378 - Jabberwocky, United Kingdom, 1977. Dir. Terry Gilliam.

Saturday, January 13, 2018

378 - Jabberwocky, United Kingdom, 1977.  Dir. Terry Gilliam.

Twas bryllyg, and the slythy toves
Did gyre and gymble in the wabe:
All mimsy were the borogoves;
And the mome raths outgrabe.

Those are the words of Lewis Carroll (Charles Lutwidge Dodgson) (1832-1898).

Easy for him to say.

He first wrote them in 1855 and then added them to his novel Through the Looking Glass (1871), the sequel to Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (1865).

The poem is quite a bit longer.  Alice reads it and decides it fills her mind with ideas.  If only she knew what they were.

Somebody killed something.  That's clear at any rate.

These are also the words of the narrator in the opening of Terry Gilliam's first feature film as a director outside of the Monty Python group.  He had co-directed Monty Python and the Holy Grail with Terry Jones two years before.    Python regular Michael Palin stars here, and Terry Jones appears as a poacher.  Neil Innes also appears as the 2nd Herald.  Innes was not a member of the troupe but did appear in Holy Grail and later in Life of Brian (1979) and Live at the Hollywood Bowl (1982).

When you approach a Terry Gilliam comedy, you are expecting a parody of history and literature.  But do not forget to look at the compositions.

Gilliam knows the history of art as well.  And he puts some effort into creating beautiful pictures.  He does not merely stick a camera in front of some comedy sketches and press Record.  He is an animator, remember.  He draws things.  He understands perspective.  He understands light.  He knows painting.

Every frame a Breugel.

Every frame a Caravaggio.

Some frames a Bosch.

Gilliam states on the commentary track that he watched the film without sound and just reviewed the look of it.  The moment he said that, I stopped listening to the dialogue and focused on each composition, and suddenly I saw it.

Yes, the production design is good.  Yes, the dragon is more brilliantly built than one might expect.  But there is something else more excellently at play here.  Compositions.  Light and shadow.  Colors.

He put effort into it.  He explicitly staged shots after specific paintings by the painters mentioned above.

Those are the facts.  Now for the nonsense!

The Middle Ages.

Mud and feces are in the streets.

Regardless of how much they were in history, they are here in spades.

But that is the least of the people's problems.

A dragon is terrorizing the village!

It eats one man and leaves his bones behind.  Like a picked fish.

Everyone is scrambling to decide what to do.

Except for a certain faction who is making money off the fears of the people.

The king, Bruno the Questionable, has offered half the kingdom and the hand of his daughter in marriage to any man who can kill the dragon.

And his daughter is waiting for her prince to come.

Dennis Cooper is a cooper.  What is a cooper?  Someone who coops.  A cooper is a barrel-maker.  But Dennis cuts corners, according to his father, Mr. Cooper Senior.  Mr. Cooper Senior is a real man, a craftsman, an artisan.  Someone who works with wood.  With his hands.

Dennis goes in his boat to call on Griselda Fishfinger, a finishing school dropout.  She and her parents, Mr. and Mrs. Fishfinger, live in a house on stilts in the water.  They eat and induce bodily functions.  Dennis vows his love to Griselda.  She ignores him as she chomps on her fruit and belches.  Her father sticks his head out the window.  As he sticks his bum out the other window.  Contorting himself.  Talking to Dennis as he relieves himself.  "How's your father?"  "Never better!"  Back home Mr. Cooper Senior has a heart attack.  When Dennis goes home he finds his father on his deathbed.

Cooper Senior proceeds to tell Dennis what he really thinks of him, complaining especially that Dennis is not a true artisan, does not work with real wood, does not work with his hands.  When Senior dies, Dennis returns to tell Griselda that he will go to the city and make good and come back for her.  She is not listening.  She and her family are eating.  And inducing bodily functions.  She tosses a potato out the window.  He catches it and keeps it as a keepsake.  He will remember her.  He will be chivalrous.  The potato will rot and grow at the same time as it goes with him on his adventure.

I have the holy dogwood for St. Talulah's spot.

Dennis goes on his adventure.

And as you can imagine, the unlikely hero will be mistaken for the prince and accidentally slay the dragon and be given half the kingdom and the hand of the king's daughter in marriage.  Too bad for Dennis and Griselda.

As zany things happen along the way.

With individual scenes set up like great Flemish, Italian, and Dutch paintings.

And hast thou slain the Jabberwock?

O frabjous day!