Monty Python and the Holy Grail


            
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Monty Python: Almost the Truth - The Lawyer's Cut


            The story is set in the indeterminate future. A virus, deliberately released in 1996 in multiple locations around the world, has killed off nearly all of the Earth's population, at least five billion people. Survivors have established an elaborate underground civilization because the earth's surface is considered uninhabitable by humans. Animals roam freely having re-inherited the surface. From time to time prisoners "volunteer" to don protective gear and gather specimens of insects from the surface to test for the presence of the virus.One such prisoner is James Cole, who after retrieving samples is given the chance to go back in time to 1996 and find information about the group believed responsible, known as "The Army of 12 Monkeys." Throughout the ensuing episodes, Cole finds himself remembering, as if he were dreaming, various things that he witnessed as a child, including the killing of a man in an airport, a theme that persists through the story.Miscalculation sends Cole to 1990, and he finds himself incarcerated in an insane asylum after severely beating his arresting officers. His psychiatrist, Kathryn Railly, thinks she has met him before, but his ravings are incoherent to her. Eventually Cole is sent to an insane asylum where he is locked up with other mental patients. When he stands for evaluation by the hospital's board, including Railly, he asks if he can make one telephone call, a communication with the scientists of his time to retrieve him. The phone is answered by a random woman who has a bunch of crying children and knows nothing about any scientists.While he's in the asylum, Cole meets Jeffrey Goines, an off-the-wall patient who tries to help him escape, handing him a key to the day room's barred gate. Cole is quickly recaptured and restrained in an isolation room. When Railly & her boss, Dr Fletcher, enter the room to check on Cole, he has vanished, snatched back to his present time by the scientists who sent him there. He is interrogated by the scientists and given a second chance to complete his mission after telling the scientists that he was sent to the wrong year, institutionalized and drugged. A second miscalculation sends him to the battlefields of World War I, where he is shot in the leg. As he crawls around the trenches, naked and in pain from his wound, he spots a friend, Jose, who is wounded and being carried on a stretcher. Before he can talk to Jose, Cole is suddenly propelled into the future.Arriving in 1996, Cole kidnaps Dr. Railly and tries to convince her that he is from the future. He finds that Jeffrey Goines, whose father is a famous virologist, is now out of the asylum, working for his father, and has formed "The Army of 12 Monkeys." Cole is now racing against time, and after a few mishaps, finally decides that he wants to stay in 1996 with Dr. Railly, surrendering to the inevitable destruction of human life.They travel to Philadelphia, eventually finding a shabby storefront, the headquarters of Jeffrey Goines' Army of the 12 Monkeys. The organization is dedicated to animal rights and freeing them from abusive laboratories. The members claim they've severed their ties with Jeffrey because he'd become too unpredictable, radical and went to work for his father, whom they consider their enemy.Kathryn and Cole travel to Jeffrey's father's mansion where Railly removes the bullet Cole had picked up in the trenches of World War I from his leg. Dropping his kinder demeanor, Cole locks Railly in the trunk of their car, and leaves her in the woods. In the middle of a fundraising dinner, Cole meets with Jeffrey. Jeffrey rambles about how Cole, while they were both housed in the asylum, had given him the idea to release a virus that would destroy most of humanity. Cole leaves, chased by security from the mansion and finds Railly in the woods. While he rants about wanting to stay in Railly's time, a furious Railly honks the car's horn to try and attract attention from Dr. Goines' security, who are searching for them. When she turns to find Cole, he has disappeared again.Dr. Railly soon becomes convinced that somehow Cole knows something--his predictions of the outcome of minor events is too uncanny. The radio had been following the disappearance of a nine-year-old boy believed to have fallen into a mine shaft, but just as Cole said, the boy is found hiding in a barn and the disappearance was a prank played by the boy and his friends. The bullet she'd removed from Cole's leg proves to be pre-1920 and forces her to check a photograph from her own research, taken on the battlefield which, impossibly, shows Cole in the trenches. She becomes convinced that "The Army of 12 Monkeys" indeed poses a threat, and she begins searching for Cole in order to persuades him to take up his cause again.Railly continues her investigation of the clues Cole was collecting and makes her way to the same shabby storefront in the western district of Philadelphia she and Cole had visited earlier. While she pounds on their door, Cole suddenly appears. He's now convinced himself that he is delusional and wants Railly to help him. Inside the storefront, with his loyal followers and those who fear him, Jeffrey is rambling about how Railly found him, that she must have processed his thoughts through a complex computer system to predict his next location. He and his loyalists leave with him to carry out their plans. Ultimately, they do not release the deadly virus but kidnap Jeffrey's father and place him in a paddock at the zoo and release all the zoo's animals into the streets of Philadelphia.Cole and Kathryn learn the 12 Monkeys plan from the news. Cole realizes that the 12 Monkeys are not the threat, and he leaves a phone message to that effect. Shortly after, Jose appears and approaches Cole with orders for him to complete his mission and hands him a revolver. Cole initially refuses, but then notices a guard from the present glaring at him. Jose makes it clear Dr Railly will be killed if Cole does not comply.Meanwhile, the police are after Cole for kidnapping Dr. Railly. In an airport, while attempting with Cole to elude capture, Dr. Railly recognizes Dr Peters, a man who worked with Jeffrey Goines' father in the virology lab and who is "an apocalypse nut." She rushes to inform Cole and frantically identifies him, along with his travel plans, with Jose overhearing her rantings. The man goes through airport screening and manages to persuade security that his biological samples--one for each of the many cities on his itinerary--are harmless, briefly opening one vial and holding it very close to the screener's nose. Dr. Railly alerts Cole, and they attempt to stop the man. To Dr. Railly's horror, Cole is shot by the police while chasing the real perpetrator, who escapes to board his plane. Cole's death is witnessed by a boy named James, who is with his parents: the young James Cole. Cole's dream is finally revealed as a memory of his own death. Young Cole and Dr. Railly lock eyes for a moment. James' mother tells her son to forget about the incident and the family walks out of the airport to their car.On the plane, Peters takes his seat and starts a conversation with his fellow passenger. We recognize her as the lead scientist from Cole's present. Cole had stated once the virus was located, a scientist would be sent back to study it in its original unmutated form, so that a cure could be developed in the present. She identifies herself as "Jones" and cryptically says she's "in insurance."
    

12 Monkeys


            Brian Cohen is born in a stable a few doors down from the one in which Jesus is born, a fact which initially confuses the three wise men who come to praise the baby Jesus, as they must put up with Brian's boorish mother Mandy until they realize their mistake.Brian grows up to be an idealistic young man who resents the continuing Roman occupation of Judea, even after learning his father was a Roman Centurion - Naughtius Maximus. While attending Jesus' Sermon on the Mount, he becomes attracted to a young female rebel, Judith. His desire for Judith and hatred for the Romans lead him to join the People's Front of Judea, one of many factious and bickering separatist movements, who spend more time fighting each other than the Romans.The group's cynical leader Reg gives Brian his first assignment as a rebel: an attempt at scrawling some graffiti ("Romanes eunt domus", poorly translated Latin for "Romans Go Home") on the wall of the governor's palace. He is soon confronted by a passing Centurion who, in disgust at Brian's faulty Latin grammar, forces him to write out the grammatically correct message ("Romani ite domum") one hundred times. The walls of the fortress are literally covered in text by dawn.When the Roman guards change shifts at daybreak, the new guards immediately try to arrest Brian. After a series of misadventures, the fugitive winds up in a motley group of mystics and prophets who harangue the passing crowd in a plaza. Forced to come up with something plausible in order to blend in, he babbles pseudo-religious nonsense which quickly attracts a small but intrigued audience. Once the Roman guards have left, Brian tries to put the episode behind him, but has unintentionally inspired a movement; and a crowd begins to follow him around, with even the slightest unusual occurrence being hailed as a "miracle." After slipping away from the mob (who are busy persecuting a "heretic") and spending the night with Judith, he discovers that an enormous crowd proclaiming him the Messiah has formed outside his Mother's house. Appalled, Brian is helpless to change the people's minds, as his every word and action are immediately seized as a point of doctrine.The Romans finally catch the hapless Brian and he is scheduled to be crucified. Pontius Pilate asks the crowd whom he should pardon, but is fed various "fake" names intended to highlight his strong lisp, much to the their amusement. Pilate eventually orders Brian's release, but in a moment parodying the climax of the film Spartacus, the various crucified people all claim to be "Brian of Nazareth", and the wrong man is released. Abandoned by anyone who might be able to help him, the actual Brian remains hanging in the hot sun, and is told by his fellow sufferers, in song, to "Always Look on the Bright Side of Life".
    

