Gilliam on Gilliam

by Terry Gilliam, Ian Christie (Editor)

Every Terry Gilliam film creates its own unique world, fuelled by obsession and fantasy, yet realized with meticulous craftmanship and dark humour. From the medieval mock-epic Monty Python and the Holy Grail to the mythic, paranoid worlds of The Fisher King, Twelve Monkeys and Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, Gilliam has pursued a totally personal, uncompromising vision. This has led to legendary battles with studios and financiers, notably over The Adventures of Baron Munchausen and Brazil, which is now widely considered a classic. Gilliam is a famously candid commentator on his own work, and in these specially recorded interviews he reflects on how his Midwestern childhood and early career as an animator prepared him to undertake his extraordinary adventures in cinema.

Genres: Film, Nonfiction, Biography, Media Tie In, American, 20th Century, Autobiography

294 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1999

About the author

Terrence Vance Gilliam is an American-born British writer, filmmaker, animator and member of the Monty Python comedy troupe. He has the distinction of being the only American-born Python, as the rest of the group are all native Britons.

Reviews

[Evan · Rating 5 out of 5]

"If it's going to be expensive, it's got to be mindless; and if it's going to be thought-provoking, it's got to be cheap."
-Terry Gilliam

Before I say anymore, this is one of the best books I've ever read about film making, the evolution of a unique artist's mind, his creative process, his resourcefulness, and the crazy ways of the Hollywood industry.

Page after page, the humor, wisdom, and litany of quotable quotes come fast and furious. After reading this, my respect for Terry Gilliam has shot up to 11. He has failed often, but even some of his failures have yielded gold. It's always something of a miracle when a person of such singular sensibility -- impossible to pin down -- working in the most uncompromising way in a business that demands the ultimate compromises manages to get anything done at all, much less create a good handful, at least, of magisterial and haunting films that go against the popular grain.

Gilliam has had a most unique life. Raised in a standard, non-artistic, religious, materialistic, Midwestern mid-century suburban household of hearty Scandinavian stock -- a normie's paradise of mediocrity -- Gilliam nonetheless saw the absurdities and magic in life early on. One of his first loves was his magic kit. And then he began to draw. In much the same way as the earliest filmmakers, such as Georges Méliès, Gilliam turned his penchant for magic and visual illustration into a singular film career. Gilliam's aesthetic is to not have all the answers, or attempt to give any. To him, a movie is different for every viewer, and every viewer should bring their own work and thought to it to complete it; what it means to them. There is not one Gilliam movie, but many, according to what you choose to bring to the table. His film is yours.

Gilliam was lucky in many ways, seeming to coast through life from one good stroke of luck to the next. He managed to waltz his way into the New York comic-art scene of the Fifties and Sixties, influenced by the subversive unrestrained visual humor of Mad magazine. From there his steadily built connections took him to England and John Cleese and the other founders of Monty Python, and the rest was history. Gilliam fashioned the show's famous cut-out animations. The cut-outs being simply a cheap and fast way for him to achieve a quick but effective result. Cutting corners cleverly has always been a skill of Gilliam's, and one of the remarkable revelations of the book -- over and over -- was how Gilliam's unerring visual sense and selective use of props and locations could keep costs down on his productions, and still bring in films that looked much more expensive than they are.

There's so much more in here, including the way Gilliam works with actors, money men, executives, sycophants, and the rest. It's a pretty complete look at film making in all its aspects, and Gilliam's own quirky ways. Gilliam's thoughtfulness and philosophical musings on society and creativity throughout this book are just pure gold. And, of course, his humor is aces.

I loved the book from the first page to the last and recommend it without reservation to anyone who cherishes the movies.

EG-KR@KY 2021

[Bryce Wilson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Poor poor Terry. The disaster that has become Parnaus made me get this back down and read through it. As I can only imagine he's spent the last week locked in a room screaming despite the heavy sedation, I feel even sorrier for the poor bastard then I usually do.

He has such good ideas, and his attention to detail is astounding, some of his rough pre production illustrations are exactly as they appear in his films. He's a true visionary and its a shame that the American film industry is too small for him. (Not that the man hasn't had his missteps).

I truly truly hope that Parnaus gets made some day. It looked and sounded soooo good. And not just because Tom Waits played Satan.

I can't wait for the day that Gilliam makes a truly great film again and shoves it down everyone's throats.

Still that time looks like it'll be longer and longer coming every day.

[Realini Ionescu · Rating 3 out of 5]

Twelve Monkeys by Chris Marker, David and Janet Peoples
8.7 out of 10


Twelve Monkeys has had rave reviews and enjoys an average score of 74 out of 100.

It has also been nominated for two Academy Awards, including for Best Actor in a Supporting Role for Brad Pitt, who has won the Golden Globe in this category.

