complicated. Films are usually worth the sacrifice, but this film wasn't worth the sacrifice [of] somebody as special as Heath. No film is worth that. Once Heath passed away from us, then the job was, "Can we make a film worthy of Heath's last movie? Can we make sure that his last works are there to be seen and enjoyed?"
I always get quite mystical about the film, a platonic ideal of the film that's up there, making itself and we are merely the hands that write. This one, it wasn't just the film, a whole gang of film gods up there involved in this one.
CNN: How did Heath come to be part of the film?
Gilliam: We were really close. After "Brothers Grimm," we were buddies. He just had all the qualities being an actor and friend. So after "Brokeback Mountain," he went through a bad year. I think the experience, the publicity for the Academy Awards was too much for him and not who he wanted to be. And he went through a strange year.
I'd thrown some scripts at him and was getting confused answers. So I'd stayed back. He was always interested in whatever I was doing, so he read Parnassus, and I had never asked him to do it. And he was in London working on the Joker, and at the same time he was working on a music video that he had written.
They were designing animation and they needed a place to work, so I put him to work in my effects company. We had a space there and they were happily working. One day, I was showing my special effect boys and talking through the scenes, and Heath slips me this little note saying, "Can I play Tony?" And I said, "Are you serious?" He said, "Yes, I want to see this movie." And the irony is that the only person who doesn't have the chance to watch this movie is Heath Ledger.
CNN: I didn't want him to stop being in the film. Talk to me about that quality.
Gilliam: Some people have seen the film, even though they know the circumstances. They said they were transported by the film, and they forgot the story of how it was made and Heath's death. Some people say, "He's just an actor. We're just watching a movie." Other people, they think about Heath and the tale of the making of the film. The entrance of Tony is a difficult scene if you're thinking of the tragedy of Heath Ledger. On the other hand, Heath's energy and spirit infuses the thing. He was playful. He's never not in the film. Colin swore he was channeling Heath at a certain point. His presence was there. He created such a chameleon character in the scenes he had done. He can be anything. The transition from Johnny, Colin and Jude work well because you think that's another aspect of his character. He can be anything you'd want him to be.
CNN: Why did you quickly become his friend?
Gilliam: I was attracted to his talent. Talent is a special thing, and when somebody has got so much, you're just fascinated. How does he do it? He just could do it. He did it effortlessly. As a human being, he was utterly generous. He was inquisitive, he was learning. He was a guy who was improving his craft as an actor. He wanted to be a film director. He wanted to write a screenplay. He had this endless energy, taking in the world and learning. Smart as a whip. Great fun and everybody recognized an old soul there. He had an experience way beyond his years. It was impossible. My joke is "He didn't die young at all, he was a couple hundred years old when he died."
CNN: Can you tell me how you felt when you heard Heath had died?
Gilliam: I don't want to talk about it too much. It was the most devastating moment I've experienced. I was a finished guy. I surrounded myself with people who don't like me, who don't respect me and who don't listen to my every word. And they kicked me until I got up off my back. I imagined we could finish the film.
I've worked with a lot of great people and luckily we remained friends. So one of the people I called was Johnny Depp, because I introduced him to Heath and they had become very close. I was commiserating with Johnny and said, "I think the film's over. I'm going home." And he said "Whatever you decide to do, I'll be there." And that's a heartening statement. That is the beginning of the process of re-imagining the film. It was quite easy to rewrite it. All the premises were there. The ideas were all there. The first scene when Johnny goes through the mirror and his face changes.That establishes the principle very clearly and the rest fell well into place.
CNN: Was it a delicate dance to get Johnny Depp?
Gilliam: No, it was the easiest thing on the planet. I was calling on friends of Heath. Several actors were tied up because they were shooting. But Colin Farrell and Jude Law were available, and Johnny said he'd be there.
The difficulty with Johnny was he was preparing Michael Mann's film, "Public Enemy." It was only the 11th hour when Michael's film was delayed by one week and Johnny was there. He was there for a day and 3½ hours. The guy's a genius. He just did it. No rehearsal. Jude and Colin, same thing. They just got in there and got to work. They're brilliant.
CNN: Was this the most pressure you have felt in your career as a director?
Gilliam: The pressure was a simple one: Are we able to make the film worthy of Heath's last film? That was a terrible pressure. This was a really heavy responsibility. And the great joy is we did it. It was such a great relief when we finally cut the film together and showed it to a couple of people. They assumed it had been written to be done as [it has] been done. Now the film is seamless.
CNN: Do you think this was fitting as Heath's last film, opposed to "The Dark Knight"?
Gilliam: I don't know. I can't quantify that. There's no fitting to be the last film of anybody. People go on about Joker because it was a wonderful performance. It was a spectacular performance. It's a showstopper. What you're seeing here is more Heath than in any other film. The real Heath.
CNN: When this was completed, were you completely drained?
Gilliam: No, I was just relieved. I couldn't wait to get the film out of my system. It's still stuck inside. Now I'm dealing with the afterbirth. This is the placenta and what do you do with it? There are still chords around my neck. I thought I had given birth and can now walk away. Now I have to go around and tell the world to treat my child kindly. Learn to love it. It's yours.
CNN: The fact that these three actors came to finish the role that Heath began, there's a beauty to it.
Gilliam: It's a testament to how much Heath was loved and respected. To get three great actors to come in, take over and finish a movie for Heath. It just doesn't happen in the movies. It's beyond these movie things. Both the tragedy and the magical solution. This isn't what movie is all about. To me, it's what life should be about. The dreamers should be dreaming. It's about love and all these things.
In a way, I'm delighted that this is more than a movie. On the other hand, I don't want people to go and feel they have to experience it as something more than a movie. It's what the acting community is all about. The business we're in is a wonderful world. Most of them are not wonderful. Most of them are miserable and difficult. And occasionally, something like this comes along. Everybody responds in the most wondrous ways to the tragedy of this scale. It almost gives me hope for humanity for a week or two.
CNN: Do you think there will always be heartbreak tied to this film for you?
Gilliam: I don't know. Some things you grow out of, some things you don't. It is what it is.
CNN: Sitting here with you, I think that you are an optimistic person?
Gilliam: You're given a choice: Do you give in and despair or not? Depression is one thing. I'm depressed most of the time. Despair is a whole different animal. So I'm not sure if I'm optimistic, but you keep doing things you're here to do. I'm pretty good at making films, and if I wasn't making films, what should I do? I think the film is beautiful and I think it's wonderful. I'm proud to be involved in it. If I hadn't been in a lot of difficult times before, I might have not been able to do it. It's a combination of a lot of people responding to tragedy and not letting the tragedy win. That's pretty extraordinary, so once in a lifetime you do one of these films. Maybe once in many people's lifetime.
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Washington: Johnny Depp has said he's privileged to play the role originally meant for Heath Ledger in new movie The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus.
Ledger had passed away due to an accidental drug overdose in January 2008, halfway through the filming.