Life of Brian

Monty Python's Personal Best


            The story is set in a dystopian near-future of an indeterminate year of the 21st century in a nameless authoritarian European country during the Christmas season. Terrorist bombings are frequent and the government's war on these enemies of the state has lasted for a few decades. In a government office a man sitting in a room full of teletype machines swats a fly on the ceiling; the fly falls off the ceiling and into one of the teletypes, changing the name on one printout from "Tuttle" to "Buttle."At the Buttle home, the family is peacefully trimming their Christmas tree. Suddenly, armed policemen burst into the apartment upstairs and cut a large hole in the floor, dropping down into the Buttle's apartment. After his wife is forced to sign several forms, Buttle is arrested and taken away in a canvas bag.Meanwhile, Sam Lowry (Jonathan Pryce), a low-level government employee for the nation's Ministry of Information (MOI), often daydreams of himself as a winged warrior saving a beautiful maiden. One day he is assigned the task of trying to rectify the mishap of Buttle's arrest. His boss, Mr Kurtzmann (Ian Holm), is flustered by the appearance of a compensation check issued to Mrs Buttle for her husband. Sam is asked to transfer the funds directly to Mrs Buttle's bank account. The request is sent back because she doesn't have a bank account. Sam says he will drive out to her flat and deliver the check in person.When Sam visits Buttle's widow, he finds the woman in shock in her living room. He tries to give her the compensation check but she's too upset and hysterically asks where her husband is.He discovers Jill Layton (Kim Greist), the upstairs neighbor of the Buttles, is the same woman he dreams about. Jill is trying to help Mrs. Buttle find out what happened to her husband, but she has gotten tired of dealing with the bureaucratic paperwork and the run-around from various departments at MOI, while unbeknownst to her, she is now considered a terrorist friend of Harry Tuttle, a rogue air conditioning specialist who once worked for the government but left due to the amount of paperwork. When Sam tries to approach her, she is very cautious and avoids giving Sam full details, worried the government will track her down.Later that night, Sam comes in contact with the real Harry Tuttle (Robert De Niro). Tuttle has intercepted Sam's call to deal with his malfunctioning climate control -- Tuttle's covert work is highly illegal and he's is intensely cautious when he enters Sam's flat, having been nearly trapped before. Tuttle jabbers about how he left government service and that the country has become "cordoned off" and offers to bypass a faulty component in Sam's nightmarish duct work. Sam helps Tuttle avoid detection when two Central Services workers, Spoor (Bob Hoskins) and Dowser (Derrick O'Connor) have shown up to deal with the air conditioning. When Sam tries to pay Tuttle, the repairman waves off the money saying that Sam had done him a favor by helping him hide from Spoor and Dowser . Tuttle exits flamboyantly, sliding down a nearby cable right after telling Sam "Remember Kid, we're all in this together!"Sam determines the only way to fully learn about Jill is to accept a promotion to "Information Retrieval" where he would have access to her classified records as she is considered a terrorist. He requests the help of his mother Ida (Katherine Helmond), vainly addicted to rejuvenating plastic surgery under the care of cosmetic surgeon Dr. Jaffe (Jim Broadbent), as she has connections to high ranking officers and is able to help her son get the position. His mother is delighted; she'd long since been frustrated at her son's lack of ambition, and the promotion Sam receives is one his mother has previously arranged for him but that Sam had declined.When Sam arrives at Information Retrieval, he is treated like a bureaucrat and given his own tiny office in their bleak and cavernous hallways. He soon discovers that he literally shares a desk with the agent next door, Harry Lime (Charles McKeown). Lime has a functioning computer and Sam eventually obtains Jill's records. He leaves to track her down before she gets in trouble. Before he goes to find her, he meets with an old friend of his, Jack Lint (Michael Palin) who, despite his pleasant personality, is actually an MOI agent who tortures and interrogates government prisoners. Jack warns Sam not to dig too deeply into the darker affairs of MOI because it can be a danger to Sam as well as Jill.When Sam finds Jill driving a large truck outside the entrance to MOI, he joins her, despite her obvious reluctance. He also notices that she picks up a mysterious package, which he believes is a bomb. While they're out shopping, a bomb goes off in the store and Sam immediately thinks Jill planted it.Sam returns to his flat to find Tuttle waiting outside. Spoor and Dowser are inside, wearing contamination suits amidst a tangle of hanging duct work. The two had retreated from Sam's apartment when Sam had asked them for the proper paperwork and have returned with the document, a 27B-6. They've also found the small device Tuttle had installed to bypass the duct work problem in the ventilation system. Sam walks out of the apartment and finds Tuttle, who switches the air couplings in Dower's and Spoor's suits for the apartment's sewage hose and gives Sam a periscope to watch them explode when their suits fill up. After Tuttle leaves, Sam sees Jill standing there. He takes Jill to his mother's home for safety and returns to his office, falsifying her records to make her appear deceased, allowing her to escape the bureaucracy. The two share a romantic night together before Sam is apprehended by the government at gun-point for misusing his position.After being read a long list of charges, Sam is now considered part of an assumed terrorist plot including Jill and Tuttle. Sam is taken to a cavernous smokestack and given to a government agent, dressed in a doctor's coat and a baby's mask, to be tortured. Terrified, Sam figures out that his torturer is Jack Lint and pleads with him. Jack is also very frightened at the though of having to torture his friend but as he begins, Tuttle and other members of the resistance shoot Jack dead and save Sam, blowing up the Ministry building as they flee in a hail of gunfire. As they try to disappear into the crowds, Tuttle's disappearance is more surreal and mysterious -- littered paperwork that had been lying in the streets suddenly adheres itself to his body. When Jack tries to help him, Tuttle's body has disappeared inside the paper.The scenes become more dream-like as Sam runs to his mother at a funeral. The funeral is described as that of Mrs. Terrain (Barbara Hicks), a friend of his mother's who over the course of the film has suffered increasing "complications" as she has submitted to the "acid treatment" of Dr. Chapman (Jack Purvis), a rival of Dr. Jaffe and whose technique Sam's mother does not hold in high regard. Sam's mother, thanks to Dr. Jaffe's repeated surgery, now seems as if she's in her 20s again, looking exactly like Jill, and is surrounded by a flock of juvenile admirers younger than Sam himself. She refuses to help and, falling into Mrs. Terrain's seemingly bottomless coffin, he then continues to run from the police in streets that more and more resemble the concrete and brick walls of his daydreams.When Sam finds himself surrounded on three sides by the police and the imaginary monsters of his nightmares, he turns to the only escape way left and climbs up a seemingly insurmountable pile of old flex-ducts such as those running the world of Brazil, and finds sanctuary in a trailer driven by Jill, whereupon the two leave the city together and settle in the countryside, free from their past lives.However, it is quickly revealed all of Sam's adventures since his arrest, including the happy ending, are all happening inside Sam's head. In front of the idyllic final scene, two faces come into view staring at the camera, that of Jack and of Mr. Helpmann (Peter Vaughan), a wheelchair-bound man who works as the Deputy Minister of the Ministry of Information, the system's highest official. The two men now realize that Sam has been reduced to a catatonic state at the hands of Jack and that he won't reveal any more to them. Jack gives up trying to torture Sam further and Sam is left still sitting in his chair with a smile on his face, quietly humming "Brazil" as Jack moves Mr. Helpmann in his wheelchair out of the room.(In an alternate version of the film, subtitled the "Love Conquers All" edition, Sam's dream ends with the idyllic life he's taken up with Jill in the small house in the countryside.)
    

