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The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus
After a carnival troupe saves his life, a man agrees to help its immortal leader collect five souls and win a bet with the devil.
2009 · Directed by Terry Gilliam · 123 min · Adventure · Fantasy · Mystery · Screenplay in the scene database · 16 frames
Tagline
The man who tried to cheat the devil.
Plot
Elderly sage Doctor Parnassus runs a travelling theatre troupe, which includes his teenage daughter Valentina, barker Anton, and dwarf Percy. The troupe's main attraction is a portal to a magical "Imaginarium", a surreal dream world that transforms according to its participants' desires, offering them a choice between difficult self-fulfillment or easy ignorance.
After a surly drunkard is swayed to the latter, Parnassus comments he has lost "another one" to Mr. Nick, a suave personification of the Devil, who often taunts Parnassus and gloats over his failures. He reminds Parnassus that in three days, upon Valentina's 16th birthday, her soul belongs to him. Hundreds of years ago, Mr. Nick tricked Parnassus into accepting immortality.
As the troupe crosses a bridge, Anton notices someone hanging beneath it. Rescuing the man, he spits out a golden pipe that allowed him to continue breathing while being hanged; the man claims to have amnesia. Mr. Nick visits Parnassus and reveals that the rescued man is disgraced philanthropist Tony Shepard, who was hanged by Russian gangsters for owing them money. Mr. Nick offers Parnassus a new wager: Valentina can stay with him past 16 if Parnassus wins five souls before Mr. Nick.
Plot summary from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA.
Crew
- Screenplay: Terry Gilliam, Charles McKeown
- Cinematography: Nicola Pecorini
- Edited by: Mick Audsley
- Music: Jeff Danna, Mychael Danna
- Production design: Anastasia Masaro, David Warren
- Produced by: William Vince, Terry Gilliam, Amy Gilliam, Samuel Hadida
Cast
- Christopher Plummer as Doctor Parnassus
- Lily Cole as Valentina
- Heath Ledger as Tony
- Andrew Garfield as Anton
- Verne Troyer as Percy
- Tom Waits as Devil
- Johnny Depp as Imaginarium Tony 1
- Jude Law as Imaginarium Tony 2
- Colin Farrell as Imaginarium Tony 3
- Fraser Aitcheson as Dancing Policeman
Production
- Country: Canada, France, United Kingdom
- Language: English, Russian, French
- Studios: Infinity Features, Davis Films, Poo Poo Pictures
- Budget: $30,000,000
- Box office: $64,352,607
- Themes: circus, immortality, supernatural, elderly, aftercreditsstinger, duringcreditsstinger, magic mirror
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