Mess of a film, with some brilliantly-imaginative parts, that never manages to cohere into a disquisition on the human imagination that it should have been. Nor is there enough of a dramatic exploration of the psychiatric syndrome named after the good Baron von Munchausen. This renders the characters flat and rather lifeless despite the excessive humor.
The special effects look like models to emphasize the fact that the narrator is a fantasist and that what we see is rather unbelievable, but this is not enough for audience empathy. Nor, sadly, is John Neville's excellent performance as the Baron who is po-faced throughout so you cannot tell - clearly - if he is simply making it all up. A necessary demeanour for a compulsive liar.
Worse, many of the performers seem unsure of how to perform in this would-be absurdist masterpiece and give downright embarrassing performances. A notable exception is Oliver Reed who is beautifully and funnily over-the-top as a sexually jealous Vulcan - steam pouring forth from his ears.
Not as good as the Karel Zeman version.
Saturday, 18 September 2010
Adventures of Baron Munchausen
(1979)
60%
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Science:
Sleep of Reason:
The dream of reason produces monsters. Imagination deserted by reason creates impossible, useless thoughts. United with reason, imagination is the mother of all art and the source of all its beauty.
(1746-1828), Spanish painter. Caption to Caprichos, number 43, a series of eighty etchings completed in 1798, satirical and grotesque in form.
Humans & Aliens:
I am human and let nothing human be alien to me.
(circa 190-159 BC), Roman dramatist. Chremes, in The Self-Tormentor [Heauton Timorumenos], act 1, scene 1.
Führerprinzip:
One leader, one people, signifies one master and millions of slaves… There is no organ of conciliation or mediation interposed between the leader and the people, nothing in fact but the apparatus - in other words, the party - which is the emanation of the leader and the tool of his will to oppress. In this way the first and sole principle of this degraded form of mysticism is born, the Führerprinzip, which restores idolatry and a debased deity to the world of nihilism.
(1913-60), French-Algerian writer & philosopher. The Rebel: An Essay on Man in Revolt: New York: Vintage Books, (1984; page 182.)
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