Brazil

Monty Python Live at the Hollywood Bowl

Film Adventurer Karel Zeman

Monty Python Live (Mostly)

Monty Python: The Meaning of Live

A Grand Night In: The Story of Aardman

Ray Harryhausen: Special Effects Titan

Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas


            Jack Lucas (Jeff Bridges), a cynical, arrogant shock jock talk radio host, becomes suicidally despondent after his insensitive on-air comments inadvertently prompt a depressed caller to commit multiple murders at a popular Manhattan bar. Three years later, while heavily intoxicated and depressed, he attempts suicide. Before he can do so, he is mistaken for a homeless person and is attacked and nearly set on fire by ruffians. He is rescued by Parry (Robin Williams), a deluded homeless man who is on a mission to find the Holy Grail, and tries to convince Jack to help him. Jack is initially reluctant, but comes to feel responsible for Parry when he learns that the man's condition is a result of witnessing his wife's horrific murder at the hands of Jack's psychotic caller. Parry is also continually haunted by a hallucinatory Red Knight, who terrifies him whenever he shows any confidence.Jack learns that Parry had slipped into a catatonic state following his wife's death and had remained there for a few years. When he emerged he seemed obsessed with the tale of the legend of the Fisher King, a form of which Parry recounts to Jack. The legend varies, but all iterations possess three elements: the Fisher King was charged by God with guarding the Holy Grail, but later incurred some form of incapacitating physical punishment for his sin of pride, and had to wait for someone to deliver him from his suffering. A simpleminded knight named Percival, referred to in the movie as "The Fool", healed the wounds with kindness to the king, asking him why he suffers and giving him a cup of water to drink. The king realizes the cup is the grail and is baffled that the boy found it, as demonstrated in the closing exchange: "I've sent my brightest and bravest men to search for this. How did you find it?" The Fool laughed and said "I don't know. I only knew that you were thirsty." Echoes of the legend recur throughout the film, but in a continually shifting manner, so that it sometimes appears that Lucas is Percival to Parry's Fisher King, sometimes vice versa, and sometimes that one or the other is re-enacting part of the story with another character (most obviously in Parry's self-assigned quest to obtain the Grail from the man he believes is its guardian).Jack seeks to redeem himself and help Parry find the Grail and find love again. Jack sets Parry up with a woman Parry has been smitten with from afar, Lydia, a shy woman who works as an accountant for a Manhattan publishing house. Jack successfully introduces them to each other and sets up an equally successful dinner date (Jack and his strong-willed girlfriend, Anne, join them). Following dinner, Parry declares his love for Lydia but is once again haunted by the Red Knight. Parry tries to escape his hallucinatory tormentor but is attacked by the very thugs from whom he had earlier rescued Jack. The beating is not fatal but causes Parry to become catatonic again.Jack promises to find the Grail for Parry. He infiltrates the Upper East Side castle of a famous architect and retrieves the "Grail", a simple trophy. When he brings it to Parry, the catatonia is broken and Parry regains consciousness. While he and Jack lead the patients of the mental ward in a rousing rendition of "How About You?", Parry is reunited with Lydia and Jack (who had earlier broken up with Anne for dubious reasons) reunites with his love as well.=====================The story opens in a radio broadcast studio where arrogant and cynical "shock jock" Jack Lucas talks to a caller about the banality of the social scene in New York City (where his show is broadcast). The caller tells Jack about a bad date he'd had recently, sounding quite despondent over being rejected by a woman. Jack tells him, in a largely dismissive tone, that social status dictates that the caller will never be successful if he tries to enter this woman's more aristocratic social circle. Jack's show ends for the day and he returns to his lush penthouse where quarrels briefly with his girlfriend (whom leaves) and admires himself, repeating his tagline ("FORGIVE me!!). Jack turns on the news and finds out that the despondent man he'd been talking to had killed several people in a popular Manhattan restaurant with a shotgun. Jack is devastated, blaming himself for the man's breakdown.Three years later Jack is off the radio & morbidly depressed, living with a woman, Anne, who owns a video store downstairs from her apartment. Jack drinks heavily and works part-time for Anne. When Jack offends a chatty customer, Anne tells him to go back to her apartment and get some rest. That night, Jack, while watching a television show he's produced based on his radio experiences, insults Anne, saying that he's only lived with her for sex. Anne storms off and Jack leaves the apartment, taking a bottle with him. Mistaken for a bum on the street, a small child gives him a wooden Pinocchio doll. Jack ends up near the Manhattan Bridge at the East River, feeling suicidal with cinder blocks tied to his ankles. While he prepares himself to jump in the water, he's attacked by two young men who believe he's a vagrant; they beat him severely, douse him with gasoline and intend to burn him alive. Just as they light a match, they are attacked by another bum who speaks much like a medieval knight and wields a non-lethal bow and arrow. Several other bums join him and sing "How About You?" and Jack's would-be killers are quickly outnumbered and defeated. One of the killers is captured and tied up by the vagrants' leader and left to be victimized by anyone who comes along. Jack is initially terrified of the leader, who is suddenly kind and takes him to a safe area under a bridge, populated by more homeless men. Jack spends an hallucinatory night with them, even impressing them all when his coat briefly catches fire, causing him to dance around in a panic.The man takes Jack back to his home, the maintenance room in the basement of an apartment building. The man tells Jack his name is Parry and that he's a knight on a sacred quest; Perry believes the Holy Grail is in the home of a prominent architect living in a castle-like building on the Upper East Side. Parry also hints that he is often visited by the "little people", hallucinations that advise him on the quest. Parry, however, is terrified of the Red Knight, a large, monstrous enemy that rides a black horse and breathes fire. Jack also notices that Parry has a small shrine dedicated to a young woman to whom he's infatuated, however, Parry yanks him away from the shrine when he discovers him there. Parry believes that Jack has been sent to aide him in his quest. Jack tells Parry openly that he's crazy and leaves. As he walks out he meets the building manager who at first thinks Parry has invited someone to live with him. The manager tells Jack that Parry used to live in an apartment in the building a few years ago before his wife was murdered. The manager goes on to say that Parry's wife was killed in the same tragic restaurant shooting incident that Jack believed he caused.Jack goes back to Anne's apartment, finding her distraught at his disappearance but happy to see him alive. He explains what happened the