"Though the circumstances of my involvement are extremely heartrending and unbelievably sad, I feel privileged to have been asked aboard to stand in on behalf of dear Heath...," Contactmusic quoted him as telling Moviefone.com.
He added: "He was the only player out there breathing heavy down the back of every established actor's neck with a thundering and ungovernable talent that came up on you quick, hissing rather mischievously with that cheeky grin, 'Hey... get on out of my way boys, I'm coming through!' And does he ever!"
An ensemble cast of Jude Law, Colin Farrell and Depp has filled in Ledger's shoes for the film
http://www.dnaindia.com/entertainment/report_johnny-depp-privileged-to-replace-heath-ledger-in-new-film_1325036 (http://www.dnaindia.com/entertainment/report_johnny-depp-privileged-to-replace-heath-ledger-in-new-film_1325036)
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I saw the movie today! There was a screening for the actors' union, and a friend invited me.
I think it's quite good. It's hard to be objective, of course, because all I could do was watch Heath and try to absorb every molecule of him. The rest of the actors are very well cast, and they all do a good job, especially Christopher Plummer who really gives the impression that he's a thousand years old. Tom Waits as the Devil is fun, and Lily Cole is a better actress than I expected. I loved Vern Troyer, too. There's another young actor in the troupe I hadn't read about, Andrew Garfield, and he's good, too.
The star of the movie is Gilliam, though. The sets are great, especially the funky, ancient, accordion-like horse-drawn wagon the company travels around in. The concept is cool. When people go through a certain portal, they enter into the mind of Dr. Parnassus as he's meditating, and their imaginations determine what they see. Wild, vast, beautiful, fantastic and horrifying images abound. The effects are great. It's not a movie that's going to be a big hit, but it's not overly obscure or flawed either, something I think we were all afraid of. Audiences will enjoy it.
The story unfolds at a leisurely pace (Heath doesn't appear for at least 15 minutes) and involves a wager between Parnassus and the Devil. Heath's appearance kind of shakes things up, and he helps Parnassus in the end. However, certain questions about his character are never answered clearly, which may be a result of Gilliam's having to rewrite. But for the most part, it works well having Johnny Depp, Jude Law and Colin Ferrell each take over a sequence in the Imaginarium. I longed for (in vain) one last scene with Heath at the end, though, to tie up all the strings.
Some Heath spoilers (select the text to make it show up):
It's creepy that he's found "dead," hanging from a bridge. In what seems an interminable sequence, his limp body is pulled up and stuffed into the wagon. (It turns out he was hung there by mobsters who had been using a charity he ran to launder their dirty money. He survives by swallowing a whistle that keeps his windpipe from being crushed. This theme is repeated several times with his alter ego characters). When he's revived, and the whistle flies out of his throat and he starts breathing again, all you can think is, oh if only we could bring Heath back like that!
It's so ironic his last film has so many references to death and eternity. There's one chilling sequence where Johnny Depp as Tony shows a woman three funeral barges floating down a river with portraits of James Dean, Princess Diana and someone else (Marilyn Monroe, maybe) and tells her how they'll never get old and will always be beautiful.
The things that bring tears to your eyes are the expressions that are pure Ennis. He grunts and groans just like Ennis, and there's one place where he's lying on the ground that's really similar to when the trucker is beating him and another that reminded me of his snow dance outside the pup tent. His eyes are very alive and expressive, and he speaks in a Cockney-type accent. His energy is so focussed and sharp, it's hard to believe he was suffering from sleep deprivation and walking pneumonia during the shooting.
At the beginning of the film it says "A Film from Heath Ledger and Friends." It's dedicated to Heath and some other man who passed away that was involved in the film. In the thank-you's, the "Family of Heath Ledger" is listed.
Peace, Heath. You blessed us with the time you were able to give us. In the end, this film will only be remembered because it was your last. I'm glad it was different and beautiful and cool, just like you.
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Thanks Meryl. I appreciated your impressions.
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Thank you Meryl. I read it all, of course.
Good to know that it's not overly obscure (as if I'd really care, I'll be the same as you, absobing every second of Heath). But it's good to know his last movie will not be some obscure and over the top excentric experiment, but a real movie that people can enjoy.
I remember when those pics of Heath hanging off the bridge showed up. I found them hard to watch, even back then, not knowing what tragedy will happen.
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Thanks Meryl, just reading what you so eloquently wrote, brought a lump to my throat and tears to my eyes. I really appreciate you taking the time to post your impressions.
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Anthony Lane's comment about Heath in The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, in the Dec. 21 and 28 issue of The New Yorker (it's not particularly flattering, but it's part of the public record, so here it is):
"It should not be mistaken for [Heath's] finest hour; we see his larking, but not the undertow of frailty that tugged at 'Brokeback Mountain,' and his principal duty here, like everyone else's, is to go with the flow of phantasmagoria."
(In case you haven't guessed, Lane doesn't like the movie. At least, that's how I read his review.)
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After atleast 7 months waiting, its finally gonna happen. I am gonna see it. On the first day of the new year me and buffymon will do the big drive to the city and watch it. But it will be with mixed emotions, but hopefully when I see heath it will just be with a lot of joy! :)
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Thanks Meryl, just reading what you so eloquently wrote, brought a lump to my throat and tears to my eyes. I really appreciate you taking the time to post your impressions.
I just saw the film and I would just echo Meryl's comments which I agree with completely. Here are some thoughts:
[spoiler]I was astonished by how much Johnny Depp resembled Heath. He played the first Imaginarium Tony. Jude Law, the second & Colin Farrel played the last and darkest. They were all good, in fact there are no weak performances in what is essentially an ensemble piece. Lily Cole and Andrew Garlfield also exceeded my expectations.
It was definitely a bittersweet experience though. I was really doing well emotionally until I saw that "A Film from Heath Ledger and Friends" card and then his photo. (All at the end, btw) then I kinda lost it and started to majorly tear up.
I'm happy to say that my mood, when I finally left the theatre, was very good, it was nice to see Heath again and that cheered me up. [/spoiler]
PS: Strangely, the website for the movie is still not available:
From a Bing search:
The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus - Official Site - Coming Soon
For updates regarding the film:
www.doctorparnassus.com (http://www.doctorparnassus.com)
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thank you so much meryl for that lovely and beutiful report.
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Thanks to everyone who read and commented on my comments, and thanks, Gil, for yours. :-*
John Gallagher and I rang in New Year's Eve last night (we might make this a tradition!) with a viewing of "Imaginarium" at the Landmark Cinema downtown on East Houston Street. Beforehand, we met for a wonderful, comfy supper at Supper (http://www.supperrestaurant.com/about_supper.asp), a place I know I'll return to, hopefully with Brokies. Yummy food, simply served up, and as John says, the perfect place to escape from a wintry Manhattan night.
The 7:00 movie was about 3/4 full, but there was a long line for the next showing. I was glad to see it again and fill in some of the plot details I'd missed the first time around. John liked it (he said something like "it was really lovely and really a mess"), and I hope he'll write his impressions here. I heard a man say on the way out "I really liked that."
