#TBT: The Imaginarium of Dr Parnassus

by new contributor Maggy Torres-Rodriguez

 

Today’s special #TBT goes to the magnificently odd Terry Gilliam picture The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, which premiered at the Cannes Film Festival 10 years ago this week. Lush with extravagant dreamscape sets, innovations in CGI, and an all-star cast, it still holds its own today.

Minus that one scene with Verne Troyer in blackface that was meant as a joke, but generated more of an uneasy murmuring of “oh no, baby what is u doin?” from the audience. But... problematic decisions in Hollywood are made on the daily, so everyone kind of just ignored that and focused on the fact that it was Heath Ledger’s last film... 

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The Furniture: The Chicanery and Posterity of 'The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus'

"The Furniture," by Daniel Walber, is our weekly series on Production Design. You can click on the images to see them in magnified detail.

The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus will always be known, perhaps primarily, as the movie interrupted by the tragic and sudden death of Heath Ledger (10 years ago today). This part of its reputation precedes it, particularly given its relatively muted critical reception. The story of its making, and the enlisting of Johnny Depp, Jude Law and Colin Farrell to fill the void, is essential to its reputation. It’s become a marker in time, an unplanned moment in the history of celebrity culture.

It is also, interestingly, a fairly specific moment in the development of visual effects. It lost the Best Production Design Oscar to Avatar, after all. These films stand for two dramatically different ways of using design and CGI to create cinematic worlds, even if they are both fantasies on the surface. And, perhaps, The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus comes out ahead...

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