previous night and how he was attacked. Jack realizes that much or all of his depressive state can be relieved if he helps Parry. He asks Anne about the Holy Grail and she pontificates on the nature of good and evil and God and the Devil. The two of them have sex. Later, Jack tells Anne that he feels he's cursed because of the trouble he believes he caused Parry and she tries to comfort him.Jack revisits Parry's home and is met by the manager who tells Jack more about Parry: his real name is Henry Sagan and he was a professor of medieval studies at Hunter College. After his wife was killed, he fell into a catatonic state and lived in an asylum on Staten Island. One day he simply awoke from his catatonia and became Parry. He was taken back to his old apartment building where the manager allowed him to live in the basement. The manager also tells Jack that Henry was deeply in love with his wife.Jack finds Parry in the Midtown area of Manhattan, sitting atop a parked car, oblivious to the alarm blaring. Jack offers Parry money for compensation, however, Parry gives it to another homeless man. Jack is angry, but Parry grabs him, pulling him behind a column. A woman, Lydia, has emerged from the skyscraper, the same woman that Parry had built the shrine to in his home. She is at once clumsy and awkward, finding it difficult to negotiate her way past people and through the building's revolving door. Parry and Jack follow her to a Chinese restaurant where they watch her through the window. Later, she stops at a news stand, where she buys a new novel, a habit that Parry has noticed; she buys a new book every few days. After she returns to work, Parry tells Jack that he's "deeply smitten" with her but lacks the self-confidence to approach her. Just then Parry's nemesis, the Red Knight, appears. Jack cannot see the monster; it is a hallucinatory manifestation of Parry's own fear that only he can see. However, Parry yells that the Red Knight is uncharacteristically afraid of Jack and drags Jack along on the chase. They race through Central Park until Jack, lagging behind, finds Parry sitting on a rock. Parry tells Jack that their combined effort has frightened the Red Knight off. The pair hear screaming and happen across another homeless man who had buried himself in the dirt of a horse trail in the park, hoping that riders will trample him. Jack and Parry take him to a homeless shelter where Jack comforts the man while Parry tries to stir the other patients into song. Jack talks briefly with the man they rescued who tells him he's a cabaret singer and a veteran who watched all his friends die.Later, back in Central Park on the Great Lawn, Jack lays on the grass with Parry next to him. Parry is nude, unafraid of the danger in the park at night, and gazes at the clouds and stars and tells Jack the story of the Fisher King, who once possessed the Holy Grail but lost it, grew old and became depressed. The king was saved by a passing fool who gives him a drink of water; the cup he uses is the Grail itself and the king is revived. Parry says he has a vague memory of a lecture he gave on the story as a professor before his mental breakdown. Jack suggests that Parry needs to be introduced to Lydia and says he'll help him.Jack returns to Anne's place and formulates a plan to have Parry meet Lydia socially. He poses as a contest official and tells Lydia she's won a free membership at Anne's store. Lydia is not so easily fooled and hangs up on Jack. Jack sends the cabaret singer to Lydia's office; the man does a flamboyant musical number informing Lydia she won the membership.Lydia shows up at the video store. Parry is there too, posing as an employee. Lydia's membership is squared away and Parry helps her find a few movies to rent. She doesn't find any she'd like but notices that Anne has a fancy manicure. Anne tells her that she does her nails herself and she'll do Lydia's for a reasonable fee. Lydia agrees and Anne invites her to her apartment that night. Jack will meet them there later with Parry and they'll all go to dinner. Jack gives Parry his wallet to pay for dinner.Anne and Lydia talk about Lydia's need for self-confidence. Jack helps Parry clean up for dinner. The four go to a Chinese restaurant where the plan to get Lydia and Parry together is successful. Jack and Anne go back to Anne's place and Parry escorts Lydia home. Lydia expresses many assumptions about Parry, believing that he'll stay with her one night and leave. Parry tells her that he's quite in love with her and promises to contact her again. As he leaves, Parry's abnormal fear hits him, he sees the Red Knight and runs screaming into the night. He ends up at the same spot where he found Jack when Jack attempted suicide. A few moments later, while Parry lies on the ground, twitching uncontrollably, the same two punks who tried to kill Jack find him - both are standing on either side of the Red Knight. The punks beat him severely.The next day Jack calls his old radio agent and tells him he'd like to get back on the air. Anne comes on to Jack, however, Jack asks to talk to her seriously; Jack thinks that he needs to break up with her because his career may once again take off. Anne is instantly furious and upset and argues with him. Just then, Jack receives a phone call from the police; they found Jack's wallet on Parry when he was brought to a hospital. At the hospital, Anne and Jack find out about the assault and that Parry has become catatonic again. Parry will be remanded to a mental hospital until he regains his mind.Jack settles quite easily back into his previous life as a radio host, however, his arrogance and insensitivity have mellowed greatly. He is also in talks to produce a television talk show. While in a meeting with a TV executive, Jack leaves unexpectedly and visits Parry, bringing him the Pinocchio doll he'd gotten from the child. Jack tells Parry that he knows Parry wants him to steal the "grail" from the castle on the Upper East Side, however, he also refuses to do it. Jack demands that Parry wake up, to no avail, and finally promises to undertake the dangerous mission.Using Parry's plans and notes, Jack makes use of a slingshot to carry a rope and anchor to a parapet and the high tower of the castle. He makes it inside and creeps down the long staircase. About halfway down, he sees the man who shot Parry's wife and recoils at the hallucination. Jack finds the castle's study and the Grail, which turns out to be a trophy given to a "Lanny Carmichael". Jack hears a noise behind him and finds Carmichael slumped in an easy chair by the fireplace, having taken an overdose of medication. Jack tries unsuccessfully to wake the man up, choosing instead to leave by the front door, tripping the security alarm.Jack once again visits Parry and gives him the cup. Exhausted, Jack slumps on Parry's bed and falls asleep. Some time later, Parry's fingers, holding the cup, begin to caress it. Parry wakes up and tells Jack that he really misses his wife.The next day, Lydia visits Parry and finds his bed empty. Parry and Jack are leading the other patients in a rousing rendition of "How About You?". Parry sees Lydia crying and hugs her, asking her why she looks so sad. Jack continues to lead the other patients in song.Jack goes to Anne's store and reconciles with her, admitting he loves her. She slaps him but accepts him back into her life. The story ends with Jack and Parry nude in Central Park, watching the clouds and laughing.
    

