The LAMBs in the Director's Chair #14

What is The Director's Chair feature, exactly? It is a collaborative effort of material that concentrates upon a single film director. The material is released on a loosely structured timetable, with the content of each installment written by a group of movie adoring blog writers. The mission statement for the series requests every participating writer to submit an article, or a collection of articles and movie reviews, containing a direct correlation to the career of a movie director. Each individual installment has a predetermined candidate as the center point for the writers to produce and submit their material. The ongoing series is referred to as The LAMBs in the Director’s Chair. The desired intention is to release a new installment of the series every six weeks. As previously stated, the timetable for the publication of every installment is loosely structured. Therefore, the gap in between the appearance of every chapter can range between three weeks and two months. The variance depends upon a wide range of influences, including the consideration of major holidays such as Christmas, Kwanzaa, and Hanukkah that would slow down the submissions process. It would be a shame to have everyone work through the holidays.

The original publication of every installment is divided up into three parts and published on the website for The Large Association of Movie Blogs (the acronym would be The LAMBs) over the course of a three-day window. Upon the publication of the third and final section there will be a posting on Matte Havoc that will include the entire list of written material which has been contributed for the installment. Think of it as an Index or Table of Contents, of sorts, for each installment. For quick reference of the material that is currently available on this site just follow the keyword link: Directors Chair. Listed below is one of the recent installments of the series with all three days worth of material included in a single page.

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The Director's Chair #14... Terry Gilliam

For those who were not aware of his American nationality, I will enlighten you that Terry Gilliam was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on November 22, 1940. I begin with this simple introduction to debunk any notion or myth that he is British born. This correlation is often based upon the animation and directing work he did for the Monty Python comedy troupe during the early portion of his career. Because of his background in animation and illustration he has proven to be an extremely visual guy. His eccentric character of a personality is further displayed in some of the animated works that he has produced. Working for Mad Magazine and the English television show Do Not Adjust Your Set may be further evidence of his unique perspective on storytelling. In the first day of a three day series we will be having a broad look at his career with a couple of editorials in addition to one particular website article that dares you to state your preference on Gilliam’s earlier works versus his later works.

EARLY WORKS VERSUS LATER WORKS
Big Thoughts from a Small Mind

CAREER EDITORIALS

• Playground of Doom
• The Film Cynics

REVIEWS FOR Time Bandits (1981)

• Wide Screen World
• Film Forager

REVIEW FOR The Adventures of Baron Munchausen (1988)

• Radiator Heaven
• The Film Cynics

REVIEWS FOR The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus (2009)

• The Film Cynics
• Foolish Blatherings
• Marshall and the Movies
• Surrender to the Void
• Defiant Success
• Blog Cabins
• Film Forager
• Big Thoughts from a Small Mind

One of my favorite films from the 1980s would be Terry Gilliam’s retro-future fantasy film Brazil (1985). Inspired by the song Aquarela do Brasil written by Ary Barroso the story centers around the character Sam Lowry, who is a notorious day dreamer and underachiever with the skills to excel at his work. Today we will be looking at a couple of reviews for the film in addition to a couple of the most famous Monty Python movies that Gilliam has been involved in co-directing.

REVIEWS FOR Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975)

• Defiant Success
• Random Ramblings of a Demented Doorknob

REVIEWS FOR Brazil (1985)

• Surrender to the Void
• Random Ramblings of a Demented Doorknob
• Cinema Sights
• Film Forager

REVIEW FOR Life of Brian (1979)
Cinema Sights

REVIEW FOR The Brothers Grimm (2005)
The Film Cynics

REVIEWS FOR Tideland (2005)

• Cinema Sights
• Film Forager

It would be fitting to allow Terry Gilliam to directly explain the approach he takes when creating a new film or story to tell his audience:

I never wanted to make naturalistic films. I’ve always liked the idea that film is an artifice, and that this is admitted right from the start. So we create a world that isn’t true to a realistic naturalistic world, but is truthful. That is the main thing. I think it also comes from being a cartoonist. I’ve always abstracted. Cartoons always push toward the grotesque. You twist, you bend, you shape. Brazil is that way.

The quote has been pulled from an interview with The Believer Magazine that had occurred at the 2002 Telluride Film Festival. The transcript for the entire interview can be read on the magazine's website.

REVIEWS FOR 12 Monkeys (1995)

• Defiant Success
• Blog Cabins
• Brown Okinawa Assault Incident
• Radiator Heaven
• The Film Cynics

REVIEWS FOR The Fisher King (1991)

• Blog Cabins
• Cinema Sights
• The Film Cynics

REVIEWS FOR Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (1998)

• Foolish Blatherings
• Radiator Heaven
• Film Forager

REVIEW FOR The Meaning of Life (1983)
Bill's Movie Emporium

The Director’s Chair is an ongoing series hosted on The Large Association of Movie Blogs. Each installment is published on the site as a three-day event filled with contributions from several movie blog writers from around the world. To continue following each new series installment make sure to check the LAMBs site for updates or Matte Havoc for the recap of every event.