We wanted to share these great new HD photos of Johnny Depp, Terry Gilliam and Holly Gilliam with you. They were taken at the London premier of Depp’s new film “Alice”.

CLICK ON THE PHOTO UNTIL IT REACHES IT’S HUGE ORIGINAL SIZE.

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My thanks to the film makers of Dr. Parnassus for sending us this special greeting from the BAFTAs. They took a snapshot of Terry as they prepared to leave the ceremonies tonight for us!

Thanks guys! We are so proud of you!

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Sunday, February 21, 2010 is a very exciting day for all of us here on the Imaginarium Of Doctor Parnassus Support Site as the film is up for two BAFTA Awards! It was confirmed to us this morning that both director, Terry Gilliam, and producer, Amy Gilliam, will be attending Sunday’s BAFTA ceremony.

Our huge congratulations to Dave Warren, Anastasia Masaro, Caroline Smith who are up for Best Art Direction and the lovely Sarah Monzani who has been nominated for Best Make-up! We’ll be cheering you on!! We are so proud of you.

This is just such a wonderful and much deserved honor for this amazing film and we, as fans, are incredibly proud. Support The Imaginarium Of Doctor Parnassus on Sunday and watch the BAFTA Awards Ceremony!

Break a leg, Dr. Parnassus! You guys are just awesome!

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Source: Chud

By Shawn C. Baker

The movie theatre grows suddenly dark and an ominous voice over fills the aural spaces of the lushly carpeted room:

(In the Optimus Prime guy voice:)
IN A WORLD RACKED WITH CONTRADICTION FOR MOVIE GOERS:
THEY WANT SPECIAL EFFECTS.
THEY WANT OSCAR-WINNING STORIES.

THE SAME PREJUDICES THAT DIVIDE THEM COULD ALSO UNITE…

Why, when half the movie going public sits down for two plus hours and drools over a piece of absolute excrement such as transformers two and the other half argues the importance of plot over effects, why do most of these folks fail to see that the best of both worlds is possible?

What, you think I’m wrong? You think it’s not possible?

Terry Gilliam makes it possible. Well, so do others, but today’s soapbox is Gilliam-flavored. He makes clever, involving films with crazy effects. Yet picture after picture he gets ignored/lambasted for his work – event though it is light years ahead of most of the other stuff grouped in the ‘fantasy’ realm that filters out through the studio system every year.

Cases in point Brazil. Twelve Monkeys. The Adventures of Baron Munchausen. Time Bandits.

Need I continue?

Films highly influenced by Gilliam, i.e. Julie Tamor’s Titus or Tarsem Singh’s The Fall may not necessarily get huge box office outings but they do seem to garner immediate and rabid ‘indie cred’. Fine, they deserve it. But that’s like singing the praises of Kurt Cobain and insulting The Pixies.

Gilliam gets nothing. Except from his fans. Which judging by the difficulty Dr. Parnassus had getting an American distributor and it’s subsequent teeny tiny run now that it does have one, with next to no advertising* I’d say number considerably less now than just as far back as say Brothers Grimm in 2005.

Terry Gilliam is disappearing from the industry. Tim Burton retreads the same shallow ground over and over again** and Gilliam is lucky to be able to do anything.

Current case in point: The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus.

Now, yes, some of you are going to argue that Dr. Parnassus’ story is not as magnificent as I’m making it out to be. Fine, it’s not the most tightly written film of the year (or Mr. Gilliam’s career). But it’s not a bad story. It’s not ‘the same story’ we get with most fantasy/sci fi. It’s human failability (is that a word?) It’s love, and weakness, and death and the devil. It’s the magic of the Imagination, a concept present in nearly all of Gilliam’s films. It’s endearing. READ MORE HERE

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My thanks to everyone at REELZCHANNEL for sharing this video of Mr. Maltin’s recommendation of The Imaginarium Of Doctor Parnassus with us!

