The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus (2009)
Directed by Terry Gilliam
After a carnival troupe saves his life, a man agrees to help its immortal leader collect five souls and win a bet with the devil.
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He next made The Fisher King, a nicely written (by Richard LaGravenese) romantic comedy with the hint of madness around the edges, with Jeff Bridges and Robin Williams, and then snared Bruce Willis and Brad Pitt for his big commercial triumph, a feature-length extrapolation from Chris Marker's brilliant science-fiction short "La Jetée" called Twelve Monkeys.
The Monty Python alumnus earned his cinematic cred with wild rides like Time Bandits, Brazil, Twelve Monkeys, and The Adventures of Baron Munchausen, the closest screen relative to Parnassus.
Terry Gilliam is one of the boldest, most reckless and daring directors working today, with a back catalogue that includes his 1985 masterpiece Brazil, and his excellent 1990s films The Fisher King, Twelve Monkeys and Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas.
It strikes here, too, in a film that is powerfully overburdened with ideas, visions, and concepts, and rather than teasing any of them out, the director insists on them with great force and urgency that is rather more off-putting than entrancing; what should be light and delicate as an eggshell is instead just pushy, clamoring, and much too eager that we should be constantly amazed by Gilliam's wild-eyed visions and eccentric cinematography - you know, that rather wide angle, rather flat, but not exactly "fisheye" quirk that pops up in, at the least, Brazil , Twelve Monkeys and Fear and Loathing, but gets more of a workout here than in all of those films put together, and for much less obvious purpose.