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Conversations With Filmmakers Series
Terry Gilliam: Interviews
FILM ] BIOGRAPHY This collection of interviews with the renowned filmmaker, animator, artist, and member of the Monty Python comedy troupe covers the phases of his career from his early work as a cartoonist and animator through his most recent and most difficult projects.
Among many subjects, Gilliam discusses his formative years as an artist and humor-magazine cartoonist, his move from the United States to England, his entry into British television, and his success as resident animator for the Monty Python's Flying Circus television show.
As co-director of Monty Python and the Holy Grail and as director of Jabberwocky Gilliam made his advent as a maker of feature films, followed by such popular movies as Time Bandits and The Fisher King. A mixture of critical acclaim and film-studio animosity greeted his epic Brazil. Gilliam discusses all these, as well as the damage The Adventures of Baron Munchausen did to his career and the disasters that plagued his attempt to film a time-travel comedy called The Man Who Killed Don Quixote after the commercial disappointment of his unexpectedly acerbic Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas.
In his conversations with a diverse array of interviewers Gilliam talks about an eclectic succession of topics, including his idiosyncratic tastes in painting and architecture, his fascination with the art and history of medieval Europe, his outspoken hostility for the commercial film industry, his views on comedy, fantasy, and film, and his philosophical perspectives on contemporary society.
"I like the idea," he says, "of actual demons sucking your brains out--envy and greed, these things being tangible. It's somehow on a common level, a more sensible way of dealing with the world. . . ."
David Sterritt is film critic for the Christian Science Monitor and a professor of theater and film at Long Island University and Columbia University. He is the editor of Robert Altman: Interviews and Jean-Luc Godard: Interviews (both published by the University Press of Mississippi).
Lucille Rhodes, an independent filmmaker who lives in New York City, is a retired professor of film at Long Island University.
Among many subjects, Gilliam discusses his formative years as an artist and humor-magazine cartoonist, his move from the United States to England, his entry into British television, and his success as resident animator for the Monty Python's Flying Circus television show.
As co-director of Monty Python and the Holy Grail and as director of Jabberwocky Gilliam made his advent as a maker of feature films, followed by such popular movies as Time Bandits and The Fisher King. A mixture of critical acclaim and film-studio animosity greeted his epic Brazil. Gilliam discusses all these, as well as the damage The Adventures of Baron Munchausen did to his career and the disasters that plagued his attempt to film a time-travel comedy called The Man Who Killed Don Quixote after the commercial disappointment of his unexpectedly acerbic Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas.
In his conversations with a diverse array of interviewers Gilliam talks about an eclectic succession of topics, including his idiosyncratic tastes in painting and architecture, his fascination with the art and history of medieval Europe, his outspoken hostility for the commercial film industry, his views on comedy, fantasy, and film, and his philosophical perspectives on contemporary society.
"I like the idea," he says, "of actual demons sucking your brains out--envy and greed, these things being tangible. It's somehow on a common level, a more sensible way of dealing with the world. . . ."
David Sterritt is film critic for the Christian Science Monitor and a professor of theater and film at Long Island University and Columbia University. He is the editor of Robert Altman: Interviews and Jean-Luc Godard: Interviews (both published by the University Press of Mississippi).
Lucille Rhodes, an independent filmmaker who lives in New York City, is a retired professor of film at Long Island University.
- GenresFilmNonfiction
228 pages, Hardcover
First published April 1, 2004
75 people want to read
About the author
David Sterritt
36 books10 followersDavid Sterritt is a film critic, author and scholar. He is most notable for his work on Alfred Hitchcock and Jean-Luc Godard, and his many years as the Film Critic for The Christian Science Monitor, where, from 1968 until his retirement in 2005, he championed avant garde cinema, theater and music. He has a PhD in Cinema Studies from New York University and is the Chairman of the National Society of Film Critics. Sterritt is known for his intelligent discussions of controversial films and his lively, accessible style. He is particularly well known for his careful considerations of films with a spiritual connection, such as Martin Scorsese's The Last Temptation of Christ (1988), and Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ (2004).