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EXCLUSIVE

By Theresa Shell

On Saturday, the Dr. Parnassus Support Site had the privilege of talking with The Imaginarium Of Doctor Parnassus make-up designer Sarah Monzani. Sarah has been placed on the Oscar short-list for best make-up for this year’s awards. She also received a nomination this week for the BAFTA in the same category. Both for her work on The Imaginarium Of Doctor Parnassus. Monzani is no stranger to either award, having won both the Oscar and BAFTA for her phenomenal work on “The Quest For Fire” in 1983. In her career, Sarah has worked as make-up artist/hair designer or make-up designer on such films as “Interview With The Vampire”, “Evita”, “Valkyrie”, “Midnight Express” and “Bugsy Malone” among many others. I’m very excited about talking with this gifted artist.

Sarah Monzani is a brilliant artist and such a lovely person. She is witty, intelligent and a font of wonderful information about “The Imaginarium Of Doctor Parnassus”. She made me feel so comfortable during our interview. I had a delightful time talking with her and I hope that you will enjoy the wonderful behind the scenes stories and facts that she shared with me which run through to the very last line of this interview. So, read on and learn about Heath Ledger’s battle of the contacts (“No, I wear them all the time.”), Terry Gilliam’s quest to make-up a ventriloquist’s dummy and the fact that there were 5 Tonys, not 4 in the film courtesy of the wonderful Sarah Monzani.

Theresa Shell: Was there a point when you were younger that you just knew, “I want to be a make-up artist and I want to be a make-up artist for film”?

Sarah Monzani: At 15 years old I did that. And, my father told me I had to get a proper job. He said, “You need a proper job. If you never make it to be a make-up artist, which I never think you will do, you need a job to fall back on.” He said, “Do you want to go to college?” And, I said, “No, I’ve been to school and I didn’t like that. Why would I go to college?” I remember this conversation like it was yesterday. And, he said, “Well, you have to get a job.” When I was younger there wasn’t an option. He said, “What do you want to do then?” I said, “I want to train to be a hairdresser.” And, that was it. I left school at 15, did my apprenticeship for three years which is very different from today because you don’t do three years now. The best place to enter the profession at that time was television and, you couldn’t enter without being able to do make-up and hair. So, having already done training to be a hairdresser, it was great for me. My first three months as a make-up artist I didn’t have to learn to do hair because I already knew. I applied when I was 20 and I was so lucky. I was chosen as 1 out of 100 or something.

TS: I find it amazing when a 15 year old is so certain of what they are meant to do in life. I have seen that it is the same situation with Heath, Daniel Auber, Terry. I think it is the way it is with a true artist. They just know.

SM: It’s true.

TS: I did an interview with Monique Prudhomme…

SM: Lovely Monique.

TS: Isn’t she the dearest thing? She brought to my attention was the fact that the character of Anton always had silver paint on his face somewhere indicating that he was Mercury.

SM: Yes.

TS: The next time I saw the film, I looked for it and sure enough, it was there in every scene of his. Are there other little things like that which are symbolic for the characters?

SM: You get an illusion that they (Dr. Parnassus, Valentina, Percy and Anton) live and apply their own make-up and hair for their stage performances in the wagon. With no proper washing facilities in the Wagon we always left bits of stage make-up on their faces adding to a certain amount of grime which was always there embedded in their skin.

TS: One of the things that really struck me was the subtle changes in the make-up for each of the Tonys. I really felt like each Tony, though basically having the same look, had differences in his make-up that further defined that particular Tony’s true soul. I didn’t think it was just the real life physical differences from actor to actor. Heath’s Tony was more gritty, world weary, sleazy in his make-up. His eyeliner was always smudged and undefined just as his Tony was undefined. We didn’t know who he really was. Johnny’s make-up was lighter, more suave and slick, Jude’s make-up was much lighter, dreamy… almost buoyant, and, Colin’s make-up to me was very calculated, very perfect and planned as was his Tony’s persona. Was that that my imagination or was it intentional?

