Terry Gilliam — Director (17)

Movie

The Crimson Permanent Assurance (1983)
The Crimson Permanent Assurance WikiData IMDb TMDB Douban
★ 8.0 8 ratings
other title: 永保公司血泪史 / 永保公司血淚史 …
In the bleak days of 1983, the Crimson Permanent Assurance, an accountancy staffed by elderly workers much like a slave ship, has been taken over by efficiency-minded corporate types. When they sack an employee, there's an uprising, and the building is unleashed from its moorings to sail across the (dry) ocean and take on the financial centers of the world, starting with an all-out attack on the large skyscraper housing The Very Big Corporation of America, complete with filing-cabinet cannons, ceiling-fan broadswords, and paper-spindle short-swords.

Movie

Jabberwocky (1977)
Jabberwocky WikiData IMDb TMDB Douban
★ 6.5 6 ratings
特瑞·吉列姆 actor: 迈克尔·帕林 / 哈里·H·考伯特 …
other title: 莫名其妙 / 巨龍怪譚 …
After the death of his father the young cooper 'Dennis Cooper' goes to town where he has to pass several adventures. The town and the whole kingdom is threatened by a terrible monster called 'Jabberwocky'. Will Dennis make his fortune? Is anyone brave enough to defeat the monster? A medieval tale with Pythonesque humour.

Movie

Storytime (2001)
Storytime WikiData IMDb TMDB Douban
★ 7.1 8 ratings
other title: 故事会 / 故事时间 …
I suppose that Terry Gilliam's sense of humour doesn't quite align with mine. To date, I've found two masterpieces in 'Brazil (1985)' and 'Twelve Monkeys (1995),' but have never quite understood the near-universal appeal of the Monty Python clan. I don't want to get into an argument about the merits of the Python series and movies (since there are millions of intense fans out there who would order my assassination), but Gilliam's short film 'Storytime (1968)' displays a similar brand of random, offbeat humour. This nine-minute film is divided into three segments, each of which is similar in that they contain crude drawings, goofy story lines and anti-climactic endings. I can sort of see what the director's doing here, but I'm just not getting very many laughs out of it. After all, deliberately-dodgy animation that deliberately avoids a comedic punchline is still dodgy animation without a comedic punch-line. Watching the film, at the end of the day, felt more like a chore that it should have been. The first story-time segment is about a cheerful cockroach named Don, who scurries throughout his mansion home, walks beneath the floorboards and does unspeakable things in the darkness of the cupboard, before being splatted by somebody's foot. Yep, that's the whole story, though this cockroach apparently has connections in high places. The second segment is about an ordinary man named Albert Einstein ("the only Albert Einstein not to have discovered the Theory of Relativity") whose hands have a life of their own, staying out late at night, misbehaving and committing adultery with feet. The third segment – and the most creative, I thought – hasn't much story to it at all, and instead concerns the inhabitants of the moving pictures on an over-sized Christmas card, who interact with each other in all sorts of bizarre ways. The funniest example were the Three Wise Men on camels, who are led on a wild-goose chase by the Star of Bethlehem. 'Storytime' is must-see viewing for Gilliam and Python fans, but others should tread more carefully.

Movie

The Wholly Family (2011)
The Wholly Family Douban
other title: 完整家庭 / Il corto integrale(意大利)
A crowded street in Naples city center, plenty of shops selling presepi. A wealthy American couple and Jake, their 10 year-old child, try to push their way through the crowd. While husband and wife argue which street to take, the boy is unwillingly separated from them. Jake lags behind, attracted by the carved shapes of Pulcinella... holy images, cribs, horns... Spellbound by such extraordinary shapes, the naughty boy stops at a stand and begins to touch Pulcinellas. While quarrelling, the couple suddenly realizes that Jack is no longer with them. They begin to search for him desperately, blaming each other for this mishap. But the child is not there… This is how THE WHOLLY FAMILY begins: a dreamlike journey between reality and imagination throughout the most hidden places and symbols of Naples; a city that the Director is able to capture at the top of its contradictions.

Movie

Time Bandits (1981)
Time Bandits
★ 6.9 23 ratings
other title: 时光大盗 / 时间劫匪 …
Young history buff Kevin can scarcely believe it when six dwarfs emerge from his closet one night. Former employees of the Supreme Being, they've purloined a map charting all of the holes in the fabric of time and are using it to steal treasures from different historical eras. Taking Kevin with them, they variously drop in on Napoleon, Robin Hood and King Agamemnon before the Supreme Being catches up with them.

Movie

The Brothers Grimm (2005)
The Brothers Grimm
★ 6.3 122 ratings
other title: 格林兄弟 / 格林兄弟幻险记(港) …
Folklore collectors and con artists, Jake and Will Grimm, travel from village to village pretending to protect townsfolk from enchanted creatures and performing exorcisms. However, they are put to the test when they encounter a real magical curse in a haunted forest with real magical beings, requiring genuine courage.

Movie

The Man Who Killed Don Quixote (2018)
The Man Who Killed Don Quixote
★ 6.7 36 ratings
特瑞·吉列姆 / Terry Gilliam actor: Adam Driver / 亚当·德赖弗 …
other title: 这个男人来自疯狂世界 / 谁杀了唐吉诃德(台) …
Toby, a cynical film director finds himself trapped in the outrageous delusions of an old Spanish shoe-maker who believes himself to be Don Quixote. In the course of their comic and increasingly surreal adventures, Toby is forced to confront the tragic repercussions of a film he made in his idealistic youth.

Movie

Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (1998)
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
★ 7.2 67 ratings
other title: Paura e delirio a Las Vegas / Delírio em Las Vegas …
Raoul Duke and his attorney Dr. Gonzo drive a red convertible across the Mojave desert to Las Vegas with a suitcase full of drugs to cover a motorcycle race. As their consumption of drugs increases at an alarming rate, the stoned duo trash their hotel room and fear legal repercussions. Duke begins to drive back to L.A., but after an odd run-in with a cop, he returns to Sin City and continues his wild drug binge.

Movie

Twelve Monkeys (1995)
Twelve Monkeys
★ 8.1 796 ratings
other title: 十二猴子 / 未来总动员(台) …
In the year 2035, convict James Cole reluctantly volunteers to be sent back in time to discover the origin of a deadly virus that wiped out nearly all of the earth's population and forced the survivors into underground communities. But when Cole is mistakenly sent to 1990 instead of 1996, he's arrested and locked up in a mental hospital. There he meets psychiatrist Dr. Kathryn Railly, and patient Jeffrey Goines, the son of a famous virus expert, who may hold the key to the mysterious rogue group, the Army of the 12 Monkeys, thought to be responsible for unleashing the killer disease.

Movie

Brazil (1985)
Brazil
★ 8.1 269 ratings
other title: 妙想天开 / 巴西 …
Low-level bureaucrat Sam Lowry escapes the monotony of his day-to-day life through a recurring daydream of himself as a virtuous hero saving a beautiful damsel. Investigating a case that led to the wrongful arrest and eventual death of an innocent man instead of wanted terrorist Harry Tuttle, he meets the woman from his daydream, and in trying to help her gets caught in a web of mistaken identities, mindless bureaucracy and lies.