Afterwards we crossed over Houston to have Australian coffee at the Tuck Shop (Gil will remember this place). The laid-back guys in charge of the kitchen apologized for having no desserts, and no decaf either, so John went for the real coffee and I had an Aussie beer while we watched them make meat pies (they smelled great). Still hankering for a nosh and wanting to stretch out such a nice evening, we stopped on the way to the subway at Cafe Mogador (http://nymag.com/listings/restaurant/cafe_mogador/photo_gallery.html), an old hangout of John's, which is really charming. John had a cheese plate and a glass of port (his first indulgence in the grape in four fuckin years), and I had crispy baklava and green tea infused with mint, served in a beautiful silver Moroccan teapot.
Just as we reached the parting of our ways at the L train, it struck midnight, so we celebrated the arrival of December 31, 2009. Til next year, John! ;D
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Thanks to everyone who read and commented on my comments, and thanks, Gil, for yours. :-*
John Gallagher and I rang in New Year's Eve last night (we might make this a tradition!) with a viewing of "Imaginarium" at the Landmark Cinema downtown on East Houston Street. Beforehand, we met for a wonderful, comfy supper at Supper (http://www.supperrestaurant.com/about_supper.asp), a place I know I'll return to, hopefully with Brokies. Yummy food, simply served up, and as John says, the perfect place to escape from a wintry Manhattan night.
The 7:00 movie was about 3/4 full, but there was a long line for the next showing. I was glad to see it again and fill in some of the plot details I'd missed the first time around. John liked it (he said something like "it was really lovely and really a mess"), and I hope he'll write his impressions here. I heard a man say on the way out "I really liked that."
Afterwards we crossed over Houston to have Australian coffee at the Tuck Shop (Gil will remember this place). The laid-back guys in charge of the kitchen apologized for having no desserts, and no decaf either, so John went for the real coffee and I had an Aussie beer while we watched them make meat pies (they smelled great). Still hankering for a nosh and wanting to stretch out such a nice evening, we stopped on the way to the subway at Cafe Mogador (http://nymag.com/listings/restaurant/cafe_mogador/photo_gallery.html), an old hangout of John's, which is really charming. John had a cheese plate and a glass of port (his first indulgence in the grape in four fuckin years), and I had crispy baklava and green tea infused with mint, served in a beautiful silver Moroccan teapot.
Just as we reached the parting of our ways at the L train, it struck midnight, so we celebrated the arrival of December 31, 2009. Til next year, John! ;D
Sounds like a really lovely evening. Thanks for the report High Priestess. :-* And, yeehaw to John on the port! I love port... and one of my best friends here in Pittsburgh has become something of a port aficionado so we indulge together from time to time.
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What a lovely celebration! Thanks for sharing!
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New Year's Eve Eve ! Great tradition, you guys.
Wow, Meryl, Supper looks merviglioso! We're there next time I'm in town, for sure.
Cheers, John, on the port indulgence. I'm partial to a twenty-year tawny myself. :)
Still waiting for Imaginarium to make it up here...
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New Year's Eve Eve ! Great tradition, you guys.
Wow, Meryl, Supper looks merviglioso! We're there next time I'm in town, for sure.
Cheers, John, on the port indulgence. I'm partial to a twenty-year tawny myself. :)
Still waiting for Imaginarium to make it up here...
I said to John while we were enjoying the cheese and port that you would be a perfect addition to our party, Paul. Next time, you bet! 8)
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I said to John while we were enjoying the cheese and port that you would be a perfect addition to our party, Paul. Next time, you bet! 8)
Aw, thanks, we're a pretty good threesome!
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What a nice evening you guys had! And I certainly remember the Aussie Tuck Shop. I wish I was in New York tonight!
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Aw, thanks, we're a pretty good threesome!
Meryl, I reccamend threesomes...one to stay with the injured party while the third one goes for help!! Works for me!
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I wish I was in New York tonight!
Is there enniplace like New York for celebrating the New Year? I don't think so...not unless it's on top of Brokenback Mountain, and she's all snowed in for the winter.
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Me and Sophia had tickets for the premiere of TIoDP last night. We started out a couple of hours ahead, since it was snowing and the roads were icy. When we were about halfway to the city where the cinema is, her wheel started to shake and strange noises were coming from the front of the car. We pulled over at a gas station and tried to figure out what was the matter. We were unable to do so and found it way too risky to get on the freeway which is necessary for the last stretch into the city. So we drove back home and ended eating up pizza in our hometown. O0
We are gonna try and see it next week though. 8)
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I'm always happy to read about your rendezvous and culinary experiences with John, Meryl :). Lovely tradition.
So we drove back home and ended eating up pizza in our hometown. O0
You made the best of the sitation! :D
We wouldn't want you to end up in some icy ditch, waiting for the AAA.
We are gonna try and see it next week though. 8)
You bet!
I also hope to see it end of next week. It'll start on Thu, 7th.
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Sophia and I finally got to see TIoDP tonight.
I had very mixed feeling sitting down in my seat, knowing this would be the last time I would get to see a new movie with Heath.
Before the movie started the showed a Prince of Persia trailer btw.
I think I was also afraid that I was gonna hate the movie. I wanted to like it, I wanted Heath to be brilliant in it.
And I liked the movie from the start and couldn't wait for Heath's character to appear. I was prepared for what kind of entry he would make, still to see him hanging there...tears began to flow down my cheeks. That scene felt soooo long.
It was really enjoyable to watch Heath - they way he talked, his movements and facial expressions (which often reminded me of The Joker).
Often I forgot to concentrate on the action, simply because I was so wrapped up in watching Heath or listening to that distinct voice of his. I didn't want to miss anything he did or said.
I think it worked out well with Farrell, Law and Depp. Of the three of them, Jude Law was definitely my least favourite. I though that Colind Farell did a very good job and he seemed relaxed in his role.
I felt sorta anxious throughout the movie. Every time Heath was off-sceen, I was afraid he wasn't coming back on again and I didn't want that. I wanted more and still do damn it.
Overall though, I had a lot of fun watching. I laughed quite often and so did the rest of the audience The theatre was almost full tonight.
It´s been an emotional evening, hence my shortreview.
the Filmstaden theatre where we watched the movie
(http://i50.photobucket.com/albums/f322/buffymon/DSCN9907-2.jpg)
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So nice to hear your thoughts, fresh from the theater. It's not playing in Denver yet, what's going on?
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Opens nationwide here in the USA on Friday! :D
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Sophia and I finally got to see TIoDP tonight.
I had very mixed feeling sitting down in my seat, knowing this would be the last time I would get to see a new movie with Heath.
Before the movie started the showed a Prince of Persia trailer btw.
I think I was also afraid that I was gonna hate the movie. I wanted to like it, I wanted Heath to be brilliant in it.