The Fisher King


            The film begins with a stand-alone 17-minute supporting feature entitled The Crimson Permanent Assurance (directed by Terry Gilliam). Set in London, England in present day 1983, a group of elderly office clerks in a small accounting firm rebel against their emotionlessly efficient, yuppie corporate masters. They commandeer their building, turn it into a pirate ship, and sail into a large financial district, where they raid and overthrow a large multinational corporation (before ultimately sailing to the edge of the earth and falling off).The film proper consists of a series of distinct sketches, broken into seven chapters.Part I: The Miracle of BirthA woman in labour is taken into a hospital delivery room, where she is largely ignored by doctors (John Cleese and Graham Chapman) and nurses, who are more concerned with using the hospital's most expensive equipment to impress the hospital's administrator (Michael Palin). The woman in labour notices that hospitals are changing, with "lots and lots of machinery".The Miracle of Birth Part II - The Third World In YorkshireA Roman Catholic man (Palin) loses his employment. He goes home to his wife (Terry Jones) and an impossible number of children, where he discusses the church's opposition to the use of contraception, leading into the musical number "Every Sperm Is Sacred". Watching this unfold, a Protestant man (Chapman) proudly lectures his wife (Eric Idle) on their church's tolerance towards contraception and having intercourse for fun, although his frustrated wife points out that they never do.Part II: Growth and LearningA schoolmaster (Cleese) and chaplain (Palin) conduct a nonsensical Anglican church service in an English public school. The master lectures the boys on excessively detailed school etiquette regarding the school cormorant, and hanging clothes on the correct peg. In a subsequent class, the schoolboys (Idle, Palin, Jones, Chapman, and others) watch in boredom as the master gives a sex education lesson, by physically demonstrating techniques with his wife (Patricia Quinn). Later, a team of boys is beaten physically and on the scoreboard in a violent rugby match against the masters; the scene then match cuts to Part III.Part III: Fighting Each OtherA World War I officer (Jones) attempts to rally his men (Chapman, Gilliam, Palin, Idle, and Cleese) to find cover during an attack, but is hindered by their insistence on celebrating his birthday, complete with presents and cake.A blustery army RSM (Palin) attempts to drill a platoon of men but ends up left alone when he excuses them one by one to pursue leisure activities.In 1879, during the Anglo-Zulu War in Natal, a devastating attack by Zulus is dismissed due to a far more pressing matter: one of the officers, Perkins (Idle), has had his right leg bitten off during the night. The military doctor (Chapman) hypothesises that, despite not being native to Africa, a tiger might be the perpetrator. Ainsworth (Cleese), Packenham-Walsh (Palin) and a sergeant (Jones) form a hunting party, which encounters two suspicious men (Idle and Palin) dressed in two halves of a tiger suit, who attempt to assert their innocence through a succession of increasingly feeble excuses to explain why they are dressed as a tiger.The Middle of the FilmA woman (Palin), as if on a talk-show called "The Middle of the Film", introduces a segment called "Find The Fish" a brief surreal piece in which a drag queen (Chapman), a gangly long-armed man (Jones), and an elephant-headed butler eerily challenge the audience to find a fish in the scene.Part IV: Middle AgeA middle-aged American couple (Idle as the wife and Palin as the husband) heads to a dungeon-themed Hawaiian restaurant at a holiday resort. They are presented with a menu of conversation topics by their waiter (Cleese), and choose philosophy and the meaning of life. Their awkward and generally uninformed conversation quickly grinds to a halt, and they send it back, complaining "This conversation isn't very good."Part V: Live Organ Transplants Two paramedics (Chapman and Cleese) arrive at the doorstep of Mr. Brown (Gilliam), a card-carrying organ donor, to claim his liver. He protests on the basis that he is not dead, but is nonetheless gruesomely operated on against his will. Cleese's paramedic unsuccessfully attempts to chat up Mrs. Brown (Jones), then requests her liver as well. She initially declines, but after a man (Idle) sings a song about man's insignificance in the universe ("The Galaxy Song"), she agrees.In a large corporate boardroom, a businessman straightforwardly summarises his two-part report on the meaning of life: that the human soul must be "brought into existence by a process of guided self-observation", which rarely happens because people are easily distracted; and that "people aren't wearing enough hats." This is followed by an attempted takeover of the building by the Crimson Permanent Assurance from the short feature.Part VI: The Autumn YearsA posh restaurant (complete with a pianist played by Idle, singing "The Penis Song" à la Noël Coward), is visited by Mr. Creosote (Jones), a morbidly obese man in his autumn years. Creosote swears at the unflappable maître d' (Cleese), vomits copiously, and consumes an enormous meal and a huge quantity of beer and wine to the disgust of other patrons. After he has finished, the maître d' offers him a small after-dinner mint; despite initial resistance, Creosote eats it then explodes, showering the restaurant with human entrails and vomit.Part VI-B: The Meaning of LifeAfterwards, two of the restaurant's staff clean up the mess left behind by the late Mr. Creosoto and offer their own thoughts on the meaning of life. The maître d' converses with cleaning lady Maria (Jones). The waiter Gaston (Idle) leads the viewer to the countryside where he was born, and explains that his mother encouraged him to notice the beauty of the world and love everyone. Realising that the audience is unamused, he angrily dismisses them and walks off.Part VII: DeathA condemned man (Chapman) is allowed to choose the manner of his execution: being chased off the edge of a cliff by a horde of topless women.A depressed autumn leaf "commits suicide" by falling off its tree. Distraught, his wife and children quickly do likewise, followed by the rest of the tree's leaves simultaneously. (Animated segment)The Grim Reaper (Cleese) visits an isolated country house, and finds himself invited into a dinner party. Not knowing who he is, the dinner guests spend a lot of time arguing with him before finally being told they've all died from eating contaminated salmon mousse. Their souls leave their bodies, and they follow the Grim Reaper to Heaven.The dinner guests arrive in Heaven, a bright Las Vegas-style hotel where every day is Christmas. In a large auditorium filled with characters from throughout the film, a cheesy lounge singer resembling Tony Bennett (Chapman) performs "Christmas in Heaven", while bare-breasted women wearing Santa Claus costumes perform an elaborate dance number.The End of the FilmThe hostess from "The Middle of the Film" is handed an envelope containing the meaning of life, and casually reads it out: "Try and be nice to people, avoid eating fat, read a good book every now and then, get some walking in, and try and live together in peace and harmony with people of all creeds and nations." She retorts that "gratuitous pictures of penises" and other meaningless controversies would do a better job at bringing the audiences into the cinema, and bitterly announces the closing credits.
    

The Meaning of Life

And Now for Something Completely Different

He Dreams of Giants

Monty Python: Before the Flying Circus

Lost in La Mancha

Too Young to Die

Not the Messiah: He's a Very Naughty Boy


            The film begins in an unnamed and war-torn European city in the late 18th century (dubbed "The Age of Reason" in an opening caption), where, amidst explosions and gunfire from a large Turkish army outside the city gates, a fanciful touring stage production of Baron Münchhausen's life and adventures is taking place. Backstage, city official "The Right Ordinary Horatio Jackson" (Jonathan Pryce) reinforces the city's commitment to reason (here meaning uniformity and unexceptionality) by ordering the execution of a soldier who had just accomplished a near-superhuman feat of bravery (Sting in a cameo), claiming that his bravery is demoralizing to other soldiers. Not far into the play, an elderly man claiming to be the real Baron interrupts the show, protesting its many inaccuracies. Over the complaints of the audience, the theater company and Jackson, the "real" Baron gains the house's attention and narrates through flashback an account of one of his adventures, of a life-or-death wager with the Grand Turk, where the younger Baron's life is saved only by his amazing luck plus the assistance of his remarkable associates: Berthold (Eric Idle), the world's fastest runner; Adolphus (Charles McKeown), a rifleman with superhuman eyesight; Gustavus (Jack Purvis), who possesses extraordinary hearing, and sufficient lung power to knock down an army by exhaling; and Albrecht (Winston Dennis), a fantastically strong man.When gunfire disrupts the elderly Baron's story, the importance of saving the city eclipses the show. The Baron wanders backstage intending to die, until the exuberantly enthusiastic questioning of Sally Salt (Sarah Polley), the young daughter of the theater company's leader, persuades him to remain living.Insisting that he alone can save the city, the Baron escapes the city's walls in a hot air balloon constructed of women's underwear, accompanied by Sally as a stowaway. The balloon expedition proceeds to the Moon, where the Baron, rejuvenated by the escape, finds his old associate Berthold, but angers the King of the Moon (Robin Williams), who resents the Baron for his romantic past with the Queen of the Moon (Valentina Cortese). A bungled escape from the Moon brings the trio back to (and beneath) the Earth, where the Roman God Vulcan (Oliver Reed) hosts his guests with courtesy and Albrecht is found. The Baron and Vulcan's wife, the Goddess Venus (Uma Thurman), attempt a romantic interlude by waltzing in air, but this cuts short the hospitality and Vulcan expels the now-foursome from his kingdom into the South Seas.Swallowed by an enormous sea creature, the travelers locate Gustavus, Adolphus, and the Baron's trusty horse Bucephalus. The Baron (who again appears elderly after being "expelled from a state of bliss", in his words) struggles with the conflicting goals of heroism and a peaceful death, before deciding to escape by blowing "a modicum of snuff" out into the sea creature's cavernous interior, which causes the sea creature to "sneeze" the heroes out through its whale-like blowhole.Back ashore, the Turkish army is located but the Baron's associates are now too elderly and tired to fight the Turk as in the old days. The Baron lectures them firmly but to no avail, and he storms off intending to surrender to the Turk and to Jackson; his cohorts rally to save both the Baron and the city.During the city's celebratory parade, the Baron is shot dead by Jackson. An emotional public funeral takes place, but the denouement reveals that this is merely the final scene of yet another story the Baron is telling to the same theater-goers who were attending the theater in the beginning of the film. The Baron calls the foregoing "only one of the many occasions on which I met my death" and closes his tale by saying "everyone who had a talent for it lived happily ever after."An ambiguous finale reveals that the city has indeed been saved, even though the events of the battle apparently occurred in a story rather than the film's reality. The Baron rides off on Bucephalus. As the Baron and Bucephalus are bathed in the light of the sun parting through the clouds, they apparently disappear, and the credits roll over a triumphant blast of music.
    

