Introducing Terry Gilliam and The Fisher King

 Film of the Month Club: Fisher King and Terry Gilliam Tickets, Tue, Jun 25, 2024 at 9:00 PM | Eventbrite

Here is my intro for the film:

If watching a movie critically is a richer experience than watching a movie passively, than Terry Gilliam is a good place to start because every choice he makes is strong. His artistic process is among the most transparent of any film maker. It’s very easy to spot his bold choices and it might not be too much of a stretch to reach into his head.

The former animator for the Monty Python troop sees the world as a children's storyteller of sorts influenced by mythology, science-fiction, and absurdist humor.

Pretty much nothing about the way his films are made are ordinary from the internal logic of his films, to the way his actors act exaggerated and can even be seen as live-action cartoons, to the close-ups and Dutch angles by which he will film his actors, to the artifice of the art direction, to the overwrought scores. But does it all add up to the sum of its parts? Is it enchanting?

The Fisher King might be Terry Gilliam's most adult film. It deals with loss, trauma, and metamorphis, and the nature of charity. 
His cartoonish style when Jack Lucas is interacting with Parry is juxtaposed against a straighter visual and aural tone when Lucas is interacting with people in the regular world. Whereas his characters often act cartoonish, Jeff Bridges and Robin Williams deliver two of their greatest performances here, Mercedes Ruehl won an Oscar in the supporting actress category, and Amanda Plummer should have won the Supporting Actress Oscar for my money. It would be rather far-fetched for anyone to earn a nomination in any of the earlier stages of Gilliam's career.

WHAT ELSE WILL THE FILM OF THE MONTH CLUB BE COVERING:
Future installments include: Sunshine State and the poverty exposes by John Sayles; Zorba the Greek and the jet set era of 60s films; Sex Lies and Videotape and the birth of indie films; Treasure of the Sierra Madre and the capacity for the adventure film; Who Framed Roger Rabbit and the re-interpretation of noir.