And I liked the movie from the start and couldn't wait for Heath's character to appear. I was prepared for what kind of entry he would make, still to see him hanging there...tears began to flow down my cheeks. That scene felt soooo long.
It was really enjoyable to watch Heath - they way he talked, his movements and facial expressions (which often reminded me of The Joker).
Often I forgot to concentrate on the action, simply because I was so wrapped up in watching Heath or listening to that distinct voice of his. I didn't want to miss anything he did or said.
I think it worked out well with Farrell, Law and Depp. Of the three of them, Jude Law was definitely my least favourite. I though that Colind Farell did a very good job and he seemed relaxed in his role.
I felt sorta anxious throughout the movie. Every time Heath was off-sceen, I was afraid he wasn't coming back on again and I didn't want that. I wanted more and still do damn it.
Overall though, I had a lot of fun watching. I laughed quite often and so did the rest of the audience The theatre was almost full tonight.
It´s been an emotional evening, hence my shortreview.
(Monika) :-*
Thank you for sharing your thoughts and emotions.
Imaginarium will start in Germany this Thursday - though not in a cinema near me. I will have to wait at least one week longer. :-\
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I had very mixed feeling sitting down in my seat, knowing this would be the last time I would get to see a new movie with Heath.
Before the movie started the showed a Prince of Persia trailer btw.
I think I was also afraid that I was gonna hate the movie. I wanted to like it, I wanted Heath to be brilliant in it.
And I liked the movie from the start and couldn't wait for Heath's character to appear. I was prepared for what kind of entry he would make, still to see him hanging there...tears began to flow down my cheeks. That scene felt soooo long.
It was really enjoyable to watch Heath - they way he talked, his movements and facial expressions (which often reminded me of The Joker).
Often I forgot to concentrate on the action, simply because I was so wrapped up in watching Heath or listening to that distinct voice of his. I didn't want to miss anything he did or said.
I think it worked out well with Farrell, Law and Depp. Of the three of them, Jude Law was definitely my least favourite. I though that Colind Farell did a very good job and he seemed relaxed in his role.
I felt sorta anxious throughout the movie. Every time Heath was off-sceen, I was afraid he wasn't coming back on again and I didn't want that. I wanted more and still do damn it.
Overall though, I had a lot of fun watching. I laughed quite often and so did the rest of the audience The theatre was almost full tonight.
Monika, you told it just as I experienced it. Apprehension, sadness, laughter were all there. Thanks so much for your review. :-*
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You put it so well Monika, it was everything :-* :'( :laugh: ::).....waiting.... :o there he is ... ;) :laugh: :'( :-* 8) :) but I just gonna add one more thing to our TIofDP night together. A thing that haven´t got to do with emotions, its something totally different is seeking after tattooos. WE defently found two. Now I wounder have anyone seen more?
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Weather permitting I'll be away for a couple of days. But hope to see it next week, when I'm back home again.
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It's finally opening in Boston this Friday! Lynne and I are making plans....
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It's finally opening in Boston this Friday! Lynne and I are making plans....
8)
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This is a must-see on my calendar too!
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It's finally opening in Boston this Friday! Lynne and I are making plans....
I wish I could join you guys... :(
I'm thinkin' on driving up to Oakland to the Grand Lake Theatre. They even play the Wurlitzer organ and all. Maybe I'll ask Marie if she wants to go...
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I wish I could join you guys... :(
I'm thinkin' on driving up to Oakland to the Grand Lake Theatre. They even play the Wurlitzer organ and all. Maybe I'll ask Marie if she wants to go...
I wish you could too, Eric...maybe check in with Linda and John too? :-*
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I wish you could too, Eric...maybe check in with Linda and John too? :-*
Ok, Marie and I are going. Maybe I'll check in with John and Linda too. Pete too. Thanks Lynne for the idea. :)
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The trailer. It was posted on this thread before, but the link doesn't work anymore.
[youtube=425,350]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6jU3AimFaz0[/youtube]
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Way cool Eric! Hope you have a wonderful time. You too Paul and Lynne.
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Way cool Eric! Hope you have a wonderful time. You too Paul and Lynne.
Thanks, Dev! :-*
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Thanks, Dev! :-*
You're so welcome. ;)
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Just had a look at this great thread.
Ummmm. There are brokies who haven't seen TIoDP ?
I took friend to see it in Sydney a few months back.
(She didn't get why I only wanted to see Heath in a movie again, but then she didn't like BBM, either ::)).
But it was a great movie, all round, and having three actors sharing a role actually seemed to make it better.
Quite clever ('though it would have been even better still with Heath in the whole movie). :)
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It hasn't opened in the US yet, or in most other parts of the world. You are so lucky to have seen it already!
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It opened here a week ago, but I haven't seen it yet.
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It opened here a week ago, but I haven't seen it yet.
whatcha waitin' for, cowgirl, a matin' call?
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whatcha waitin' for, cowgirl, a matin' call?
;D
would be nice..... but somehow I doubt it'll happen at the cinema
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Only one way to find out ;D
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I wish I could join you guys... :(
I'm thinkin' on driving up to Oakland to the Grand Lake Theatre. They even play the Wurlitzer organ and all. Maybe I'll ask Marie if she wants to go...
Yep, I'll be there with bells on. Looking forward to it!
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Just got back from seeing Imaginarium tonight with Lynne, Ron, Andrew, Pete and Sandy.
The Harvard Square Theatre showed it in the main theatre, but it was only about half full, on opening night. Overly loud, overly cold and with sound system problems. Ugh.
It's a big old mess of a movie. Lovely to see Heath so full of life, if just for a little while.
I'm afraid I disliked the film. I said at dinner later that I usually fall asleep during Terry Gilliam films (including Brothers Grimm), but it was so cold in the theatre, it kept me awake. While some of the visuals were, well, imaginative, it wasn't much of a story.
Johnny Depp shone in a brief scene. I didn't care for Jude Law (but, I usually don't). Colin Farrel was pretty good.
I think I'll prefer to remember Heath in his earlier roles.
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Lynne and all, did you get pictures of the Marquee? I got them of the Grand Lake, but I'm waiting for my sister to email them to me.
I actually liked the movie, but it was not as good as Brothers Grimm. ;)
Huge Spoiler
I do wish his character had been redemed though, instead of ending up to be the "bad guy" in the end.
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Marie and I also noticed in a few scenes how Heath had bags under his eyes, and well, just didn't look too good. :-\ :'(
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I do have a marquis photo, Eric. I will try to post it when I get home tonight.
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The Loews Theater at Harvard Square, Cambridge, MA:
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I've been musing on this for a couple of days and I'm mostly in agreement with Paul. I didn't care for The Brothers Grimm and Parnassus was an even bigger disappointment, probably because I imagined Heath doing great things in his last role.
I'm glad they took the trouble to finish it, but the story was heavy on allegory and light on substance - some pretty good special effects, but not sufficiently exciting to salvage a predictable plot.
