Source: CountDown Oscars

Dave Warren and Monique Prudhomme, nominated in the Oscar Categories of Best Art Direction and Best Costume Design made the following statements to CountDown Oscar about their nominations.

Dave Warren, nominated with Anastasia Masaro for their art direction of “The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus,” recalled director Terry Gilliam and the cast and crew being in great pain after actor Heath Ledger’s death during the shooting of the film. “But Terry very much wanted to get it done. Everyone was committed, everyone seemed to rally around to move ahead with it.” One of Warren’s most rewarding experiences on the film was when he and his artistic team went to a screening and could clearly recognize the images on screen as the designs they penned on paper. “That doesn’t happen as often as one would think in film,” Warren said, laughing. “It felt good for all of us.”

“I would like to thank the Academy for this honor,” said Monique Prudhomme, a nominee for best costume design for Terry Gilliam’s “The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus.” In a statement, Prudhomme thanked Gilliam “who took me on his wagon and came this far. This is a tremendous moment for all of us.”

source: Variety

The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus” might also be called the imagination of Terry Gilliam. The latest film from the protean director, his first in four years, is the story of an ages-old sorcerer with magical storytelling powers who has made a pact with the devil. In the present day, Dr. Parnassus, played by Christopher Plummer, presides over a motley troupe of entertainers who travel the streets of London in a horse-drawn wagon that’s their home as well as impromptu theater.

For English hair and makeup artist Sarah Monzani, the challenge was to create the many looks for each of the characters. “There’s their grungy everyday reality, their theatrical selves during the shows, and how they appear inside the Imaginarium,” she says.

Gilliam, she notes, is very hands-on and collaborative, but can also be enigmatic. “He keeps a lot in his head, and sometimes you have to tease out what he wants,” says Monzani, who has known the helmer since she worked on “Brazil.” When she asked him for more of his thoughts on Dr. Parnassus, “he very happily said, ‘He is me — in my mind.’ I said, OK, and we had a good laugh. But we’d constantly go through these maddening conversations.”

For all of its visual dazzle, the budget for “Imaginarium” was a modest $30 million. “When I started on the film, there was very little money, so we weren’t able to anything extravagant, so I wound up using traditional techniques,” notes the hair and makeup artist (in England the same person is responsible for the two crafts).

For me it was like having a theatrical box in the makeup trailer. It was very much a case of pulling things out to make it work,” adds Monzani, who won an Oscar and BAFTA for her work on caveman saga “Quest for Fire” and has credits on “Midnight Express,” “Alien,” “Evita,” and “Valkyrie.”

Minimalism was used to good effect during the performance sequences. Dr. Parnassus, for example, covers his own scraggly beard with a longer artificial beard that hooks over his ears with pipe cleaners. His face is pancaked and rouged in red. Tufts of hair are stuck on his eyebrows. “The makeup was supposed to look like something they put on themselves in the wagon,” Monzani explains.

The project was almost derailed by the death of Heath Ledger midway through lensing. Filming was able to resume when Johnny Depp, Jude Law and Colin Farrell, friends of Ledger’s, filled in with three versions of his character during the remainder of the film.

The last scene — in which Ledger is seen with his gold-covered face peering into the mirror before he breaks through into the Imaginarium — was actually created after he died. “Amazingly, we found footage from his pre-production makeup test that was inserted into the mirror and made for exactly the transition we needed,” Monzani reports.

I loved every moment of working on it before Heath passed,” she adds. “And the camaraderie that happened between all of us afterwards was extraordinary. I’ve never been involved in anything that was so touching.”

Source: TM5 Network

By Nick Clarke

What’s in a list? Probably little more than an opportunity to show off, indulge in a some lazy cultural showboating and maybe even a chance to stir up a dash of barroom provocation. Perfect. So, in no particular order, here is my attempt to do just that. Any disagreements, disputes, outraged contempt, please feel free to comment…..