The Adventures of Baron Munchausen

For No Good Reason


            In early 1980s England we find Kevin Lotterby (Craig Warnock), an average 11-year-old boy who is fascinated by history and its legends. However, his material-obsessed parents (David Daker and Sheila Fearn) could care less and spend their evenings ignoring their son and watching game show programs on TV.One night, Kevin is made to get to bed early and just as he lies down to sleep an armored knight riding on horseback bursts from his wardrobe. He then finds himself smack dab in the middle of a forest clearing. Just after Kevin gets to his feet, the forest falls away and his bedroom has turned back to normal, as if nothing out of the ordinary had happened. Examining a picture on his wall almost identical to the scene he just witnessed--a knight on horseback in the middle of a forest--it's his father who bursts in through his door this time, complaining about all of the racket Kevin was making and yells at him to get to sleep.The following evening, Kevin returns to bed equipped with a Polaroid camera and a flashlight, determined to document whatever else might decide to emerge from his wardrobe. Just as he's given up hope and begins to fall asleep, a group of six strangely dressed dwarfs file out of his closet. Kevin shines his light at them and they cower, calling him the "The Supreme Being." Soon after discovering his true identity, they gang up on the innocent Kevin, accusing him of things he has no knowledge of. While interrogating him they push him against his picture-decorated wall and find that it moves. Babbling that they've "found it" they push further on the wall, which reveals a tunnel.Suddenly, a frightening head-shaped apparition appears in Kevin's room and demands that they return what they've stolen from him and that it will bring them "great danger." The dwarfs continue to push Kevin's picture-filled wall. The face follows them. Kevin runs and helps the dwarfs. The wall soon gives way through an opening at the end of the hall and the group plummet into the black space beyond.On a seemingly normal countryside, the dwarfs and Kevin suddenly fall from a hole in the sky. As it turns out, they have used a portal to travel back to Italy of 1796, during the Second Battle of Castiglione. They sneak into a fortress where they find a wrecked theatre and Napoleon Bonaparte (Ian Holm), watching local actors perform follies for him. Napoleon laughs at a Punch and Judy show until the puppeteer is shot and dies. Dismissing the rest of the acts, he's suddenly thrilled when the dwarfs appear onstage and begin to perform a soft-shoe number to "Me and My Shadow", a song that won't be written for another 130 years. Napoleon is pleased to see people shorter than himself performing and invites them to dinner, proclaiming them his new generals. The dwarfs wait until Napoleon passes out from drinking wine and proceed to rob him of everything his forces had plundered and carry it out in a large tapestry. As they make their escape, one of the real generals discovers their plot and chases them. The dwarfs find another portal and are able to escape.They subsequently arrive in the Middle Ages. They end up plummeting through the roof of a carriage, upsetting a betrothed couple, Vincent and Pansy (Michael Palin and Shelley Duval), who run off into the forest. The six dwarfs finally explain to Kevin that they worked for The Supreme Being, the creator of the Universe, as designers, creating all the flora and fauna of the world. Kevin learns that the dwarfs, whom are named Randall (David Rappaport)-the self-proclaimed leader, Fidgit (Kenny Baker), Strutter (Malcolm Dixon), Og (Mike Edmonds), Wally (Jack Purvis), and Vermin (Tiny Ross). After designing a particularly foul-smelling tree, the dwarfs were demoted to the job of repairing portals in the space-time fabric. Spurned they spitefully stole the map of the holes' locations, which they are now using to travel around, stealing treasures from across history and get "stinkin' rich." As they count up their loot, Kevin suggest they all pose for a group picture with their map. They suddenly hear the cries of the couple they'd landed on and find that they're being robbed by a motley band of thieves. They follow the thieves, landing themselves in snare traps. After convincing the thugs they're criminals, they're taken to Robin Hood (John Cleese), who looks upon their haul from Napoleon as wealth he can "redistribute" to the local poor. As Hood hands out the loot, the dwarfs leave in disgust, angry that their haul has been repossessed.Meanwhile, in secret, this journey is being observed via mystical powers by a malevolent sorcerer, known simply as "the Evil Genius" or "Ultimate Evil" (David Warner), who seeks the map for himself to recreate the universe to his liking. In the Fortress of Ultimate Darkness, the Evil Genius rants a little about The Supreme Being, saying that slugs are a demonstration of his incompetence. "What about you?" one of his henchman asks. "He created you." Evil responds by blowing him up, adding "Don't ever ask me another question like that! No one created me! I am absolute evil! I made myself!" Another henchman pushes his luck, asking, "Then how does he keep you here? How does he keep you trapped in the fortress?" He promptly gets blown up. "Good question," Evil states. "If I were creating the world I wouldn't mess about with butterflies and daffodils. I would have started with lasers, eight o'clock, Day One!"While the dwarfs ponder their next move, Ultimate Evil decides to magically speak through the mouth of one of the more dunderhead-ed dwarfs in order to convince the rest of them to pursue the resting place of "the most fabulous object in the world." The dwarfs begin to fight amongst themselves for the map until the Supreme Being re-materializes, which leads Kevin to jump through a time-travel portal on his own in escape.Kevin land in an arid desert and unintentionally aides King Agamemnon (Sean Connery) when he falls from a time portal in the sky. After inadvertently helping Agamemnon slay a vicious Minotaur, Kevin is welcomed to Agamemnon's royal court and treated like a son. Reflecting on his own neglected life and family, Kevin wishes he can stay with the king forever. Kevin is elated with his new home, capturing scenes during his stay with his Polaroid camera, but this is not to last. A few days later, during a birthday party for Agamemnon, the six dwarfs suddenly appear again and in yet another time-traveling robbery scheme, they manage to steal Agamemnon's riches along with the boy before fleeing through another time portal door.After time-traveling to the infamous luxury liner Titanic, Randall tells Kevin that he'd studied the map more closely & found that Og was right: the Time of Legends is the location of the Most Fabulous Object in the World. However, the boat begins to sink and the stranded group is forced to search out the most fabulous object in the world which turns out to be the Fortress of Ultimate Evil.The Evil Genius, meanwhile, begins to manipulate the adventure with his magical influence, so that Kevin and the dwarfs end up transported out of the freezing waters of the Atlantic Ocean to the ocean of the Time of Legends. Here, circumstances become even more fantastical. The group is picked up by a ship containing the Oger Winston (Peter Vaughan) and his human wife (Katherine Helmond). After overpowering Winston and throwing him and his wife overboard, the group takes command of the ship, but they barely escape when their ship is adorning the head of a giant. After putting the giant to sleep by injecting the top of his head with sleep potion, the travelers escape and find themselves in a vast desert.The dwarfs believe an epic treasure, "The Most Fabulous Object in the World," awaits in this time-period within the Fortress of Ultimate Darkness, where Evil himself resides. Meeting an invisible glass-like wall in the middle of the desert, the dwarfs begin to argue and dissent from Randall's authority, when they accidentally down the wall by smashing a skull through it like a pane of glass. They step through the jagged opening to behold Evil's fortress lying ominous on the other side. Once inside, the dwarfs are immediately deceived by Evil's shape-shifting abilities into handing over the map. Evil imprisons them and Kevin in one of many cages hanging over a bottomless void, but the group undoes the lock and swings from cage to cage until they are back within the fortress hall. They are able to use a photograph of the map Kevin had taken earlier to identify holes they can use to recruit help and recover the map. The dwarfs begin putting their plan into action. Randall and four of the dwarfs split up while Kevin stays behind to try to lure away several of the Evil Genius' demon minions that chase him.Kevin is almost left to face the Evil Genius alone when suddenly all kinds of characters from all time periods come to the rescue, among the group several Roman archers, cowboys, a battle tank, knights, and a futuristic soldier, and the dwarfs.The cowboys attempt to wrangle Evil with their lassos, but he begins to spin and the centrifugal force sends them flying. Evil's skull opens up and a wicked looking pole extends from it, producing a knife which cuts the ropes which unsuccessfully bound him. When the archers attempt to skewer them with their well-aimed arrows, Evil essentially turns himself into a pincushion and fires the arrows right back at their sources.Although the hodge-podge group puts up what could be considered a good effort, all efforts to foil evildoing prove in vain and all certainly seems lost. But then, out of nowhere, The Supreme Being appears in human form (Ralph Richardson) and turns Evil into black brittle stone. While Randall tries to apologize to The Supreme Being for his groups actions, The Supreme Being reveals that everything which had occurred was actually all part of his plan.The Supreme Being (nicknamed 'SB' by the dwarfs) goes on to briefly explain that he let the midgets borrow the map because, as it turns out, Evil was HIS creation after all and the Supreme Being simply wanted to see it put to the test. Free will is the reason why evil still exists, he explains. He instructs them to dispose of Evil's crumbling bits and pieces into a English Post Box he has provided in order to rid the world of it and warns them not to touch it with their bare hands. Unbeknownst to them, one chunk is overlooked and slowly begins to fester. The SB forgives the dwarfs for their insolence, deciding demotion and a pay cut will suffice as a good enough punishment and announces that it is time to go (presumably back to Heaven). With the time map safely in hand, SB and the dwarfs then leave an indignant Kevin behind "to carry on the fight." Soon, however, the festering piece of Evil begins to smolder and in moments Kevin is enveloped in a cloud of thick, strangely yellow-colored smoke.Almost instantaneously, Kevin wakes up to find himself back in his bed, surrounded now by thick, black smoke. Two firemen burst through his bedroom door just in time and rush him from his burning home. Outside, his parents fight over which kitchen appliances should have been saved from the flames and seem to have no concern for whether Kevin had made it out of the house alive or not. It is now morning as Kevin watches the growing flames lick at his home as firemen hose it down and begin to get the fires under control. One of the two firemen who saved him walks by and asks if he is all right, and then says "You're a very lucky boy." On second look, Kevin recognizes the fireman as the spitting image of King Agamemnon. Baffled, wondering if it was all a dream, Kevin checks his pockets for any evidence of his journey and is amazed to find all of the Polaroid snapshots that he took while on his adventures, thus confirming that it wasn't a dream after all.But before Kevin can show the photos and proof of his time traveling adventures to his bickering parents, another fireman emerges from the home with a charred toaster oven in hand, declaring that it was the cause of the fire, which was left on overnight. His parents open the appliance, revealing the smoking chunk of evil rock lying inside. Kevin gasps, realizing it was the source of the fire. "Mum, Dad!" He warns, "It's Evil! Don't touch it!" But as always, his stupid parents foolishly ignore him and touch it anyway to remove it. They both explode on contact with the black rock, leaving almost no trace behind. When Kevin turns around looking for help, he sees King Agamemnon-turned-fireman winking at him who then drives away in his fire truck along with the rest of the firemen now that the fire is put out. Kevin is left all alone and bewildered on the front lawn to look back at the smoldering remains of his destroyed house and smoldering (now dead) parents while his nosy neighbors look on.The camera zooms out from the town, the world, and the galaxy to reveal its location on the Supreme Being's map. The Supreme Being's hands then roll up the map, ending the film.
    