SM: (Laughing). Very good, you’re very good. It was intentional. Certainly, the Heath side of it was the sleazy, heathen. Both Heath and I had worked out exactly what was going to happen when he had gone through the Imaginarium, so this was all pre-planned.

TS: Right.

SM: What’s so weird for me is the conversations we had about that before, we tried to put into the film after and in the strangest way it almost seemed to work better. I don’t even know if I’m saying that right because I don’t want to say it worked better because we didn’t have another way of doing it.

TS: I know what you’re saying. It did in so many of these…I guess you would call them turns of fate…that to me were a huge indication that, even in light of the tragedy, that the right decision was made to complete this movie. If it was not meant to be completed, I don’t think so many things would have fallen into place like they did.

SM: Completely. I have absolutely no qualms about that at all.

TS: In my love of details, I also noticed with Doctor Parnassus, for example that when he was nursing his hang over with the icepack on his head and they did the close up, you had put food in his beard. After having seen Mr. Plummer in person, I was really able to appreciate the changes that were brought about by the make-up.

SM: (Laughs) Yes.

TS: My reaction was like, “Well, the old drunken, slob!” What fun that must have been for you. I would think you would have had the most fun with Verne’s character.

SM: Verne Troyer IS Percy. That’s what I felt.

Verne had a great face to work with and he came alive with each character.
For Percy’s normal look was a pale base with a little eye definition and a small thumb piece, as with all the actors Percy also had our dirt and grime effect.

Percy’s many stage characters we reflected the costume theme. With all Percy’s stage make-ups we used black grease paint in different ways.

We first see Percy on stage dressed as a bug, we used black grease paint all around his eyes taking it from the inside corners up and over the brow bone to create a bug eye affect.

With the Demon costume Percy’s eyebrows were very exaggerated, starting either side of his nose painted with sweeping upwards spikes to create a demonic appearance.

TS: He was actually the first person I spoke to from the film and he has been wonderful. He made himself so available to me.

SM: He was completely heartbroken…I mean we were all heartbroken when Heath died, but he was devastated. We all cried on a regular basis. He found it very hard being in the make-up trailer. And, then we had a double, a Heath double.

TS: Right, he did the scene where Tony was jumping onto the lily pads.

SM: He did so much. I don’t know whether you know all the bits. Do you know the film well?

TS: Extremely. I’ve seen it four times.

SM: You know the bit where Lily says to Heath (Valentina to Tony), “We’ll find you something to wear”?

TS: Yes.

SM: Heath ties something around his waist then puts on a hat.

TS: Yes.

SM: That was actually the make-up test.

TS: Really?

SM: If you look at the film, Heath is looking in the mirror. The person you are looking at from behind is the double, the person in the mirror is Heath’s face. Unbelievable, isn’t it?

TS: It is. He loved what he was doing on this film and working with Terry again.

SM: Yeah.

CONTINUE READING HERE

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Source: Japan Probe

Terry Gilliam was recently in Japan for the Tokyo premiere of his new film, The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus. Japanese comedy duo Bakusho Mondai were sent to interview him about the movie, and wackiness ensued.

The interview starts with Hikari Ota noting Terry’s resemblance to Sea Shepherd captain Paul Watson. They talk a bit about the film, and then engage in weird behavior like sending shout-outs to Japanese TV hosts and making director/sumo poses.

This was actually the third time they had met and interviewed Terry Gilliam. Some clips of a 2005 interview they conducted (with Patrick Harlan acting as interpreter) can be found on YouTube, courtesy of tmyl1pik:

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Source: The Huffington Post

By Michael Jones

Let me get this out of the way: go see this movie. It will not be around for long, and must be seen on a big screen for its visuals rival Avatar’s.

And, one more example of my complete lack of bias in reviewing Imaginarium: Terry Gilliam is a genius.

Oh, and another to make sure I’m perceived to be as un-conflicted as Lady Justice with her blindfold on: Brazil is in my top five movies of all time. The first four Police Academy’s and then Brazil.