I think that besides Brokeback Mountain, of course, I'll choose A Knight's Tale and 10 Things I Hate About You as movies to remember Heath by - he's young and happy and full of life in those movies - you can tell he's having a great time.
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Better news came with Sony Pictures Classics’ rather aggressive expansion of Terry Gilliam’s “The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus.” After two weekends of fantastic numbers in very limited release, Heath Ledger’s final film went from 4 to 552 screens, and saw a good - but not fantastic - result. “Parnassus” grossed $1,706,507 and nearly cracked the overall top ten, outgrossing a number of films (including “Nine”) that were on twice its screens. However, its $3,091 per-theater-average, while respectable, was certainly not ideal. Including its limited release, “Parnassus” has now grossed $2,105,637.
http://www.indiewire.com/article/2010/01/10/box_office_crazy_flops_weinstein_woes_continue_with_youth (http://www.indiewire.com/article/2010/01/10/box_office_crazy_flops_weinstein_woes_continue_with_youth)
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Saw this film when it opened in Denver last Friday. I tend to like most of Terry Gilliam's work, and definitely wanted to see Heath's last performance, but wasn't expecting the performance to be very extensive, being as how they called in three other performers to complete his work. My first main reaction is that I thought everybody did an excellent job of making this into a movie given the overwhelming challenges, and I think Terry, the editors, Johnny, Colin, Jude and, yes, Heath surmounted the problem of Heath's untimely demise very well, plotwise. It was a completely plausible plot line throughout, although the ending seemed a little weak as if an afterthought.
I also really liked how the Tony character was introduced, the shadow under the bridge. And I liked the way the characters were developed. All of the characters were interesting and appealing to me, even the Devil!! Of the four Tonys, my favorite was, of course, Heath. He was a wonderful combination of shabby classiness. In costume, he looked better than the stills I've seen from the movie. I wasn't concerned with looking for details about Heath's health or problems, as far as I was concerned he was just as invisible inside his character as he was in the Joker or Ennis. Then, I liked Jude and Colin. Johnny seemed like he was just being a stand-in. I kept thinking that Antoine was a hobbit, did anyone else get that feeling? Of course, the special effects and fantasy sequences were eye-popping (and they keep popping up in my dreams, especially that balloon!) The plot did not reach its full potential...I could see a sequel here! and sometimes the story did get lost in the shuffle between effects, scenery and props, characters clowning around, and Pythonesque over-the-top humor. But that's what we go to these type of movies for...something completely different!
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...I think Terry, the editors, Johnny, Colin, Jude and, yes, Heath surmounted the problem of Heath's untimely demise very well, plotwise.
There was one scene where Heath as Tony tells the Dr. to start imagining, then he goes through the mirror but he is still Heath/Tony. He says, "oh shit" or something like that, goes out again and tells the Dr. to imagine harder. How on earth did they get that scene, not knowing at the time that they were going to have other actors playing Tony inside the mirror?! Amazing.
I was chagrined to see this star-heavy movie playing on only four screens in the Denver metro area, and the smallish theater was only about half full on opening night! Plus, it's gotten a lot of press. Glad to see the post where it's doing a "respectable" business. Also, my companions all thought the movie was "strange" as in weird/strange, not fabulous/strange. I guess you can tell I thought the latter. But, I'm a Python and Gilliam fan from way back. I've even seen the documentary about Gilliam's failed attempt to shoot Man of La Mancha.
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All of the characters were interesting and appealing to me, even the Devil!!
me too! Tom Waits did a really good job as an annoying, cunning but also funny and sometimes even symphatetic devil.
And regarding Heath, it looked to me like he was enjoying himself. I think it was this kind of more experiemental stuff he wanted to challenge himself with. I was struck how very much alive he looked, not depressed or tired. It kinda surprised me given the circumstancs.
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me too! Tom Waits did a really good job as an annoying, cunning but also funny and sometimes even sympathetic devil.
And regarding Heath, it looked to me like he was enjoying himself. I think it was this kind of more experimental stuff he wanted to challenge himself with. I was struck how very much alive he looked, not depressed or tired. It kinda surprised me given the circumstances.
I agree, friend! There was one scene that kind of threw me, when they were giving Heath/Tony cardiopulminary resusitation because I always thought that Heath maybe could have been saved if that had been performed in a timely manner. In fact, after Heath died, I took a refresher class in CPR. So, my heart skipped a beat when I saw them doing that to him, and then that flute or pipe popped out!! I wonder how Tony got that flute and if it was a magical flute. I'll just have to read the book!
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When I saw Heath wearing that frilly white skirt, I was soooo tempted to break into the "I'm A Lumberjack" song!
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I finally saw the Imaginarium last night. I'm happy to report that I liked the movie much more than I had thought I would :D. It's funny, it's indeed strange and spacey, but not too much (for me and Kerstin anyway).
*** possible spoilers***
I guess Mr. Gilliam would be disappointed, but I didn't care much for the extensive, pompous(?) visuals in the fantasy scenes. They were hunnerd per cent Monty Python - and I didn't like them very much already back then, in MP times.
But I love, love love the absurd humor of MP, and there was some of it in the movie (the singing/dancing policemen: "Come over to our side to act out your brutality" - :laugh:).
And Heath - well, what else is there to say? I loved Heath in every scene he was in. I loved to see him so vibrant and funny. Such comedic talent. It helped to keep the sadness away for the time of the movie. I missed his voice, of course. I'll see the move again (in English) as soon as the DVD comes out. Darned dubbing.
I loved that Lily Cole's heart tattoo was so clearly visible in her scenes with Colin Farell.
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On our way between the parking garage and the cinema we came by a Mexican restaurant. So it was clear where would would be heading to after the movie. Hell yes, we been a Mexiko. You got a problem with that? ;D
I ate cactus for the first time in my life. Was good, very fruity, and a bit like zucchini.
And for drink I had a cocktail. When looking at the cocktail menu, I saw one named Amarillo. Amarillo is not far from Childress, so that's what I decided for.
Seeing a Heath movie, eating Mexican and drinking a cocktail which made me think of Jack - the whole evening felt very, very Brokieish. :D
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The hubby and I went to see, THE IMAGINARIUM OF DR PARNASSUS. We went downtown to an older kind of
Art house theatre. We loved the fit. It seemed like the exactly right place to see this movie. I never have cared for
the multiplex type theaters anyway. Most of the old ones are being changed into flea markets, or some kind of club.
This one even is an over 21 place, that serves beer if you want them. We vowed to go back there and see
other movies again. The only drawback, being the parking is rather limited. We were very lucky to find a slot.
