{"id":2522,"date":"2017-02-15T19:35:20","date_gmt":"2017-02-15T19:35:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/performerstuff.com\/mgs\/?p=2522"},"modified":"2018-08-30T20:22:35","modified_gmt":"2018-08-30T20:22:35","slug":"theatre-in-film-the-imaginarium-of-doctor-parnassus-2009","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/performerstuff.com\/mgs\/theatre-in-film-the-imaginarium-of-doctor-parnassus-2009\/","title":{"rendered":"Theatre in Film: The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus (2009)"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"fusion-one-full fusion-layout-column fusion-column-last fusion-spacing-yes section-header-post\" style=\"margin-top:;margin-bottom:;\"><div class=\"fusion-column-wrapper\"><h3>Theatre in Film: <i>The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus<\/i> (2009)<\/h3>\n<font size=\"2\" color=\"grey\"><span style=\"border:1px solid ;-webkit-border-radius:50%;-moz-border-radius:50%;border-radius:50%;-moz-box-shadow: 0 0 3px rgba(0,0,0,.3);-webkit-box-shadow: 0 0 3px rgba(0,0,0,.3);box-shadow: 0 0 3px rgba(0,0,0,.3);margin-right:25px;float:left;\" class=\"fusion-imageframe imageframe-glow imageframe-1 hover-type-none author-image\"><a class=\"fusion-no-lightbox\" href=\"http:\/\/performerstuff.com\" target=\"_self\"> <img src=\"http:\/\/mgs.performerstuff.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/authorimage.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"img-responsive\" style=\"-webkit-border-radius:50%;-moz-border-radius:50%;border-radius:50%;\"\/><\/a><\/span><p>Written by Ashleigh Gardner<\/p>\n<p>February 15, 2017<\/p>\n<\/font><div class=\"fusion-clearfix\"><\/div><\/div><\/div><div class=\"fusion-clearfix\"><\/div><div class=\"fusion-one-full fusion-layout-column fusion-column-last fusion-spacing-yes section-body-post\" style=\"margin-top:;margin-bottom:;\"><div class=\"fusion-column-wrapper\"><p style=\"text-align: left;\">Welcome to Part VII of Theatre in Film, our weekly feature on a film that depicts a life in the theatre. In Part VII, we examine films with biting humor, fantastical plots, and theatre family values. This week, we discuss\u00a0the 2009 fantasy film\u00a0directed by Terry Gilliam and starring Heath Ledger and Andrew Garfield,\u00a0<em>The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus.<\/em><\/p>\n<h4><i>The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus<\/i> (2009)<\/h4>\n<br><div align=\"center\"><div class=\"fusion-video fusion-youtube\" style=\"max-width:600px;max-height:350px;\"><div class=\"video-shortcode\"><iframe title=\"YouTube video player\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/_UbHR9Xca10?wmode=transparent&autoplay=0\" width=\"600\" height=\"350\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div><\/div><\/div><br><p style=\"text-align: left;\"><b>Director: <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Terry Gilliam<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><br \/>\n<\/span><b>Starring: <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Christopher Plummer, Heath Ledger, Andrew Garfield, Verne Troyer, Lily Cole, Tom Waits, Johnny Depp, Colin Farrell, and Jude Law<\/span><\/p>\n<h4 style=\"text-align: left;\">What happens:<\/h4>\n<br><p style=\"text-align: left;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Doctor Parnassus and his theatre troupe perform regularly around London\u2019s pubs in their pageant wagon. Their main attraction is a mirror which leads to an \u201cimaginarium\u201d that transports participants to a world where they must choose self-fulfillment or ignorance. The catch? Nick, a personification of the Devil (Tom Waits), has previously granted Parnassus 1,000 years of immortality in addition to a pact of youthfulness he made with Nick to woo a woman. The pact mandates that when Parnassus\u2019 daughter Valentina (Lily Cole) turns 16, she belongs to Nick. To eliminate this trade, Parnassus makes a deal with Nick: whoever wins five souls first wins Valentina.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> While Parnassus drunkenly deals tarot cards inside the wagon, Valentina, his magician Anton (Andrew Garfield), and his life-long partner Percy (Verne Troyer) stumble upon a hanging man, Tony (Heath Ledger), along the Thames river. They revive him, and after a few days of traveling with them, he insinuates himself into their theatrical group, offering solutions to their poverty. After Tony and Anton engage in a fisticuffs over Valentina, Tony and Valentina get pushed into the imaginarium and are followed by Tony and Dr. Parnassus. Valentina and Anton escape, and years later, so does Dr. Parnassus&#8230;only to find that Valentina and Anton are married with a daughter, leading the conventional life that Valentina always dreamed of.<\/span><\/p>\n<h4 style=\"text-align: left;\">Why it matters:<\/h4>\n<br><p style=\"text-align: left;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Despite being a simple fantasy to most audiences, <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus <\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">is a vital film for theatre people and fans of Gilliam\u2019s other works like <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Monty Python and the Holy Grail, Time Bandits,<\/span><\/i> <i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Brazil, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, <\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">and <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Zero Theorem, <\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">all of which are theatrical and fantastical in their own ways.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This fever dream of a film mostly focuses on Heath Ledger, Christopher Plummer, and Andrew Garfield\u2019s characters, but the central character, the one whose soul is ultimately at stake, is Valentina. She represents actors who simultaneously work in entertainment and long for a life more ordinary and stable. Valentina\u2019s life, as she lives it with her father, Percy, and Anton, is an unpredictable, chaotic, and oftentimes, dangerous mess. They barely eat, their home is a traveling pageant wagon without heat, and the people who watch their shows are pushy, drunk, and dangerous. Valentina has never known a life without performing plays, and her relationship with her father is akin to that of a director and an actor or a master and a servant. <\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">While in her area of the wagon, Valentina flips through the pages of a contemporary magazine, stopping on a page with a family of four, lounging in their pristine living room. She cuts this out and pastes it to her wall, hiding it with a curtain.