Preview: The Imaginarium Of Dr Parnassus/Q&A Terry Gilliam September 7, 2009

Curzon Mayfair proudly welcomes director Terry Gilliam to the stage in a post screening discussion to answer all audience questions.

THE IMAGINARIUM OF DR PARNASSUS
Dir: Terry Gilliam Starring: Christopher Plummer, Heath Ledger, Tom Waits.

A director seemingly affiliated with bad luck, that Terry Gilliam got to complete this at all is a minor miracle. A fantastical morality tale set in present-day London (for the most part at least), the alternate realities Gilliam spins will be more than familiar to fans of TIME BANDITS and BRAZIL. With more than a hint of Doctor Faustus, the film’s kernel is an ambitious travelling magician whose ambition has caused him to enter a number of deals with the devil, the most personally damaging of which has seen Parnassus (played impeccably by Plummer, THE NEW WORLD) trade immortality for his daughter (Lily Cole) on the occasion of her 16th birthday. A characteristic feast for the senses, the film is a fitting epitaph to Ledger, whose character is also ably portrayed in its transformative states by Jude Law, Colin Farrell and Johnny Depp. Extremely entertaining, the film also has at its heart a larger than life turn from Tom Waits as the devil.