Now on to the movie. I was very pleasantly surprised. It was not so much the storyline, which all in all turned out
to be better than other movies I have seen done by Gilliam. Considering the difficulty that the loss of Heath during the
filming caused. It was not so bad. I loved the girl, she looks like a character that may have been drawn by a Marvel
Comics artist. Face of a china doll, and as Ken said, "she's got some eyes." Legs that are longer than any supermodel, and a
nice bust. Gorgeous. Heath was everything he always is. He literally lights the screen up when he is on it. You have a
difficult time seeing anyone else, he is so luminescent. Johnny Depp was teriffic as well. I wish they would have just let
him do all the rest of the scenes. Maybe he was pre booked, and only had a certain amount of time. Colin Ferrell was
good enough too, but the character took on a decidedly meaner tone during his stint. The only one who I really didn't
care for of the replacements was Jude Law. It was almost like he didn't understand where he was supposed to be playing comedy, or drama. I just didn't care for him. Plus he did not even try to emulate the accent that the others did
in order to fit, as the same person. Not a good job for me. Too bad too since I had just the week before seen him
in the Sherlock Holmes movie with RDJ, and he was great in it. Just a bad fit, or bad preparation maybe.?
Ralph Wait was particularly good as "Old Nick," The Devil. Funny and beguiling, and having a great time, it was
a great part and he did it justice for sure. The young man was very forgettable, I had just watched him through the entire movie, and told my husband, I could not pick him out of a police lineup if my life depended on it. Of course the
part of Parnassus was well enough done by Christopher Plummer. All in all I very much enjoyed it.
It was indeed a feast for the eyes, if not for the brain. It reminded me of a dream. It had parts realistic, and parts
that were surreal, and cartoon like. With the parts being brought together by the rather small group of main characters.
I must not forget the contribution by Verne Troyer. He was a small man with a sage mind and heart. It was very
clear that he loved the father and daughter, and would do whatever he had to do to help them in their long and difficult life.
I am so glad that I got to see this movie. The distribution for it being what it was, made if very hard to get to.
We went last week to see it, where it was advertised, and it had already been removed for putting in an extra space for Mel Gibsons new film, which seems so pedestrian to me. They had done the same thing to Brothers. I may not go
back to that theatre anymore for those, plus some other reasons..................
So I know that movies are a matter of taste, and some will like it, and some won't. But my vote is for seeing it. See
it if at all possible, on a large screen. I think that you will miss a great deal of the detail and costuming, etc. if you
rent it on a DVD, and try and see it on the small box.
I was very glad to see that at least some of the people have agreed with me, and gave it an academy nod for the
art direction, and costuming. I thought it was worth the look, just for that alone.
I have to say though, I shed some tears after we left for the knowledge, that Heath was so wonderful, and we
will never see him play again on the screen. I think that is exactly what he felt like when he was on screen. Like he
was playing the most fun game known to mankind.
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Loved loved loved this movie.
Much more streamline in plot than Terry Gilliam's messy movies usually are, but, as usual, his movies leave plenty of unanswered questions. A very large morality tale with many players. I loved the magical, fantastic atmosphere, the juxtapositioning of a really archaic traveling sideshow with modernity, I loved the costuming, the absurdities, the satiric bits and the surreal Dal/Monty Python type effects.
Heath was marvelous and I believe that the 3 actors each did a very very good job of using Heath's mannerisms to imply Tony with his manic hand movements, rattled speech and eyebrow acting. It was near seamless how the actors were integrated. A real godsend that Heath had finished as much as he had. Almost like it was planned that way.
I definitely recommend this movie.
SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS
I loved the idea that Heath wasn't the good guy. I like the reversal of leading man expectation in that the jealous, would-be lover is the one with the pure-hearted love. Tony didn't get the girl. I'm pretty sure Heath liked that idea as well. He always liked his characters more complicated that the hero-types. I also liked that the man with the deal with the Devil is not some poor soul who made a mistake for some personal obsession or greater goal, but a man with a gambling problem who's made multiple deals with the Devil and would continue to do so if it weren't for his friend Percy taking care of him. He's his own problem. And it's always amusing to see the girl who wants to run away from the circus to become normal as opposed to the normal expectation of someone wanting to escape normal by joining the circus.
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SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS
I loved the idea that Heath wasn't the good guy. I like the reversal of leading man expectation in that the jealous, would-be lover is the one with the pure-hearted love. Tony didn't get the girl. I'm pretty sure Heath liked that idea as well. He always liked his characters more complicated that the hero-types. I also liked that the man with the deal with the Devil is not some poor soul who made a mistake for some personal obsession or greater goal, but a man with a gambling problem who's made multiple deals with the Devil and would continue to do so if it weren't for his friend Percy taking care of him. He's his own problem. And it's always amusing to see the girl who wants to run away from the circus to become normal as opposed to the normal expectation of someone wanting to escape normal by joining the circus.
I liked this review, thank you. It helped put various things in perspective for me, that I hadn't quite been able to put my finger on. I saw the film a month's time ago, and came out from the theatre very undecided. There were many things I liked about it, it just didn't click as a completely together story or message.
To my very big irritation I have to admit Ms. Cole stole every scene and did a great job.
I thought the story was better and much more together, surprising and interesting - and varied - than the brain-draining Brothers Grimm. It had calmer, reflective moments to set off the hullaballoo. Amd overall I liked the fantastical elements in all their Monthy Pytonesque strangeness. They didn't take over the entire film, they served a purpose.
I thought Heath looked far better/healthier than I had expected him to - but I had a lump in my throat when he ran down the street in that clown's costume, the last scene he filmed. :'( The 3 others did a good job of mimicking his mannerisms and being Tony. I agree with the one here who said Johnny Depp actually was the weakest of the 3.
I think one thing the film lacked that made it less than great was a real punch of an ending, a conclusion that pulled all the threads together to make you see more than you'd realized during the preceding tale. It sort of fizzled out, letting us see that a rich consumer's life with high heels and smart clothes and shopping at the mall is a desirable outcome. Huhn? I didn't get that. But I did like that Tony proved to be the bad guy, what with his spectacular dreams of OTT delusions of grandeur that we got to see.
God, I'm just rambling along. ::) Anyway thank you all who posted a review here, it was an interesting read now in light of having actually seen the film.
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The 3 others did a good job of mimicking his mannerisms and being Tony. I agree with the one here who said Johnny Depp actually was the weakest of the 3.
I think one thing the film lacked that made it less than great was a real punch of an ending, a conclusion that pulled all the threads together to make you see more than you'd realized during the preceding tale. It sort of fizzled out, letting us see that a rich consumer's life with high heels and smart clothes and shopping at the mall is a desirable outcome. Huhn? I didn't get that. But I did like that Tony proved to be the bad guy, what with his spectacular dreams of OTT delusions of grandeur that we got to see.
Thanks! Someone else pointed out that the 3 actors
SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS
portrayed the other "faces" of Tony as Antoine was trying desperately to warn Valentina which really makes sense. The Johnny Depp version was the seductive gigolo face of Tony, charming and sexy, making his women feel special all the while leading them down the primrose path, not delivering and taking their money. The Jude Law was the ambitious, money-grubbing face of Tony, unconcerned about others, completely incapable of showing gratitude in the face of his rescue as he's so preoccupied with his get-rich quick ladders. Then there was the Colin Farrell face. The scariest one. OK, I'm in the U.S. so I'm not used to the U.K.'s age of consent being 16. It bugs me to see a man approaching 40 fucking a 16 year old girl. Anyway, this is the 'real' face of Tony, the manipulator, superficial, slick, amoral, cruel conman, interested only in image, and how much his schemes can bring him power and money no matter the cost to others. He who was so rightly hanged. He, who the Tarot Card correctly was interpreted, isn't sad about being hanged. Until the last of course.