Time Bandits


            The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus is a fantastical morality tale, set in the present day.
It tells the story of Dr Parnassus and his extraordinary 'Imaginarium', a travelling show where members of the audience get an irresistible opportunity to choose between light and joy or darkness and gloom. Blessed with the extraordinary gift of guiding the imaginations of others, Dr Parnassus is cursed with a dark secret. Long ago he made a bet with the devil, Mr Nick, in which he won immortality. Many centuries later, on meeting his one true love, Dr Parnassus made another deal with the devil, trading his immortality for youth, on condition that when his first-born reached its 16th birthday he or she would become the property of Mr Nick. Valentina is now rapidly approaching this 'coming of age' milestone and Dr Parnassus is desperate to protect her from her impending fate. Mr Nick arrives to collect but, always keen to make a bet, renegotiates the wager. Now the winner of Valentina will be determined by whoever seduces the first five souls. Enlisting a series of wild, comical and compelling characters in his journey, Dr Parnassus promises his daughter's hand in marriage to the man that helps him win. In this captivating, explosive and wonderfully imaginative race against time, Dr Parnassus must fight to save his daughter in a never-ending landscape of surreal obstacles - and undo the mistakes of his past once and for all...
    

The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus

Bye Bye Morons

The Man Who Killed Don Quixote


            Jeliza-Rose lives in Los Angeles with her junkie parents. Their only income is from her father's rock concerts and Jeliza-Rose only has a few belongings, mostly just broken toys and a hardcover copy of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. When she isn't imagining things in her mind, she's busy looking after her parents and even filling their heroin needles for her father, who spends great amounts of time unconscious on the living room armchair. He has Jeliza-Rose believing that one day things will improve and that they'll run away together to live in Denmark. Jeliza-Rose's overweight chain-smoking mom has erratic mood swings, spends all day lying in bed eating a seemingly limitless supply of chocolate bars (and smacking Jeliza's hand and calling her a bitch if she tries to eat one) and she doesn't have the right mindset to be a parent, nor does the father.One day Jeliza's mom chokes to death on a piece of chocolate after smoking too much. Not wanting the police to see the drug paraphernalia and give Jeliza to child services, her father helps Jeliza build her mom a shroud, and they then pack some things and get on a bus to Texas (Jeliza believes it's Denmark). Jeliza's father is obnoxious, vulgar and disgusting on the bus, purposely farting and telling the other passengers that it was Jeliza just to embarrass her. Eventually they arrive at an old shack vandalized by teenagers and literally falling apart. Rude phrases are spray-painted on the walls and evidence of squirrels living in the attic is seen by Jeliza, but she tries to make the most of her new "home" by showing it to her four imaginary friends, which happen to be the disembodied heads of vintage Barbie-dolls. Her favorite, named Mystique, becomes her closest companion for much of the film.When Jeliza's father overdoses and dies that very night, Jeliza believes he is just unconscious. She plays elaborate imaginary games to pass the time, and although her father is visibly decomposing more and more every day, Jeliza tells herself that he isn't dead and retreats further away from reality. While playing under a tipped-over schoolbus by some train tracks, Jeliza meets Dell, an eccentric and mean-spirited lady who has a fear of bees and claims to have destroyed her family's beehives as a teenager. Jeliza at first believes Dell is a witch until she meets Dell's epileptic, intellectually-disabled brother Dickens and is determined to become part of the family. She begins snooping around and sees Dell having oral sex with a delivery boy to avoid paying for delivered groceries. Dickens tells Jeliza that doctors removed half his brain a long time ago to stop him from having seizures and he has a long scar on his head. Jeliza befriends him and joins him in a game where a pile of trash becomes a submarine in their minds and the train that passes by every afternoon becomes a "monster shark".Eventually Jeliza can no longer tell fantasy from reality and when she accidentally drops Mystique down a rabbit-hole on Dell's property, she thinks that the other doll heads will turn against her. Dickens tries to rescue Mystique but is unable to. Eventually after living off of just a jar of peanut butter from her father, Jeliza faints and is rescued by Dell. Dell is a taxidermist and her unstable mind is revealed when, instead of trying to help Jeliza get to the police and report the death of the father, she preserves the father as a grotesque doll using his dried skin. She starts accepting Jeliza's presence but when Jeliza breaks down and cries, Dell shows no affection and seems to harbour some sort of grudge against Jeliza and her father. Jeliza lets Dell put all the old doll heads into the body of her father, sewing him shut and trapping them inside. Afterwards Dell, Dickens and Jeliza paint the whole house white, pray to God and then eat a bunch of Dell's home-made food. Jeliza begins to act less withdrawn, seeing the brother and sister as the closest thing to a family she's ever had.One day while Dell is out in town and Jeliza and Dickens are alone in the old shack together, Jeliza puts makeup on him and begins to fall in love with him. Dickens doesn't understand that this is inappropriate, nor does Jeliza. Dickens recalls how as a little boy, his mother would tongue-kiss him and act in a perverse manner towards him, and about how his mother didn't really die from bee stings as Dell claims, she just fell down the stairs and died. Jeliza and Dickens kiss and then go off to play in the field after hearing a loud explosion noise. It turns out to be coming from a nearby mining quarry. Dickens reveals that he stole from the quarry an "atom bomb that will end the world and make Baby Jesus come alive like chemicals" (he shows this to Jeliza and it turns out he stole two packs of dynamite from the quarry but that in his mind it's an atom bomb). Jeliza tells him that if he shows her his bedroom, she'll let him keep her doll's arm. They also set a live squirrel free that Dell has caught and plans to kill. While in his bedroom, Dickens climbs on top of Jeliza and they tongue-kiss. Dickens' relationship with her nearly turns pedophilic, but then Dell catches them both.It is revealed that Dell and Dickens' mother and father had relationships with their children and that Jeliza's father was a brother to Dell and Dickens, too. Dell and Jeliza's father had an incestuous relationship which was ended when the