His writings on film and film culture appear regularly in various publications, including The New York Times, MovieMaker Magazine, The Huffington Post, Senses of Cinema, Cineaste, Film Comment, Film Quarterly, Beliefnet, CounterPunch, and elsewhere. Sterritt has appeared as a guest on CBS Morning News, Nightline, Charlie Rose, Geraldo at Large, Catherine Crier Live, CNN Live Today, Countdown with Keith Olbermann and The O'Reilly Factor, among many other television and radio shows.
Sterritt has written influentially on the film and culture of the 1950s, the Beat Generation, French New Wave cinema, the films of Alfred Hitchcock, Robert Altman, Spike Lee and Terry Gilliam, and the TV series, The Honeymooners.
Sterritt began his career at Boston After Dark (now the Boston Phoenix), where he was Chief Editor. He then moved to The Christian Science Monitor, where he worked as the newspaper's Film Critic and Special Correspondent. During his tenure at the Monitor, Sterritt held a number of additional appointments. From 1978-1980 he was the Film Critic for All Things Considered, on National Public Radio. From 1969 to 1973, he was the Boston Theater Critic for Variety, and he sat on the selection committee for the New York Film Festival from 1988 to 1992. Between 1994 and 2002 he was Senior Critic at the National Critics Institute of the Eugene O'Neill Theater Center, and he served as the video critic for Islands magazine from 2000-2003. From 2005-2007 he was Programming Associate at the Makor/Steinhardt Center of the 92nd Street Y. He is a member of the National Editorial Advisory Group of Tikkun, sits on the Editorial Board of Quarterly Review of Film and Video, is a Contributing Writer to MovieMaker magazine, and the Chief Book Critic for Film Quarterly. Sterritt has also held a number of significant academic appointments. From 1999-2005 he was the Co-Chair, with William Luhr, of the Columbia University Seminar on Cinema and Interdisciplinary Interpretation. He is currently on the Film Studies Faculty at Columbia University's Graduate Film Division, and Adjunct Faculty at the Maryland Institute College of Art in the Department of Language, Literature and Culture and the Department of Art History. He is also Distinguished Visiting Faculty in the Goldring Arts Journalism Program at the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University, and Professor Emeritus of Theater and Film at Long Island University, where he taught from 1993 to 2005, obtaining tenure in 1998.
Sterritt is the partner of psychoanalyst, author and cultural critic Mikita Brottman.
His writings on film and film culture appear regularly in various publications, including The New York Times, MovieMaker Magazine, The Huffington Post, Senses of Cinema, Cineaste, Film Comment, Film Quarterly, Beliefnet, CounterPunch, and elsewhere. Sterritt has appeared as a guest on CBS Morning News, Nightline, Charlie Rose, Geraldo at Large, Catherine Crier Live, CNN Live Today, Countdown with Keith Olbermann and The O'Reilly Factor, among many other television and radio shows.
Sterritt has written influentially on the film and culture of the 1950s, the Beat Generation, French New Wave cinema, the films of Alfred Hitchcock, Robert Altman, Spike Lee and Terry Gilliam, and the TV series, The Honeymooners.
Sterritt began his career at Boston After Dark (now the Boston Phoenix), where he was Chief Editor. He then moved to The Christian Science Monitor, where he worked as the newspaper's Film Critic and Special Correspondent. During his tenure at the Monitor, Sterritt held a number of additional appointments. From 1978-1980 he was the Film Critic for All Things Considered, on National Public Radio. From 1969 to 1973, he was the Boston Theater Critic for Variety, and he sat on the selection committee for the New York Film Festival from 1988 to 1992. Between 1994 and 2002 he was Senior Critic at the National Critics Institute of the Eugene O'Neill Theater Center, and he served as the video critic for Islands magazine from 2000-2003. From 2005-2007 he was Programming Associate at the Makor/Steinhardt Center of the 92nd Street Y. He is a member of the National Editorial Advisory Group of Tikkun, sits on the Editorial Board of Quarterly Review of Film and Video, is a Contributing Writer to MovieMaker magazine, and the Chief Book Critic for Film Quarterly. Sterritt has also held a number of significant academic appointments. From 1999-2005 he was the Co-Chair, with William Luhr, of the Columbia University Seminar on Cinema and Interdisciplinary Interpretation. He is currently on the Film Studies Faculty at Columbia University's Graduate Film Division, and Adjunct Faculty at the Maryland Institute College of Art in the Department of Language, Literature and Culture and the Department of Art History. He is also Distinguished Visiting Faculty in the Goldring Arts Journalism Program at the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University, and Professor Emeritus of Theater and Film at Long Island University, where he taught from 1993 to 2005, obtaining tenure in 1998.