This cinephile is not a fan of Terry Gilliam and is therefore biased in judging this and other films directed by him.
Although I see Monty Python as the best comedy ensemble in history and The Life of Brian as maybe the best comedy ever, it is not because of Gilliam but somehow in spite of him.

Nonetheless, Twelve Monkeys is impressive.
Hard to follow at times, complicated, convoluted, but a dazzling spectacle in any case.

Brad Pitt is outstanding as the apparently crazy, but maybe just psychotic Jeffrey Goines.
Madeline Stowe is formidable as the psychiatric Doctor who treats Jeffrey and is kidnapped by James Cole.

The latter is the hero and is played by Bruce Willis.
This is a complex, challenging main character.

Bruce Willis is mostly able to handle it, albeit there are scenes when he just seems to play it on one note and the wrong one at that.
I mean, yes, we understand that he is upset, being sent back in time, beaten, pushed around, drugged, and to the wrong time destination at that, but nuance, some other face than just the grumpy time traveler ready to capitulate would have been commendable, perhaps.

Anyway, those better able to judge this movie have been exuberant, mystified by it, so you better follow their advise and see it.

[Paul H. · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Suddenly with Paths of Glory there was a movie that was about something; about injustice, with themes and ideas, and the good guys didn’t win in the end . . . that film completely changed me and I went around trying to get everybody I knew to see it. [My goal was to] use the system to reach as many people as possible . . . I’m at the front of the queue, trying to inundate people. People are always saying I should do theater, but I’m hooked on films because I can reach so many more people . . . one of them might be me at the age of sixteen, when I was just waking up to the potential of film, to all sorts of books and ideas. I didn’t want to be just an intellectual filmmaker. I wanted to be a popular film-maker. . . . I’m trying to corrupt youth in my own way, not in Spielberg’s; mine is a Socratic corruption."

The whole book is quite good, but this passage in particular was very surreal to read, for me, insofar as watching Gilliam's 12 Monkeys at age 13 was my first experience of transcendence via art (particularly the airport scene at the end, where Stowe finds young Cole), and this soon led to an obsession with films, where I first checked out everything else by Gilliam and then moved on to Kubrick and Ozu and Fellini and all the rest.

So what's crazy about this is that Gilliam's explicit goal in working within the major-studio system to make 12 Monkeys, for which he sacrificed a relatively easier life (in artistic terms) making obscure off-Broadway plays that teenagers would never see, was literally to make me have the experience that I did: Gilliam seeing Kubrick's Paths of Glory at age 16 led him to make a film which would then lead to my watching Paths of Glory at age 16.

[Pavel · Rating 4 out of 5]

For a long time I've been collecting books from "Directors on Directors" serie and (don't take this as a commercial ad) Abebooks was a great find for me. Even being in states I've found only Lynch on Lynch,when on Abereads I ordered dozen of books from the serie for $1 each... OMG!!! Three of them already arrived (in 2 weeks all the way across Atlantic ocean and Europe): Gilliam on Gilliam, Kislewski on Kislewski and Scorsese on Scorsese.

I absolutely love early Gilliam films. Obviously Holy Grail, but especially Brazil, Fisher King and Munchausen. Time Bandits and Twelve Monkeys are good films too. Everything Terry was doing after that is not for me, but the book was made in 1999, so it doesn't even cover everything after.
Gilliam looks here as a funny, charming man. Main theme is how he managed to smuggle autheur cinema into Holywood major studios and actually succeed with it. The book doesn't cover any of his personal life, doesn't open a lot of professional secrets, but rather tells a story of production of different Gilliam films, one by one. Interesting for me.

[Chris Herdt · Rating 1 out of 5]

Since Brazil is one of my favorite movies, I wanted to find out more about it. I didn't want to read about how Kim Griest wasn't a good enough actress to play Jill, and that her role was reduced because of it.

Basically, this is a terrible book to read if you want to enjoy the Gilliam movies as movies.

It does say, though, that the version of "Brazil" in the movie is by Geoff Muldaur, from the album "Cottage Pie."

[Drew Raley · Rating 5 out of 5]

If Terry Gilliam were handed a blank check, final cut, and total freedom to cast, film, and market his next film, he'd still find someone to complain about or cast blame upon. He cannot create without some conflict along the way, and very seldom does he single himself out as the root of his problems. However, he tells a rowdy good behind-the-scenes story and seems to be great company. I would just never invest in his movies. No good deed goes unpunished by Gilliam.

[Armando · Rating 4 out of 5]

A finales de la década de los 70, mientras George Lucas filmaba La guerra de las galaxias (1977) en los Estudios Shepperton de Inglaterra, Terry Gilliam se encontraba ahí mismo trabajando en su ópera prima en solitario Jabberwocky (1977). Ambas producciones compartían parte del equipo técnico y usaban playeras con los logotipos de las dos películas; el crew se mostraba emocionado de la majestuosidad del filme de Gilliam y un tanto confundido con la propuesta de Lucas.

Cuando las obras salieron a la luz, dice Gilliam, las playeras de Jabberwocky desaparecieron y las de Star Wars rebrotaron, quedándose para siempre impregnadas en la cultura pop. Sería solo el principio de una filmografía rebosante de imaginación y barroquismo, no siempre bien apreciada por la audiencia voluble.

Heredero de la tradición de Georges Méliès, Terry Gilliam comenzó como ilustrador y caricaturista hasta que un día se encontró con John Cleese y la locura Monty Python, donde dirigiría junto a Terry Jones la estrambótica Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975).

Influenciado por la literatura de Lewis Carroll y la pintura de Gustave Doré, Gilliam (un norteamericano que disfruta que lo ubiquen como británico), encontraría una personalísima voz propia, con un estilo estético inconfundible, entregando con los años películas tan fascinantes como la bizarra Time Bandits (1981), la distópica Brazil (1985), la descomunal Las aventuras del barón Munchausen (1989), la sencilla Pescador de ilusiones (1991), la inquietante Doce monos (1995) y la lisérgica Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (1998), basada en el libro de Hunter S. Thompson.

En el volumen Gilliam por Gilliam (El cuenco de plata, 2022), el historiador y crítico Ian Christie presenta una detallada conversación con el cineasta, donde diseccionan tópicos que van de la infancia y el amor por la magia en Minnesota, pasando por los primeros trabajos como animador, los rodajes caóticos, el éxito inesperado, hasta los proyectos inconclusos y las obsesiones que lo atormentan, con una honestidad que se disfruta.

Terry Gilliam habla sin tapujos sobre la industria voraz y la hipocresía de los estudios; explica cómo hacer rendir el presupuesto y levantar la cara ante producciones embrolladas que apuntan al fracaso comercial, pero que después de todo, valen la pena, dando satisfacción artística.

En los estantes de películas de las principales cinetecas del mundo, Gilliam se codea con apellidos tan grandes como Bresson, Herzog, Lynch, Pasolini o Truffaut. ¿En verdad es un genio, un artesano capaz de crear mundos propios o es solo un humorista que disfruta de la anarquía, acusado además, de ser un director que pone más atención en la forma que en el fondo?

El libro de Ian Christie (parte de una colección con entrevistas a cineastas como Cronenberg, Burton o Scorsese, entre otros) solo llega hasta la producción de Pánico y locura en Las Vegas, por lo queda fuera ese otro segmento de la obra de Gilliam, con títulos tan infravalorados como Tideland (2005), The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus (2009), The Zero Theorem (2013) y la tan anhelada El hombre que mató a Don Quijote (2018), que luego de varios problemas de producción y ocho intentos de rodaje fallidos, llegó al Festival de Cannes de 2018.

Texto imprescindible (318 páginas) para ahondar en la imaginación del director, Gilliam por Gilliam ofrece líneas inolvidables, como aquellas donde Terry platica cómo, ante el desorden (producción que vivió siempre al borde del abismo) en el set de Las aventuras del barón Munchausen, él disfrutaba de la belleza de la luz filtrándose entre los pinos del legendario estudio Cinecittà, en Roma.

Gilliam narra una charla con el creador de Star Wars: “Conversé un rato con George Lucas en su Rancho Skywalker luego de Brazil, y descubrí que él realmente piensa que Darth Vader es diabólico. Le discutí que no, que es solo el tipo malo de sombrero oscuro que ves acercarse a miles de kilómetros. Diabólico es Mike Palin en Brazil: tu mejor amigo, el hombre simpático de familia que por ambición profesional te torturará y te hará cosas horribles. Nunca sabes de donde viene el diablo. Los suyos son villanos de Disney, ideales para divertirse. Pero yo quiero mostrar el otro lado del asunto”.

[Paul · Rating 5 out of 5]

I think book-length interviews are my new favourite thing. This is an excellent, insightful deep dive into Gilliam and his work up to Fear and Loathing. With latter-day Gilliam foremost in mind, it can be easy to forget just how brilliant and unique the bulk of his filmmaking has been. In these interviews he's incredibly candid about his experiences, frustrations and successes in the film industry. He also has a habit of needlessly criticising the work of his peers, which is not a good look, but his willingness to say exactly what he thinks is refreshing!

[Jlawrence · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great series of interview with Gilliam, conducted after filming of Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, that cover his childhood up to that film. Even though I knew a fair amount about his Python work and his films of that period from documentaries and commentary tracks, there were still many great insights and stories revealed here, and I gained new perspectives on some aspects of my favorite of his films. Highly recommended to any Gilliam fan.

[John Somers · Rating 4 out of 5]

15/20.

[Stop]

Read the STOP SMILING interview excerpt with filmmaker Terry Gilliam

THE OUTSIDER
By JC Gabel

(This interview originally appeared in STOP SMILING The Auteur Issue)

Terry Gilliam, the director of such films as Time Bandits (1981), Brazil (1985), Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (1998) and Tideland (2006), spoke to STOP SMILING about growing up in the Midwest, retreating to England and escaping into his imagination.

Stop Smiling: When you were a kid were you a big fan of radio dramas?

Terry Gilliam: I loved radio, but I loved it because we didn't have television. It's a great exercise for the visual parts of your imagination. I had to invent everything: costumes, sets, makeup, everything. I still love radio. There's more room for the listener to invent. With each more-elaborate medium, there's less room for the audience. The work is being done for them.

SS: For someone with such a far-reaching imagination, you had a pretty normal high school and college experience?

TG: I guess I sublimated my more perverse imagination and concentrated on school and work. My memory isn't particularly clear about that time. I seemed to be having a good time. I was enjoying school. I liked the company of other people and I was doing good work. I always drew. I didn't even start doing things like performing until I got into college. I tell a lie. In my senior year of high school I was head cheerleader, so that was a performance.

SS: Do you consider yourself a Midwesterner, or do you relate more to the West Coast, where you moved when you were 12 years old?

TG: I don't know. It probably was growing up in the countryside - a community of nice people. That was the thing that deteriorated as I moved through life. It was interesting going back to Saskatchewan, where we shot Tideland. It felt like Minnesota again because there were nice people and there was lots of country, lots of space. I don't remember unpleasant people. I don't remember bad people. I just remember really good, decent folk. That stayed with me. Maybe it's what I've been fighting a lot of my life, too, to get away from all those nice, decent people and see how far I can push their niceness and decency.

Read the complete interview excerpt...

[Marissa Barbieri · Rating 5 out of 5]

For some ungodly reason this book is out of print, but I was lucky enough to have a copy come through the store when I was working one day. I've often said that if I suddenly became wealthy my first act would be to give Gilliam carte blanche on his next project. Though realistically my first act would be to pay off my unglamourous debts, this book goes a long way towards illustrating why I so love this man.

[Stewart Tame · Rating 4 out of 5]

Quite enjoyable! The interviews in this book cover Gilliam's childhood up through the release of Fear and Loathing In Las Vegas. He provides some insight into his creative process and working methods. The Python years aren't covered in detail, but there are plenty of other books for that. Given how many years it's been since this book was published, perhaps we're about due for Gilliam On Gilliam 2? All in all, a very fun book, well worth reading for Gilliam fans and film buffs in general.

[Babci · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not a movie watcher, I was still absorbed by references (annotated), philosophies, politics, and logistics of directing. I liked the insight of the first person narrative. Now I wanta see 'em, the courageous visuals and sound of a fabulist, "the creator of an imagined
world, especially one in which the natural and supernatural touch."

[Robert · Rating 3 out of 5]

Everything you wanted to know about Gilliam but was afraid to ask but ummm it's not as thorough and is a bit lazy in places but it's a good place to start if you don't have a clue about Gilliam's background.

[Maryanne · Rating 4 out of 5]

Finally. Not that the book was boring, rather timing was inappropriate. Well, also, the author's career is twice as long as my whole life, so I physically couldn't witness all of his works - so the further I read, the more interesting it got. Funny, informative, outlook-expanding.

[Mark · Rating 4 out of 5]

Engaging book about auteur filmmaker, excited for his craft and art. 'The Adventures of Baron Munchausen" would have been longer, had movie not been tainted as flop. Only reservation was book was cursory, did not go into in-depth analysis about films. Gilliam's enthusiasm comes off pages.

[Tony · Rating 4 out of 5]

simply put this is a fanboys dream, I especially liked how honestly they portrayed HST & Robert Deniro.

[Chris Selin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastic peek inside a creative, original mind. Makes me want to watch all his movies over again.

[j_ay · Rating 5 out of 5]

Covers through 'Fear & Loathing', which is as good a stopping point as any.

[Jack Herbert Christal Gattanella · Rating 5 out of 5]

So. Good.

[Julia Lipina · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great inside into Terry Gilliam's work and way of thinking. Really enjoyed it.

[Ned Bajic · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent entry point into the world of Terry Gilliam, these lengthy series of interviews delve into his personal life, inspirations and various films up to and including Fear and Loathing. And more than a few mysteries and oddities get an explanation or the reader at least gets a hint as to what the meaning (of life?) may mean, a highly entertaining read.