the cursed imaginarium of doctor parnassus

so, i just watched the movie. except we all know the movie title doesn't begin with, "the cursed." i have to admit i had to wikipedia the movie so i could fully understand the whole movie. i mean the feature was an amazing combination of imagination and cinematography. i understood the logistics of the film but needed to see that its underlying themes included the consequences of people's choices. but also of course the dying age of story telling and imagination.

any way, the craziest part of it all was of course the fact that this was heath ledger's last movie. he died while filming and so the filming ceased. eventually production came together and director terry gilliam got together depp, law, and farrell to fulfill the rest of ledger's parts. eventually they finished the film successfully. and THEN the crazy part is yet to come. so we have during the filming ledger's passing, then during post-production producer, william vince, passed away from cancer, and then during final editing gilliam was in a car accident cracking his vertebra. can we say trifecta?

my favorite part of it all are gilliam's words (quoted from wikipedia):

"So I thought, it was third time lucky - they just didn't get me. They got the star, the producer, and they were going for the director, and the fuckers failed on the last one. Whoever they are... "They were going for the trinity [...] That would have been a tidy end to the whole thing. But they didn't kill me. I'm stuck here to tell the tale."

so yeah...thought that was crazy reading.

oh! and some fun trivia, they only had johnny depp for one day and three hours to film his part. so they filmed his part all in one take. go figure, depp is just that good. (he was filming public enemies at the same time)

so, go enjoy the movie!