Sterritt is the partner of psychoanalyst, author and cultural critic Mikita Brottman.
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
July 18, 2019
I still haven't take a look at the Faber & Faber "Gilliam on Gilliam" which I suppose could be seen as a competitor to this book. If the format to that is similar to their "Scorsese on Scorsese", it might be a better choice for an overview collection, at least if you want to cut to the quick. The problem with this generally solid book is that it often gives multiple interviews done at approximately the same time - sometimes on the same promotional tour for the same film - so it can often seem like going over similar or identical ground twice or even three times.
That said, it's still a valuable book for the Gilliam fan or completist. The interviews date back to his work on MONTY PYTHON AND THE HOLY GRAIL (1975), his first film as director (co-directed with Terry Jones, the only time he has collaborated on helming duties) and continuing up through FEAR AND LOATHING IN LAS VEGAS (1998) and his attempted and aborted (though conceivably soon-to-be-reactivated as I write this*) film of THE MAN WHO KILLED DON QUIXOTE in 2002-3. Gilliam is an expansive, highly cine-literate, entertaining and witty subject - especially when paired with a fellow Python as he is a couple of times. Some of the interviews are transcriptions of live sessions in front of audiences or for TV, others are the more typical sitting-in-a-hotel-lobby press type. The director's interest in comics, the middle ages, and the nature of fantasy and dreams come up again and again, as well as politics and his rage against much of what he sees wrong with America (a country he left more or less for good in the late 1960s for England) over his lifetime. He has certainly softened somewhat as he has reached middle age and is entering his autumnal years, and is often much more generous in later interviews towards onetime foes such as Sid Sheinberg (producer and near-destroyer of BRAZIL) than in earlier, more wrathful and youthful periods.
The interviews range from quite short - 3 or 4 pages - to pretty lengthy, 40 or more pages - and given, as I said, the repetetive nature of the multiple interviews/same time period structure, you might find as I did that skipping around the book is more interesting. Recommended certainly for the fan, but you might have a look at the Faber & Faber volume as well.
* and finally finished, and released, 9 years after I originally wrote and published this review on Amazon.
That said, it's still a valuable book for the Gilliam fan or completist. The interviews date back to his work on MONTY PYTHON AND THE HOLY GRAIL (1975), his first film as director (co-directed with Terry Jones, the only time he has collaborated on helming duties) and continuing up through FEAR AND LOATHING IN LAS VEGAS (1998) and his attempted and aborted (though conceivably soon-to-be-reactivated as I write this*) film of THE MAN WHO KILLED DON QUIXOTE in 2002-3. Gilliam is an expansive, highly cine-literate, entertaining and witty subject - especially when paired with a fellow Python as he is a couple of times. Some of the interviews are transcriptions of live sessions in front of audiences or for TV, others are the more typical sitting-in-a-hotel-lobby press type. The director's interest in comics, the middle ages, and the nature of fantasy and dreams come up again and again, as well as politics and his rage against much of what he sees wrong with America (a country he left more or less for good in the late 1960s for England) over his lifetime. He has certainly softened somewhat as he has reached middle age and is entering his autumnal years, and is often much more generous in later interviews towards onetime foes such as Sid Sheinberg (producer and near-destroyer of BRAZIL) than in earlier, more wrathful and youthful periods.
The interviews range from quite short - 3 or 4 pages - to pretty lengthy, 40 or more pages - and given, as I said, the repetetive nature of the multiple interviews/same time period structure, you might find as I did that skipping around the book is more interesting. Recommended certainly for the fan, but you might have a look at the Faber & Faber volume as well.
* and finally finished, and released, 9 years after I originally wrote and published this review on Amazon.
February 20, 2017
Candid Terry offers spectacular glimpse into varied career. Recommended for any cartoonist/absurdist/fantasy enthusiasts.
March 30, 2014
about as insightful and close to an autobiography as you can get, though it stops by the end of the 90s.
December 30, 2023
Loved Terry Gilliam. Wish he would make a movie. Didn't love the book.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews