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The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus

Blessed with the extraordinary gift of guiding the imaginations of others, Doctor Parnassus (Christopher Plummer) is cursed with a dark secret. An inveterate gambler, thousands of years ago he made a bet with the devil, Mr. Nick (Tom Waits), in which he won immortality. 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 daughter reached her 16th birthday, she would become the property of Mr Nick. Valentina (Lily Cole) 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! Also starring Heath Ledger, Andrew Garfield, Verne Troyer, Johnny Depp, Colin Farrell, and Jude Law.

Terry Gilliam has long admired Marcel Carne's beautiful and tragic Children of Paradise (he even contributes an introduction to the Criterion Collection edition). In The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, among his more phantasmagorical features, Gilliam conjures up his own unique theatrical troupe. Led by the immortal Parnassus (Christopher Plummer, whose daughter, Amanda, appeared in The Fisher King), Anton (Boy A's Andrew Garfield), Percy (Verne Troyer), and the doctor's doll-faced daughter, Valentina (model Lily Cole), travel through 21st-century London in their stagecoach set. Times are tight and the quartet is starting to unravel when they rescue Tony, a philanthropist (Heath Ledger, reuniting with Gilliam for the last time), from the Russian mob. Though Anton pines for Valentina, she falls for the new fellow, who charms female viewers into opening up their wallets. Little do the ladies realize they risk their souls when they pass through the Imaginarium, a Mylar mirror that leads to alternate realities (where Johnny Depp, Jude Law, and Colin Farrell play Tony's doppelgangers). As it transpires, Parnassus made a Faustian bargain with Mr. Nick (Tom Waits, whom Gilliam considers "America's greatest musical poet") centuries before and must supply Satan with five souls by Valentina's 16th birthday or Nick will take her away from him--permanently. One of the movie's more haunting lines, "Nothing is forever, not even death," could serve as an epitaph for Ledger, who died from an accidental overdose during filming, but lives again in the erratic, yet imaginative Gilliam's most purely enjoyable film since Time Bandits. --Kathleen C. Fennessy


Stills from The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus (Click for larger image)

2008

When Heath Ledger’s portrayal of The Joker hit the screen, various artistic renditions of his character were everywhere. Magazine covers, online blogs, even YouTube videos. To say it got a little over-saturated would be putting it lightly.

So how then to add a different spin to this sinister character? It almost seemed as if drawing him in a more cartoon-y and caricature-y way would detract from the character…which is basically a fancy way of saying I’m not a good enough artist to figure out how to draw him cartoon-y or caricature-y.

So I just decided to try to capture The Joker’s style. He was random, unpredictable, and just a little sloppy. And that’s how I jumped in.

I didn’t draw so much with straight bold lines as I did scribbles and squiggles. I used crayons to add the color, but didn’t care whether or not I stayed in the lines. His greasy hair was drawn with nervous scraggly lines. In fact, the only thing I drew fairly straight-on was his shirt and vest.

So there it is. My version of The Joker. I’m happy with how it turned out. Much happier, I’m sure, than if I had decided to go cartoon-y.

Ca a ete plus fort que moi. Pas prevu, je portais ce t-shirt et j'ai decide d'essayer de faire une petite reconnaissance a feu Heath Ledger pour son excellente interpretation.

Mauvais maquillage dans Photoshop...

:-)