father ran away to marry his wife and play music. Jeliza was born later on and Dell is her aunt. Dickens is her uncle. Because of the abuse Dell suffered as a child and her devastation after Jeliza's father left her and her mother died, she snapped and became a recluse who has preserved her dead mother using taxidermy to avoid her grief over the dead.Furious that Jeliza was about to kiss Dickens, thinking that she'll take him away from her, she threatens Jeliza and Jeliza accidentally squishes in the skull of her taxidermied grandmother. Dickens has a seizure and Jeliza runs away, crying hysterically until an explosion suddenly shatters the window to the shack. Realizing that Dickens used his dynamite to kill the "monster shark", Jeliza goes outside to investigate, finding that beyond her imagination the case is really that a mentally-disturbed man has caused a train crash, hurting tons of people. Still unsure of what's real and what isn't, she searches everywhere for Dickens but instead comes across an injured woman who kindly gives her a half of an orange she'd been eating and offers to help her. Jeliza sits down with the woman and stares off into space; meanwhile Dell can be seen in her nightgown wandering up and down the tracks through the flames and hurt people, calling her brother's name. The woman asks Jeliza if she's traveling alone and Jeliza tells the woman that fireflies are her friends and that she can speak to them in her mind. The woman just assumes that Jeliza is in shock since she has no knowledge of the girl's neglect or abuse. The film ends with an image of Jeliza's glazed-over, emotionally-distant eyes.
    

Tideland

Jabberwocky


            Qohen Leth (Christoph Waltz), an eccentric programmer who refers to himself in plurals, is assigned to "crunch entities" for a company named Mancom. Finding himself suffering existential angst, Qohen constantly waits for a phone call, hoping that it might bring him happiness or the answers he seeks. Requesting a psych evaluation, three company doctors determine that Qohen is physically healthy, but request he have therapy from Dr Shrink-Rom (Tilda Swinton), an AI therapist designed to provide mental evaluation. Wanting to meet with "Management" (Matt Damon), Qohen attends a party held by his supervisor, Joby (David Thewlis). Stumbling into an empty room, Qohen finds Management and requests to work from home, as he would be more productive and would no longer risk missing his call; Management simply notes he finds Qohen "quite insane."Attempting to leave the party, Qohen is pressed into staying by Joby and, when Qohen starts choking on an olive, he is rescued by partygoer Bainsley (Mélanie Thierry). His request granted by Management, Qohen is informed he is to start working from home, and is shown a massive supercomputer dubbed "The Neural Net Mancive"; containing all of the entities crunched by workers, Qohen is required to order its data to solve the "Zero Theorem", a mysterious mathematical formula. Spending months as a hermit whilst working on the program, Dr. Shrink-Rom diagnoses him with numerous conditions, and he begins suffering nightmares involving a black hole.Frustrated with his work, Qohen smashes his computer with a hammer, and is soon visited by Bainsley. Qohen confides with Bainsley that he believes he accidentally hung up a call that would have given him the meaning of life, and has desperately been waiting for a call-back ever since. Qohen is then visited by Bob (Lucas Hedges), the teenage son of Management. Bob repairs his computer, reveals Management is spying on him, and suggests that Bainsley is only interested in Qohen because she is paid to be. After Qohen insists he will cease working on the zero theorem, Bob promises to get him his call if he continues. Having received an AI suit from Bainsley, Qohen interacts with her through virtual reality; appearing on a beach together, they soon kiss one another.Visited again by Bob, Qohen, to his distaste, learns the zero theorem aims to prove life is meaningless through the Big Crunch theory. Digitally connecting to Bainsley again, Qohen is comforted by her, but when he denounces Management and suggests eloping together, she forcefully disconnects, damaging Qohen's suit. When Bob then takes his suit to repair it, Qohen connects to Bainsley unannounced, only to discover she is a webcam stripper. Bob returns with Qohen's suit, now repaired, and reveals his phone call is only a delusion, and admits his Dr. Shrink-Rom was only designed to identify his pathology rather than treat it. Qohen is visited by Bainsley, who apologizes for deceiving him, but claims she is truly fell in love with him; despite Bainsley's offer to elope, which is encouraged by Bob, Qohen turns her down.Qohen, discussing his problems with Bob, discovers Bob's health is radically declining. Caring for Bob, Qohen finds a hidden camera in his bathroom mirror, and begins to uncover and smash Management's cameras. Despite barricading his home, Management employees break in and take Bob. Visited by Joby, Qohen is berated as his actions got him fired. Wearing his now repaired suit, Qohen connects to his computer, but is electrocuted. Appearing at the Neural Net Mancive, Qohen is greeted by Management, who notes that Bob is hospitalized, and that he suffers from a chronic illness. Management explains Qohen is part of the Neural Net now and, when Qohen asks questions about the meaning of his life, Management shrugs them off. Management explains he chose Qohen as he had faith in a phone call giving his life meaning, effectively making him the antithesis of the zero theorem. Management then disappears, apologizing as he no longer needs Qohen; angered, Qohen smashes the Neural Net, collapsing it and revealing a black hole inside. Smiling, Qohen drops into it, only to appear back on the virtual beach. Qohen stands in the sea and watches the sun set.
    

The Zero Theorem


            Wilhelm (Matt Damon) and Jacob Grimm (Heath Ledger) are famous for vanquishing witches and demons for a price. They have been earning their living for years by traveling around Germany from village to village defeating supernatural fiends. They usually arrive in a village when they hear that villagers are being attacked. What the villagers don't know is that the pair are con men who stage the attack with their two cohorts. They make a deal with the villagers to drive away the evil spirits for a bag of gold. Unfortunately for them, the French army, which is occupying Germany, discovers what they have been doing to the villagers and arrests them. General Delatombe (Jonathon Pryce) will let them go if the brothers help him find the people kidnapping young girls from one village. The brothers go to the village only to find that they have encountered a cursed forest with real magical spells and real evil spirits. They must battle the enchanted forest to get the girls back. Douglas Young (the-movie-guy)
    

Terry Gilliam

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