I, too, thought the ending fizzled, but maybe that was the point? This wasn't a sweeping epic morality tale, it was just the tale of one man who made his own problems and created an epic life and abnormal problems when a nice, peaceful normal life is not something to be disdained.
I didn't think the desirable outcome of a rich consumer life was the moral of the story. I have high heels, don't you? I shop, don't you? I don't have a husband and kids, but a lot of friends do. What Valentina had in her bag was a present for their daughter. Is buying a gift for one's child so materialistic? I don't think the moral of the story is to desire a rich consumer's life, but a normal life.
On IMDb someone brought up the other interwoven thread of Gilliam's movie. The socio-political side of the movie. You might go and read it. It has something to do with the British government, the institutionalizing of charity, and even allusions to Heath Ledger's character since he was first called "George" as in George Bush, then "Tony" as in Tony Blair and how Gilliam's personal opinion on politics also colored the character.
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I didn't think the desirable outcome of a rich consumer life was the moral of the story. I have high heels, don't you? I shop, don't you? I don't have a husband and kids, but a lot of friends do. What Valentina had in her bag was a present for their daughter. Is buying a gift for one's child so materialistic? I don't think the moral of the story is to desire a rich consumer's life, but a normal life.
A normal life, looking and dressing like a supermodel, apparently with enough cash to spend at high-fashion malls. Yeah, who wouldn't desire that kind of normalcy? *shrug* It undermines the critique of the "Tonys" of the world IMO.
Allusions to Heath Ledger's character since he was first called "George" as in George Bush, then "Tony" as in Tony Blair and how Gilliam's personal opinion on politics also colored the character.
This is interesting, I didn't know the Tony name came from Blair, but I find it very apt. Tony Blair increasingly proved himself to have exactly that smarmy, sleezy type of con-man charm and self-infatuation.
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SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS
A normal life, looking and dressing like a supermodel, apparently with enough cash to spend at high-fashion malls. Yeah, who wouldn't desire that kind of normalcy? *shrug*
There are all kinds of 'normal' lives. That was just one of them. Personally I didn't think Valentina looked like a supermodel and her dress at the end looked suburban and tacky awful, certainly not 'high fashion'.
It undermines the critique of the "Tonys" of the world IMO.
I didn't think so at all. She was a middle class woman meeting her husband and child at a nice restaurant to celebrate their child's birthday and she bought her child a toy.
Compared to Tony in his Armani suits, courting presidents, the extremely wealthy, the media and music industry for a charity that was a step to power, money and glory for him while being a cover for organ-selling from these homeless children?
The two aren't even close IMO.
This is interesting, I didn't know the Tony name came from Blair, but I find it very apt. Tony Blair increasingly proved himself to have exactly that smarmy, sleezy type of con-man charm and self-infatuation.
Dunno, I'd have to know more about British politics than I do.
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re: Tony Blair, the newspaper headlines said
TONY LIAR
which looks a bit like Tony Blair.
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re: Tony Blair, the newspaper headlines said
TONY LIAR
which looks a bit like Tony Blair.
You got a good eye for details there.
Interesting and very apt comparison.
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On IMDb someone brought up the other interwoven thread of Gilliam's movie. The socio-political side of the movie. You might go and read it. It has something to do with the British government, the institutionalizing of charity, and even allusions to Heath Ledger's character since he was first called "George" as in George Bush, then "Tony" as in Tony Blair and how Gilliam's personal opinion on politics also colored the character.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- MY SPOILERS
I personally think that is a very astute observation. Since I tried not to place SPOILERS in my comments, I just gave my opions only. I thought that
Johnny Depp most captiured Heaths character and way of moving and smiling, sort of beguilingly. He was an extension of the character. You were as yet
unable to see the true depth of his evil underneath.
The other thing that no one has mentioned is the flute in his throat. He kept it on his person at all times. Obviously he had needed it many time, in
order to keep it so handy all the time.
My take on the moral or point if you will was not so much that the consumer life is the desired one. Rather that some people are always wishing
they could run away from home, and join the Circus. While in this case it is probably true, that many people in the Circus with all its daily grind and
never ending turmoil desire to run away from the Circus, and have a normal and quiet life.
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SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS
I didn't think so at all. She was a middle class woman meeting her husband and child at a nice restaurant to celebrate their child's birthday and she bought her child a toy.
Compared to Tony in his Armani suits, courting presidents, the extremely wealthy, the media and music industry for a charity that was a step to power, money and glory for him while being a cover for organ-selling from these homeless children?
I agree about the ending. It was a feel-good ending for me...Valentina had found the normal life that she always wanted.
I'm really enjoying this discussion and think I must see the film again, there's so much I missed! Fortunately it's still playing around town.
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SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS
The other thing that no one has mentioned is the flute in his throat. He kept it on his person at all times. Obviously he had needed it many time, in order to keep it so handy all the time.
Which just goes to show how often he'd been lynched. So many times, he's prepared. The Tarot card pretty much spells that out.
There's plenty of symbolism in the story. The flute I saw as indicative of Tony being a "pied piper" or symbolic of the time to 'pay the piper'.
Antoine in his stage persona of Mercury is symbolic as a psychopomp - a guide of souls. He even has wings as he swings in the harness to rescue the 'dead' Tony. In his persona as Eve, as one who is responsible for the Fall and brings her/his beloved out of Eden and into the Real World.
Tony's Venetian mask - the one with the long nose - is a traditional one. It's called a 'Zanni" mask - representing someone who is buffoon, a fool, a con man, rogue, one who is self-absorbed with his own basic needs. And of course, it's also about someone not being what he appears to be.
The name Parnassus, Valentina's name, the bells she wears, the symbolism just goes on and on.
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The movie opened here yesterday. My husband and I were planning to go. All arrangements were made, but then the weather turned on us, again(!) Snow and below zero temperatures made us change our minds pretty quickly.
The movie got some pretty bad reviews. :-\ Although all the reviewers seemed to agree that adding the three actors after Heath's death worked surprisingly well.
There was in interview with Terry Gilliam on the radio yesterday in which he told a remarkable story about Heath. During the shooting of the scene where Tony goes through the mirror for the last time, Heath was trying out some new approach or something and Terry noticed and he said 'Hey, stop doing a Johnny Depp!' Heath could laugh about the fact that he had been 'caught'.
Hearing that made me sad, I have to say. :(
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The movie opened here yesterday. My husband and I were planning to go. All arrangements were made, but then the weather turned on us, again(!) Snow and below zero temperatures made us change our minds pretty quickly.
