Baron Munchausen

I am finding a great deal in common with many of you and wanted to put out my feelers a little farther. The Young Frankentstein thread was a success.

Has anyone seen the Terry Gilliam film "The Adventures of Baron Munchausen"? circa 1989 It is another one of my favorites.

Eric Idle is the character Berthold who wears shackles and weights because he cant control his hyperspeed legs. When Berthold meets the Baron for the first time in many years the exchange goes like this.

Berthold- "Do I know you?"
Baron- "I'm Baron Munchausen"
Berthold- "Sounds nasty... Is it contagious?"

Monkeyman

The film is an important part of my video library...!

I'm a big fan of anything Terry Gilliam gets near. It's a completely different sensibility from the Monty Python stuff, but it is great in it's own right. I love Brazil, Fear and Loathing, Time Bandits... I have al of them on DVD.

That said, I thought Munchausen was his weakest effort.

I was super excited for his take on Don Quixote... which was cancelled mid-shoot after being plagued with various production difficulties. A documentary about the almost-film, called "Lost in La Mancha" (I think) won enough accolades that Gilliam wants to go back and finish the real movie at some point, but it looks grim.

Speaking of Grimm, he's filming something about the Brothers Grimm as we speak. Should be cool!

Yes - I love this one! Which means to say, I LOVE Jonathan Pryce...

"Why aren't you firing on the Turks?"
"It's Wednesday..."

A verse from the Torturers apprentice

Cut off in my prime. Surrounded by beautiful young women all the time. A unic's life is hard.

Man I like this group. I'm trying to find a flaw but the commonalities are a bit frightening. I can count the number of people I have got to actually watch the whole thing on one hand.

'Sometimes nothing is a real cool hand...'

You really can't argue with Uma Thurman as Venus, either - or Oliver Reed as Mars!

"We cater to allll types here..."

Bong...

Help me understand. I don't get it.

Derek
The quote is taken from "Cool Hand Luke". Paul Newman at his best. Pehaps bong has different taste in movies.
Mahalo,
Al

I agree Terry Gilliam is pretty cool. My favortie part of The Monty Python TV show is his animation.
Doesn't Robin Williams appear in that movie too. I remember him saying something about flatulence and omnipotence If memory serves me correctly. I may rent it again for a Munchausen refresher.
Chongolio

-- I believe that our Heavenly Father invented the monkey because he was disappointed in man."
... Mark Twain

[ Edited by: Chongolio on 2003-08-05 08:28 ]

Robin Williams was "headless" or wanted to be separated from his body because it limited the mind to expand. If I am not mistaken there was something about him not being included in the credits but I never really saw that through the end. Is his name mentioned?

Robin Williams was not credited in that movie. He was a good addition though.

I think Munchausen is an often overlooked classic of Terry's. Sometimes I feel like the only person who likes it. Glad to hear there are many others.

I also think Fear and Loathing was way overlooked. It certainly rambles at times (so does the book) but the visuals, combined with Depp & Del Toro's performances are incredible.

"Bazooko's Circus is what the world would be doing every Saturday night if the Nazis had won the war"

But I don't want to start another Fear & Loathing quote thread. We've been there. Sorry.

I once met Terry in a bookstore in London.

I was over there working on a record for some band, and we had a day off. I was in SoHo just looking at all the weird bookstores and record stores, poking around, seeing the sights. I was in this bookstore (I swear this is true) looking at a copy of The Battle of Brazil, a book about Terry's struggles in making Brazil. I look up from the book, and he's walking into the store!

So I put the book down really fast, I don't think he saw what I was reading, but since I was in the cinema section, it was no surprise that he wandered over. We got to talking, and he was super cool.

Mostly he was asking MY opinion on some things, and I thought that was great that he was genuinely interested in what one of his fans had to say about his movies. He asked me why Fear and Loathing was a commercial flop in the US.

I got a little animated (no pun intended), waved my hands about a bit as I was speaking, and told him something to the effect of: " I know this movie does not glorify drug use, and you know that this movie, or the book it is based on, does not glorify drug use, but the average MORON in America can't or won't see or understand the underlying message, and in America right now, it is INSANE to have made a movie, that to the general dipshits in the USA, is going to SEEM to be a pro-drug, anti-cops, pro-statuatory rape film".

He seemed pleased that I gave it to him straight, and so animatedly.

He told me about his next project (something that never got made), and signed the copy of Battle of Brazil - even though he didn't write it and I hadn't bought it (yet)!

The end.

What a great Story Tikibars! Makes me think of this one time I was manning the register in the bookstore I was workinh in at the time, and this guys walks up and asks me if we had a copy of "Chasing Che". I looked it up, and sure enough we had it. I grabbed it and handed it to him, where he then stated "Oh, well I'm the author, and I'm up this way every few years, and thought I would sign your copy." So he grabs a pen, opens the cover, and sure enough, it was the same copy he had signed 3 years ago! I felt so bad I ended up buying it myself later in the day, and enjoyed it very much.