Imaginarium is about all the important things that Terry Gilliam has told stories about in most of his films: the triumph of the imagination against all odds. Love. Unrequited love. The evil mindlessness of all government authority. The degrading nature of modern society. The power of dreams. Escape. The universal quest for happiness.

Big things. Big important things.

READ MORE HERE

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Last week I told talked about the discussions that have been going on where so many people have talked about the fact that Heath Ledger (who was brown eyed) looked as if he had blue eyes in many of the stills for his role of Tony in The Imaginarium Of Doctor Parnassus. Courtesy of the film’s Director of Photography, Nicola Pecorini, I shared with you the photo below and explained that though both Nicola and concept artist, Daniel Auber, remembered the discussions in which Heath and Terry talked about giving Tony one blue eye and one brown eye, neither remembered for sure if the two men went through with the plan. Nicola said I would need to ask Terry Gilliam to be sure, which I did. Terry answered me this evening, he said, “Yes he wore blue contacts for all of his scenes. We had been planning to have one of the contacts drop out at one point to help doubt to enter as to how genuine Tony was but,he was gone before we got a chance.”

Another question I had for him was that I had noticed after the credits when the screen went dark that the score of the film played in what sounded like cell phone tones coming from every direction. I had asked the score’s composer, Jeff Danna, about this and Jeff said, “It was a Terry thing. I don’t know why he did it. You must ask the maestro, himself.” So, when I asked the question above, I also asked Terry Gilliam about the score being played in cell phone tones. He said, “To me it is the sound of many, many people trying to call Heath on Tony’s cell phone. Unfortunately, he still doesn’t seem to be picking up. One blogger/reviewer said it brought tears to his eyes. Obviously he got it.”

So, I have the answers to my trivia questions to share with you now. As I mentioned, I heard the cell phone tones after the credits. It’s very powerful. I hope that all of you will stay until that point in the film and hear it for yourselves now that you know what it symbolizes in the eyes of the film’s director.

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EXCLUSIVE

By Theresa Shell

I caught up with Daniel Auber shortly before Christmas to talk about his concept art on The Imaginarium Of Doctor Parnassus and it was one of the most interesting and delightful afternoons I have spent in ages. Though I don’t know if he realizes it, Auber is a born teacher. He is soft spoken, patient, kind and has a way of explaining things to a lay person that makes his very complex work quite understandable. I had the time of my life as I sat there with Daniel and his computer and he opened the magic world of creating the concept art for Terry Gilliam’s fantastic Imaginarium for me step by step. Courtesy of Daniel, I was transported into a wondrous world in which we dissected the scenes, looked at fabulous animatics, oohed and ahhhed in wonder and laughed at the pure joy of it all. I’m very excited to share part of that afternoon with all of you now.

What is a concept designer? Technically, it is the man or woman who creates a form of illustration where the main goal is to convey a visual representation of a design or idea and/or mood for use in movies before it is put into the final product. This definition definitely DOES NOT fit Daniel Auber, the concept designer for Terry Gilliam’s The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus. It doesn’t even scratch the surface of this multi-talented, multi-faceted artist.

Daniel (Daniele in Italy) once said of himself, “I was born in Trieste, Italy. Since I was too strange to live in Trieste, I escaped when I was 18 in search of a land that was populated by individuals that would share my bizarre viewpoint on life. I haven’t found that place yet, but have met many potential citizens of this non-geographical country…I think our Prime Minister could definitely be Mr. Terry Gilliam.” Terry Gilliam as Prime Minister! Daniel Auber as a fellow citizen (and I’ve no doubt this citizenry would include Nicola Pecorini and Jerome C. Rousseau)! Sign me up now!

Daniel started his career in Rome in horror and sci-fi movies doing animatronics, prosthetics, props, sculpting, molding, stop-motion and more. He also had a career as an actor in five theatrically released Italian films during this time.

He then learned English and moved to London where he went to work at Jim Henson’s Creature Shop in Camden Town. “It was a paradise for me…a temple of creation…a Mecca for the people of my mysterious ‘country’.” Daniel’s work for Henson’s Creature Shop earned him an Emmy Award for make-up for “Jack And The Beanstalk: The Real Story” in 2001.

