01
The Fall
Why this pick
Like Gilliam’s film, it lets a fragile real-world bond blossom into lavish, storybook fantasy, with theatrical visual invention and imagination constantly reshaping what the viewer sees.
A FILM WORTH A CLOSER LOOKTHE FEATURE PRESENTATION
MOVIE2009 2h 3m GBR
IF THIS ONE STAYED WITH YOU
Movies like
The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus
AdventureFantasy
CINEHUNCH / THE NEXT FRAME
Keep the feeling.
SIMILAR PICKS / A PERSONAL CONNECTION
If you loved The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, try these.
01
02
MirrorMask
Why this pick
A young performer enters a handmade dream realm populated by masks, oddball creatures and shifting identities; its tactile, melancholy fantasy closely suits Parnassus’s travelling-theatre strangeness.
03
Big Fish
Why this pick
Its heightened fables, circus-inflected imagery and tender tension between ordinary life and extravagant invention echo the wistful, humane side of Doctor Parnassus.
04
The Science of Sleep
Why this pick
Gondry’s handmade dream logic and whimsical visual transitions offer a gentler counterpart to Parnassus: imagination is both an escape and a messy way of connecting with others.
05
The Adventures of Baron Munchausen
Why this pick
Gilliam’s earlier odyssey has the same flamboyant theatrical craft, playful storytelling and bittersweet belief in fantasy as a necessary refuge from a cynical reality.
Finding the atmosphere, tension and little details that made this one stay with you.
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01 / THE STORY
A little about the film.
Outside a London pub, an elderly bearded sage named Doctor Parnassus runs a nearly-bankrupt travelling theater troupe, which includes his teenaged daughter Valentina, a sleight of hand expert and Barker (occupation) Anton, and a dwarf magician's assistant Percy. The troupe's main attraction is a portal to a magical "Imaginarium", a surreal dreamworld that transforms according to its participants' own desires and offers them a choice between difficult self-fulfillment or easy ignorance. After a drunkard is swayed to the latter, Parnassus says he has lost "another one" to Mr. Nick, a suave personification of the Devil, who often appears without warning to taunt Parnassus and gloat over Parnassus's failures. He reminds Parnassus that in three days Valentina turns 16, and her soul will belong to Mr. Nick. Hundreds of years ago, Mr. Nick tricked Parnassus into accepting immortality, after making a wager similar to his current predicament.
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02 / FACES IN THE FRAME
The people who bring it to life.
Christopher Plummer
Doctor Parnassus
Andrew Garfield
Anton
Lily Cole
Valentina
Heath Ledger
Tony
Verne Troyer
Percy
Tom Waits
Devil
Johnny Depp
Imaginarium Tony 1
Jude Law
Imaginarium Tony 2