1. The White Ribbon (Michael Haneke)

Haneke’s latest masterpiece. Beautifully scripted, shot and acted it is a glorious examination of the potential for human cruelty and moral collapse, issued down from one generation to the next. Bleak, disturbing but staggeringly beautiful.

2. A Serious Man (Joel & Ethan Coen)

Only the Coen brothers could make the hopelessness of life seem so funny. We can only laugh at our impending demise in this retelling of the story of Job.

3. A Prophet (Jacques Audiard)

Audiard, channelling the very best of Jean-Pierre Melville and the Nouvelle Vague, shows he is a director so far ahead of the pack that we can only watch in awe. After Read My Lips and The Beat That My Heart Skipped he is redefining French (and European) cinema and showing the Americans exactly what they should be striving for. Utterly brilliant. Utterly French. And utterly, utterly cool.

4. Soul Power (Jeffery Levy-Hinte)

Soul music, African-American politics, James Brown, The Detroit Spinners, Miriam Makeba, Don King, BB King, uptight whitey, Muhammad Ali. What’s not to like?

5. The Hurt Locker (Katheryn Bigelow)

Bigelow takes us into the claustrophobic heart of modern warfare and, in doing so, to the heart of a very special brand of adrenaline-fuelled masculinity. A film about people not politics and the defining war movie of the era.

6. Fish Tank (Andrea Arnold)

Stark and uncomfortable in parts, gripping and poetic throughout. Arnold’s wonderfully directed and edited exploration of a society and generation on the edge was a triumph.

7. Broken Embraces (Pedro Almodovar)

A film only the Spanish maestro could pull off as he ascends to a new cinematic language entirely his own. Gloriously over-the-top, acutely funny, heart-breaking and beautifully directed. And Penelope Cruz…..

8. Mesrine Killer Instinct/Mesrine Public Enemy No. 1 (Jean-Francois Richet)

Flawed, frantic and French. Over four thrilling hours in the company of a mesmeric anti-hero the gangster biopic genre is given a distinctly Gallic, and welcome, shot of adrenaline. Epic European cinema.

9. Il Divo (Paolo Sorrentino)

Sorrentino proves once again he is a director with a masterful hand in this visually stunning examination of political mystery and corruption.

10. The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus (Terry Gilliam)

Inevitably inconsistent and damaged and I’m not even sure I liked it, but few other directors have such a wonderfully and utterly liberating approach to creativity. Completely unencumbered by conformity, this was nothing less than flamboyant and magical storytelling. Gilliam gets a terrible beating at the hands of critics, some of it deserved, but film would be a lesser, duller place without him.

READ MORE HERE

We are so excited! The Imaginarium Of Doctor Parnassus has been nominated for 4 International Press Academy Satellite Awards!

Source: International Press Academy Satellite Awards 2009

Winners will be announced at the 14th Annual SATELLITE AWARDS™ ceremony
to be held on Sunday, December 20, 2009 at the Grand Salon of the InterContinental Hotel in Century City, California.

Parnassus has been nominated in the following categories:

ORIGINAL SONG:

The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus
“We are the Children of the World”
Terry Gilliam

VISUAL EFFECTS:

The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus
John Paul Docherty, Richard Bain

ART DIRECTION & PRODUCTION DESIGN:

Terry Gilliam, Dave Warren, Anastasia Masaro

COSTUME DESIGN:

Imaginarium Of Doctor Parnassus
Monique Prudhomme

Source: Alternate Film Guide

Golden Globes 2010 Predictions – Best Supporting Actor
By Andre Soares

And don’t be too surprised if Heath Ledger gets another posthumous nomination, this time for The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus

READ ENTIRE ARTICLE HERE

Source: The British Independent Film Awards

Congratulations to everyone with The Imaginarium Of Doctor Parnassus!
The Imaginarium Of Doctor Parnassus has been nominated for a British Independent Film Award for Production!

The awards take place on December 6, 2009 at The Brewery in Central London!