The movie got some pretty bad reviews. :-\ Although all the reviewers seemed to agree that adding the three actors after Heath's death worked surprisingly well.
There was in interview with Terry Gilliam on the radio yesterday in which he told a remarkable story about Heath. During the shooting of the scene where Tony goes through the mirror for the last time, Heath was trying out some new approach or something and Terry noticed and he said 'Hey, stop doing a Johnny Depp!' Heath could laugh about the fact that he had been 'caught'.
Hearing that made me sad, I have to say. :(
thank you very much for sharing. I must say it made me sad to, but at the same time glad to hear something new, about heath.
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So, did you get to see the movie, Fabienne or anyone? What did you think? I hope to see it one more time before it leaves the theaters!
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The hubby and I went to see, THE IMAGINARIUM OF DR PARNASSUS. We went downtown to an older kind of
Art house theatre. We loved the fit. It seemed like the exactly right place to see this movie. I never have cared for
the multiplex type theaters anyway. Most of the old ones are being changed into flea markets, or some kind of club.
This one even is an over 21 place, that serves beer if you want them. We vowed to go back there and see
other movies again. The only drawback, being the parking is rather limited. We were very lucky to find a slot.
Which theatre did you go to Janice?
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The DVD of IODP is now out in the U.S. :
The link takes you to a film.com picture gallery and ads that feature the trailer:
http://www.film.com/features/photos/1/29695137?pageid=IPM_mov_042810&pcode=RN&rsrc=null.null&cpath=CNT
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I've been looking for it everywhere but haven't seen it for sale yet. :-\
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Me and Sophylicious rented the DVD yesterday and watched it, it´s the first time I´ve seen it since I saw it in the theathre. The DVD had some great extra features on it. It´s a must-buy!
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The DVD will be out in Germany on July, 1st. As usual, I have to wait a bit. *sigh*
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Me and Sophylicious rented the DVD yesterday and watched it, it´s the first time I´ve seen it since I saw it in the theathre. The DVD had some great extra features on it. It´s a must-buy!
Would love to hear more about your impressions of the movie!
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I am now the proud owner of this DVD. I finally found it at...COSTCO!!
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I am now the proud owner of this DVD. I finally found it at...COSTCO!!
;D yay!
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After about 5 minutes of this showing at my place tonight, my daughter was hooked and watched the whole show!
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I've got this DVD waiting for me up at the library a few blocks away. You can only keep something "on hold" for 6 days, and tomorrow's my limit. I know I have to force myself to watch it. It's just going to be so hard. I've done enough crying lately, don't need to do any more.
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It's a joyful movie, I'm sure you'll love it!
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I haven't read the entire 28 pages of posts here. Watched this movie, finally, on Wed night, and was terribly sad that I did. Heath was tremendous, of course, but I would have rather had him as the Joker being my last memory of him on film. Guess I just don't understand Gilliam movies.
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Well, just watch The Dark Knight again and then that will be Heath's last movie for you. Problem solved. But keep in mind that Heath liked Terry Gilliam's films and wanted to support the film by appearing in it. One of the things that made Imaginarium memorable for me was coming to understand what Heath saw in it.
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Thanks, Lee. I did, in fact, watch The Dark Knight directly after that to erase the memory. I always fast-forward and only watch the scenes with Heath in them. The rest of the movie, I didn't care much for.
I try to appreciate Gilliam simply because Heath loved him so much. I TRY, but it doesn't seem to work. He's just not my cup of tea.
I'll just remember Heath as Ennis, and the Joker, and Casanova, and Skip, and William, and Patrick, etc. etc....
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Thanks, Lee. I did, in fact, watch The Dark Knight directly after that to erase the memory. I always fast-forward and only watch the scenes with Heath in them. The rest of the movie, I didn't care much for.
I try to appreciate Gilliam simply because Heath loved him so much. I TRY, but it doesn't seem to work. He's just not my cup of tea.
I'll just remember Heath as Ennis, and the Joker, and Casanova, and Skip, and William, and Patrick, etc. etc....
Why did it make you sad?
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I'd also like to hear more about it, friend.
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It's hard to put my finger on why it made me sad, other than the obvious reason -- that it was his last. Guess I just didn't want the last words he ever spoke on film to be "Don't believe what you read in the newspapers. Especially "The Mirror". It seemed to me, watching it, that the spark of life had kind of gone out of him, like he wasn't enjoying his work 1/100th as much as he did as The Joker. Or maybe it's just cause Gilliam films creep me out. Or maybe it's just because of hindsight being 20/20, etc. Anyway, I was glad when it was over, and I'll never watch it again, that's for sure.
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I'm sorry that you feel that way about the movie Mandy. From the accounts I read, he was very pleased to be working on the film. In the behind the scenes bit on the DVD, Heath felt very grateful to Gilliam and said he'd work for him for nothing. I also liked that those were his last words. They were funny. I'm sure Heath would have appreciated the irony considering his profession. And I'm sure he loved his last role. He was always wanting to have multi-faceted roles, to play complicated characters. And if you listen to most actors, they love playing villains because they're always more fun to play than the hero type. I'm sure that's what attracted Heath to the role in the first place.
If you like, watch Heath in Casanova again. Watch the very last scene. When I think of Heath, that's what I think of. Somewhere, someplace, he's with some traveling show, on a primitive side-show theatre stage, out in the beautiful countryside, with people he loves, doing what he loves, with the smells of fresh air and greasepaint in his nose.
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Thanks Del. Like I said, I just don't really appreciate Gilliam films, for some reason. But I'm glad to read what you said about him pleased to be involved.
When I let myself think about Heath, in his last scene from every movie he did, I think I like Skip in "Lords of Dogtown" best -- humbly, but also cockily (is that a word?) shaping up that surfboard, sneaking his sipping whiskey when the boss left the room, to the tune of "Maggie May". That always makes me smile.
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I finally saw this yesterday - I enjoyed it and I liked how the 3 guys took on his character when in the dreamland.. it didn't seem odd at all that they were them rather than heath... I hadn't realised Andrew Garfield was in the film.
Also, his last words... (remembered my thoguths when he said it when i saw mandy's post) It was a copy of The Sun he had so why does he mention the other tabloid, The Mirror? Something to do with the mirror on the stage?
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There was one scene where Heath as Tony tells the Dr. to start imagining, then he goes through the mirror but he is still Heath/Tony. He says, "oh shit" or something like that, goes out again and tells the Dr. to imagine harder. How on earth did they get that scene, not knowing at the time that they were going to have other actors playing Tony inside the mirror?! Amazing.
I assumed they always planned to have the scene even when he was going to be doing the dreamland shoots too. ie that ther Dr wasn;t concentrating hard enough. And he was 'oh shit' ing cos he was not in the dreamland but still on the stage.
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In celebration of Heath's birthday, I think this is the movie I'll watch tonight.
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it's been a while since I've seen it, but I remember enjoying it.