In the autumn of 2002 Daniel met Nicola Pecorini the Director of Photography on 12 Monkeys and Fear And Loathing In Las Vegas who, after seeing his drawings, introduced the young artist to Terry Gilliam. Gilliam had just begun working on a new secret project, The Brothers Grimm which became their first collaboration. It was while working on Brothers Grimm that he would meet his friend, Heath Ledger, with whom he would create the Ledger directed Modest Mouse King Rat video, which Auber helped bring to completion with The Masses and release after Ledger’s death. The Masses is a collaboration of directors and artists united by a passion for music and driven by unique and diverse cinematic visions. He remains a very active member, even designing a logo video for them and continues to write, do the concept art for and make his own films while he continues to work on many other wonderful film and music video projects for others.

CLICK HERE TO WATCH KING RAT

Since that fateful night meeting Pecorini, Auber has worked with both Nicola and Terry on The Brothers Grimm, Tideland and now as concept designer for The Imaginarium Of Doctor Parnassus.

I met with Daniel to discuss his part in the creation of Tony’s first Imaginarium, the one filled with Jerome C. Rousseau’s glorious shoes. Little did I know the magic that lay ahead as we began to talk.

Daniel now brings up the original full resolution art concept Imaginarium scene on his computer. It’s absolutely amazing.

Theresa Shell: When you created (drew) Tony’s first Imaginarium, did you hand draw the image as a whole from the concepts sent to you by Dave Warren and Terry then scan and perfect it or did you create the entire thing on the computer from different images you drew yourself or sent you from Terry and Dave?

Daniel Auber: Dave and Terry would send me a pencil sketch they had in mind, with some photos of objects that could work as inspiration or reference for the colors and style of the image. Then I would start from a blank (digital) canvas and try to give shape to those suggestions creating an environment with a believable atmosphere and sense of space.

TS: That is not Heath hopping from lily pad to lily pad in this scene in the movie, is it? But, it IS him in this image, obviously.

DA: It was supposed to be Heath. In fact, in the concept design it was Heath because when I made it, it was supposed to be his character here. And, then it became Johnny’s scene.

TS: That’s what I thought. The features of the man in the movie just weren’t quite right to be Heath, I thought.

DA: That’s right.

TS: I also remembered the fact that you did all of your blue screen work after he had passed away.

DA: Exactly.

TS: That’s gorgeous. (Daniel now shows me each individual shoe in the picture as the actual shoes sit next to me on a table. We identify each and his rendition is incredible.)

Now, the lily pads, are they something you generated on the computer or were they also real.

DA: This is how it happens basically. I will show you the animatic. A 3D story board (animatic) is generated on the computer where exactly camera movement is planned. So, in the room with the blue screen they shoot the actors and nothing else. There was only actors and blue screen. But, the cameras were moving in particular ways so that afterward, in post production, we would generate, with the computer, every element, the shoes, the water, the lily pads and everything.

For example, for the shoes, I took pictures of six sides of the shoes so the computer people, the animators, and the computer model makers could create exactly each shoe with the perfect proportions. You can also see in the movie, Jerome C. Rousseau’s label in one of the shoes. Amy made sure that Jerome’s name was there. So everything is done in 3D basically. What we see there on the screen is generated synthetically, but the shoes’ proportions came from pictures and the other elements are computer generated. But, the first thing is the concept design. Then when the color palette and the geography, the map is defined, then the computer people would create all the big objects and elements, just roughly. Then much more before the animation they study. They decide movement and when every camera movement is decided they go and shoot it with the real actors on a blue screen. The same camera movement, only with the actors.

TS: Nicola told me that the schedule was so tight and the budget so strained that you guys usually had to do it first time out and that a lot of times you would just have to go from set to set and that it was really hard on all of you. I can see why it is so important to have everything mapped out to the letter.

DA: Absolutely.

We are again looking at the full resolution original concept art for this first Imaginarium.