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">For many actors and performers, the allure of a \u201cnormal\u201d life is always at the back of their minds. In between shows, on the subway, drinking their morning cup of coffee (perhaps without milk or sugar because they can\u2019t afford it), they think of pursuing something else that promises something <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">more. <\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Being a professional performer carries all the risks that Valentina experiences: food may be scarce, rent may be high, and the audiences may be rude or too close for comfort. What Valentina\u2019s character shows us is that there is a path for <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">some <\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">people outside of the theatre, but maybe it isn\u2019t for all. She allows\u00a0actors\u00a0to understand why some performers might desire that life, and, ultimately, there\u2019s nothing wrong with\u00a0wanting something different.<\/span><\/p>\n<br><p style=\"text-align: left;\">This film is the\u00a0third\u00a0film in\u00a0Part VII. See below for the other films\u00a0in Part VII.<\/p>\n<ul style=\"text-align: left;\">\n<li><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/performerstuff.com\/mgs\/theatre-in-film-synecdoche-new-york-2008\/\"><em>Synecdoche, New York<\/em>\u00a0(2008)<\/a><\/span><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/performerstuff.com\/mgs\/theatre-in-film-hamlet-2-2008\/\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><em>Hamlet 2\u00a0<\/em>(2008)<\/span><\/a><\/li>\n<li><em><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">Don&#8217;t Think Twice\u00a0<\/span><\/em><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">(2016)<\/span><\/li>\n<li><em>Phoebe in Wonderland\u00a0<\/em>(2009)\u00a0(Coming soon.)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">Want to start with\u00a0<strong>Part I<\/strong>? Begin with\u00a0<span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><strong><em><a href=\"http:\/\/mgs.performerstuff.com\/?p=133\">42nd Street\u00a0<\/a><\/em>(1933)<\/strong><\/span>.<br \/>\nMiss\u00a0<strong>Part II<\/strong>?\u00a0Check out\u00a0<span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/performerstuff.com\/mgs\/theatre-in-film-series-the-band-wagon-1953\/\"><strong><em>The Band Wagon<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0<strong>(1953)<\/strong><\/a><\/span>.<br \/>\nNeed a refresh for\u00a0<strong>Part III<\/strong>? Start with\u00a0our feature on\u00a0<span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><strong><em><a href=\"https:\/\/performerstuff.com\/mgs\/theatre-in-film-series-all-that-jazz-1979\/\">All That Jazz\u00a0<\/a><\/em><\/strong><strong>(1979)<\/strong><\/span>.<br \/>\nHow about a recap from\u00a0<strong>Part IV<\/strong>? Jump into\u00a0<span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/performerstuff.com\/mgs\/theatre-in-film-a-chorus-of-disapproval-1989\/\"><strong><em>A Chorus of Disapproval\u00a0<\/em><\/strong><\/a><strong>(1989)<\/strong><\/span>.<br \/>\nCheck out\u00a0<strong>Part V<\/strong><em>,\u00a0<\/em>and start with\u00a0<span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/performerstuff.com\/mgs\/theatre-in-film-an-awfully-big-adventure-1995\/\"><em><strong>An Awfully Big Adventure\u00a0<\/strong><\/em><strong>(1995)<\/strong><\/a><\/span>.<br \/>\nStart reading\u00a0<strong>Part VI<\/strong>\u00a0with\u00a0<span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><em><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/performerstuff.com\/mgs\/theatre-in-film-camp-2003\/\">Camp\u00a0<\/a><\/strong><\/em><strong>(2003)<\/strong><\/span>.<\/p>\n<div class=\"fusion-clearfix\"><\/div><\/div><\/div><div class=\"fusion-clearfix\"><\/div><hr \/>\n<h5 style=\"text-align: left;\"><em><strong>Ashleigh Gardner<\/strong>\u00a0received her AA in Theatre\/Drama\/Dramatic Arts\u00a0from Valencia College and\u00a0her Bachelors Degree in English Literature and\u00a0Masters Degree in Literary, Cultural, and Textual Studies from\u00a0the University of Central Florida. She is a playwright, an actor, and PerformerStuff.com\u2019s Editor.\u00a0<\/em><\/h5>\n<h5 style=\"text-align: left;\">Thumbnail image from\u00a0<em>The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus. <\/em>Copyright<em>\u00a0<\/em>Sony Pictures Entertainment<em>, 2009.<\/em><\/h5>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" [...]","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2523,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[259,265],"tags":[160,308,228,88,105],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/performerstuff.com\/mgs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2522"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/performerstuff.com\/mgs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/performerstuff.com\/mgs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/performerstuff.com\/mgs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/performerstuff.com\/mgs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2522"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/performerstuff.com\/mgs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2522\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/performerstuff.com\/mgs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2523"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/performerstuff.com\/mgs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2522"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/performerstuff.com\/mgs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2522"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/performerstuff.com\/mgs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2522"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}