Date: Tue, 29 Nov 2011 22:12:35 -0500
From: mark <whitroth at 5-cent.us>
To: "gt-pfrc at ml.gt.org" <gt-pfrc at ml.gt.org>,
WSFA Official List <wsfa-forum at yahoogroups.com>,
WSFA members <WSFAlist at KeithLynch.net>
Subject: [WSFA] Terry Gilliam, the heir of Fellini and the enemy of God?
Reply-To: WSFA members <WSFAlist at KeithLynch.net>
Excerpt:
The late Ted Demme once approached Terry Gilliam and asked for the
secret of his cinema sorcery. Demme wanted to know how the director of
"Brazil," "Twelve Monkeys" and "The Fisher King" approached those
magical transition moments in his movies where reality lurches and gives
way to fantasy swirl and fever dream. The elder director, with a toothy
grin, explained that he just wasn't qualified to answer because, well,
he wouldn't know reality if he saw it.
"I never quite understand what the real world is," Gilliam said during a
recent visit to Los Angeles. "I told Ted I shoot reality and fantasy the
same way because it's all the same to me. I don't know how to
distinguish between the two, they flow into each other all the time.
That's the autobiographical part in my movies: in Hollywood, everyone
takes characters and puts them into action sequences where they are
threatened by outside forces, but to me the threat is your own
perception of the world."
Slippery magic, grim humor and one-man rebellions are trademarks of
Gilliam's films and, with appropriate blur, they are also trademarks of
his career, which has been defined by masterpiece moments and years of
misadventure. The director turned 71 this past week and, a few days
before that, he was presented with a Federico Fellini Foundation award
for a movie career that began when he co-directed 1974′s "Monty
Python and the Holy Grail' with fellow Python troupe member Terry Jones.
Gilliam's latest screen credit is "The Wholly Family," a short film he
made in Naples that was screened this month in Santa Monica by the
American Cinematheque, and at the event Gilliam acknowledged that his
feature-film future is cloudy because of the financing challenges that
face a maverick with a reputation for hard luck and an even harder head.
"The heir of Fellini and the enemy of God. I like that, I'm going to use
that," Gilliam said of his new career motto. And, truthfully, it does
seem the filmmaker has been tested and taunted by the heavens and (far
further south) by Hollywood.
--- end excerpt ---
<http://herocomplex.latimes.com/2011/11/27/terry-gilliam-the-heir-of-fellini-and-the-enemy-of-god/>
mark