TS: That’s incredible. (The image is exquisite and clearly shows every tiny detail that is in the movie, including the lighting of the scene.)

DA: Now, this is the color palette.

TS: Who chooses the color palette?

DA: I do. I choose it by putting together a bit of everything from the reference imagines they (Terry Gilliam and Dave Warren) sent me. All my work, in this case, was a digital creation because it is all original. So, before they start shooting the scene with the actors I need to tell them exactly what kind of light they are going to have to use for the actors because they are going to have to match the light for the actors with the light in this image. So, once I draw this one, Peerless makes this (he shows me the 3D animatic of the light for the scene), so that Nicola, the director of photography can make his suggestions as to what light to put on the actors. They will film the actors with this light and they will be sure that, when the actors are added on the digital scene, everything will feel organic. The actors will have the necessary light.

Daniel now brings up the full resolution image of the scene of Dr. Parnassus and his wife in the gondola. Percy is the gondolier and to the far right of the image, Mr. Nick is fishing in the river of dead cows with his pant legs rolled up.

TS: What a beautiful likeness of Percy as the gondolier. Was Tom Waits not incredible as Mr. Nick?

DA: Yes, yes, he was.

Daniel now plays the 3D animatic of this scene with the gondola in the river of cows. It’s amazing.

DA: This concept design was made for Nicola, again for the light, for the atmosphere. On one side they could shoot the actors and on the other side they could do the 3D environment. For it to flow right it is given to the computer people to decide the color and movement. It (the animatic) is before shooting the actors, before everything. Now they are deciding how the scene is going to move; the actors and everything. It’s like a moving storyboard basically. Everything has to be detailed, planned and plotted. It’s got to be digital if you want it to be exactly what you want to see. So, after it’ has been computer generated it can go on the blue screen with the gondola (which is real and on the soundstage as described above) and they will shoot this gondola movement with the blue screen with the actors. Then they will put it together, the actors with the CG background and the elements.

TS: Now some of the photos Nicola sent me are falling into place because he sent some some photos from the filming of this scene with the blue screen. There was a photo of just the bare gondola and this crazy little thing that looked like a fan with weeds hanging from it that helped the gondola look like it was moving. So, now that you tell me how it is all put together, it makes sense.

DA: Exactly. Yes.

We now take a visual tour of some of Daniel’s other Doctor Parnassus artwork. The first thing up is the round logo with Dr. Parnassus’ head with the tongue sticking out and the people running across the tongue that is on the Doctor Parnassus T-shirt Terry has been seen wearing.

CLICK ON THUMBNAIL FOR FULL RESOLUTION PHOTO

TS: So, it is you who did this image?

DA: Yes, yes, I did.

TS: (Slightly chagrined) I copied your image.

DA: Absolutely. I know. I was happy when I saw it.

TS: I added Dr. Parnassus For The Masses to the bottom of it after the saying was suggested by a fan member and it sort of became our signature.

DA: Yes. (laughing) I’m glad.

TS: Back to the first Imaginarium scene, you used actual photos of Jerome C. Rousseau’s shoes and not drawings in the scene.

DA: Right. The scene is a mixture of photographs and drawings.

TS: So you basically positioned the shoes onto your art for the scene and erased their background.

DA: Yes.

TS: Then you put in all the other elements.

DA: Yes. Here, I’ll show you the layers.

Daniel takes the entire piece of artwork apart for me layer by layer, showing me why he put different elements facing at particular angles so that they would shows correctly in the light he had created for the scene and more. He takes the photo down to individual elements and rays of light for me

TS: How long did you work on this one picture?

DA: It took several weeks to create it and get all of the elements and angles right. See the way the light is on every object? Then I add the earrings, the buckles and other elements and make it into one layer.

TS: It’s amazing to me that in your mind’s eye you had this complete image and that layer by layer on a blank (digital) canvas you put it into one final image. To me, I would look at it and try to put them all together at one time in one image. Which would of course be disastrous.

