Tuesday, 9 November 2010

Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus
(2009)

40%



Typically Gilliamesque movie that, like the curate's egg, is only good in parts. A clear victory for style over substance whose weak Faustian theme offers very little to feed the imagination - only the sumptuous visuals make up for this. Not even as good as the mediocre Adventures of Baron Munchausen because it is more about the director than his characters.

The acting is as uneven as one would expect from performers who must surely find it difficult to know what to give the camera when the story is so much like being invited inside someone else's head without a road map to navigate one's way out. This means the characters make no more sense than the story. This is no more than a compendium of the best bits of the director's earlier, better work jumbled up like pieces of different jigsaw puzzles. Yet, despite this, Andrew GARFIELD is an excellent and precocious discovery who seems to know exactly what to do in every scene he is in.


Copyright © 2010 Frank TALKER. Permission granted to reproduce and distribute it in any format; provided that mention of the author’s Weblog (http://franktalker5.blogspot.com/) is included: E-mail notification requested. All other rights reserved.

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Science:



No science is immune to the infection of politics and the corruption of power.



Jacob Bronowski… (1908 - 74), British scientist, author. Encounter (London, July 1971).


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.



Francisco José de Goya y Lucientes… (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.



Terence… (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.