He plays the animatic for Tony’s first Imaginarium (the tango with Johnny Depp) scene that we’ve been discussing. I have the animatic here for you to watch, with express permission of Terry Gilliam and his company Peerless. DO NOT stream or copy this animatic without the express permission of its owner due to copyright law.

DA: This would be the model, the animatic for shooting with the actors. The environment in 3D. So, on the blue screen they are able to plan the camera movement. See here, they start dancing on the lily pad and you start seeing the shoes, then you see Lily/Valentina start to float by, then we go to the One Night Stand hotel. It is one of the stages to get to the real thing.

And, then the computer people, Terry’s company, Peerless, has these very rough, computer generated images and they must recreate every one of these elements, these images to look so realistic and that’s such a big job as well. It’s another stage that requires months and months and so many people.

TS: I had the opportunity to see photos of some of the miniatures that were used. They were magnificent. Chris who worked on them said that the making of one tiny tree took two days and he needed to make 30 trees. And, the Babushka’s cottage…

DA: Yes, that was beautiful.

TS: And, you stop and you look at this on the screen and you see it for mere minutes. All of this work that it took. It’s just astounding. It is things like this that make this movie an exception. It is not losing the art of animation, it is the marriage of animation and CG and it’s a unique and wonderful pairing.

DA: Yes, it is. Not all of the miniatures made it into the movie because lots of things were built. I went to London right after they finished building the miniatures and they were getting ready to shoot a few days after. There was a huge one that was so beautiful that was was cut. Sometimes it happens. Sometimes they are beautiful but the story does not want them.

TS: I know that the video game scene with the children soldiers was cut from the movie as well.

DA: The scene was beautiful. It just didn’t work with flow of the story.

TS: Now that I’ve seen the film, I can’t imagine anything being added or taken away from it. It just flows so beautifully.

We now see Daniel’s storyboards from Brothers Grimm.

TS: I loved this movie.

DA: This was the first picture I did of the queen.

TS: That is just an amazing drawing. So awesome. That’s a great drawing of Heath.

DA: I doing Heath because Heath was so inspiring when I was watching him acting.

TS: He was incredibly talented.

DA: He was amazing to watch. All you had to do was give him a couple of lines of dialogue and it was beautiful what he would create.

TS: Can you imagine what fun it had to be to be an actor on that set?

DA: I was an extra in Brothers Grimm.

TS: Were you really?

DA: In the barroom scene.

TS: That’s great. Now I have to run home and watch it so I can look for you. (We both laugh.)

DA: It was fun.

TS: Thank you so much for spending this time with me. This has been such a great experience. I’ve learned so much about the huge amount of people it took to get this film to us on the screen. Everyone I have spoken to from actors to crew have been so kind to me and so appreciative of the fans of this film. It’s very heart warming. I’ve never seen such a lack of ego and so much camaraderie on a project. Everyone has carried this project through as a giving, caring team. It’s been very impressive.

DA: That’s the way it is to work on a project with Terry. It is collaboration. Everyone works together, everyone’s suggestions and opinions are welcome. That is the way that Terry is.

End of interview.

The next Sunday night I went to see the Imaginarium Of Doctor Parnassus for the fourth time. This time I went with Daniel Auber. Thanks to this brilliant, laughing, kind man, this time I saw it through different eyes. I saw it with more understanding of the labor of love this movie really is on the part of so many gifted people. Then as the credits rolled, I found myself on the edge of my seat, excitedly reading them and taking account of every kind soul who contributed to the beauty I had just seen. At that point I felt an encouraging pat on my back. It was Daniel, in his kind, quiet way, as if to say, “Now you get it.” So, to Daniel Auber, I want to say thank you for putting up with my incessant questions and emails since our meeting. Thank you for your patience, your knowledge and your kindness and most of all thank you for the beauty you have given us in Dr. Parnassus and all the wonders I know are to come from your brilliant mind in the future. Lastly, as to that non-geographical country of yours, I sincerely hope that you will run for office. You definitely have my vote.

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