Terry Gilliam

Director

November 22, 1940 (85 years)

Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA

Biography

Terrence Vance "Terry" Gilliam (born November 22, 1940) is an American-British screenwriter, film director, animator, actor and member of the Monty Python comedy troupe. Subsequent to his early work with the Pythons, Gilliam became known for directing fantasy and sci-fi films, including "Time Bandits" (1981), "Brazil" (1985), "The Adventures of Baron Munchausen" (1988), "The Fisher King" (1991), "12 Monkeys" (1995), "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas" (1998) and "The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus…

Filmography

7.6

Twelve Monkeys

In the year 2035, convict James Cole reluctantly volunteers to be sent back in time to discover the origin of a deadly virus that wiped out nearly all of the earth's population and forced the survivors into underground communities. But when Cole is mistakenly sent to 1990 instead of 1996, he's arrested and locked up in a mental hospital. There he meets psychiatrist Dr. Kathryn Railly and the son of a famous virus expert who may hold the key to the Army of the 12 Monkeys; thought to be responsible for unleashing the killer disease.

7.8

Monty Python and the Holy Grail

King Arthur, accompanied by his squire, recruits his Knights of the Round Table, including Sir Bedevere the Wise, Sir Lancelot the Brave, Sir Robin the Not-Quite-So-Brave-As-Sir-Lancelot and Sir Galahad the Pure. On the way, Arthur battles the Black Knight who, despite having had all his limbs chopped off, insists he can still fight. They reach Camelot, but Arthur decides not to enter, as "it is a silly place".

5.9

The Brothers Grimm

Folklore collectors and con artists, Jake and Will Grimm, travel from village to village pretending to protect townsfolk from enchanted creatures and performing exorcisms. However, they are put to the test when they encounter a real magical curse in a haunted forest with real magical beings, requiring genuine courage.

7.2

Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas

Raoul Duke and his attorney Dr. Gonzo drive a red convertible across the Mojave desert to Las Vegas with a suitcase full of drugs to cover a motorcycle race. As their consumption of drugs increases at an alarming rate, the stoned duo trash their hotel room and fear legal repercussions. Duke begins to drive back to L.A., but after an odd run-in with a cop, he returns to Sin City and continues his wild drug binge.

7.7

Brazil

Low-level bureaucrat Sam Lowry escapes the monotony of his day-to-day life through a recurring daydream of himself as a virtuous hero saving a beautiful damsel. Investigating a case that led to the wrongful arrest and eventual death of an innocent man instead of wanted terrorist Harry Tuttle, he meets the woman from his daydream, and in trying to help her gets caught in a web of mistaken identities, mindless bureaucracy and lies.

6.4

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.

7.3

The Fisher King

Two troubled men face their terrible destinies and events of their past as they join together on a mission to find the Holy Grail and thus to save themselves.

7.0

The Adventures of Baron Munchausen

An account of Baron Munchausen's supposed travels and fantastical experiences with his band of misfits.

6.1

The Zero Theorem

A computer hacker's goal to discover the reason for human existence continually finds his work interrupted thanks to the Management; this time, they send a teenager and lusty love interest to distract him.

6.6

Time Bandits

Young history buff Kevin can scarcely believe it when six dwarfs emerge from his closet one night. Former employees of the Supreme Being, they've purloined a map charting all of the holes in the fabric of time and are using it to steal treasures from different historical eras. Taking Kevin with them, they variously drop in on Napoleon, Robin Hood and King Agamemnon before the Supreme Being catches up with them.

6.5

Tideland

Because of the actions of her irresponsible parents, a young girl is left alone on a decrepit country estate and survives inside her fantastic imagination.

6.7

The Man Who Killed Don Quixote

Toby, a cynical film director finds himself trapped in the outrageous delusions of an old Spanish shoe-maker who believes himself to be Don Quixote. In the course of their comic and increasingly surreal adventures, Toby is forced to confront the tragic repercussions of a film he made in his idealistic youth.

6.0

Jabberwocky

After the death of his father, young Dennis Cooper goes to town where he has to pass several adventures. The town and the whole kingdom is threatened by a terrible monster called 'Jabberwocky'. Will Dennis make his fortune? Is anyone brave enough to defeat the monster?

7.2

The Crimson Permanent Assurance

A group of down-and-out accountants mutiny against their bosses and sail their office building onto the high seas in search of a pirate's life.

8.0

Le court des grands

A program of debut shorts from some of cinema's greatest diectors. Curated by Emir Kusturica and Stephen Frears, featured auteurs include George Lucas' "1.42.08 to Qualify" (1966), Ridley Scott's "A Boy and a Bicycle" (1965), Robert Zemeckis' "The Lift" (1972), Tony Scott's "One of the Missing" (1969), Kusturica's "Guernica" (1978), Luc Besson's "L'avant dernier" (1981), Lars von Trier's "Nocturne" (1980), Terry Gilliam's "Storytime" (1968), Paul Verhoeven's "A Lizzard Too Much" (1960), Roman Polanski's "Le gros et le maigre" (1960), Jane Campion's "Peel" (1982), and Frears' "The Burning" (1967).

N/A

Benvenuto Cellini

With his affinity for the 16th-century sculptor Benvenuto Cellini's advocacy of artistic and personal freedom, Hector Berlioz went straight for the grand gesture with his first completed opera. Returning to it years after initial production debacles, Berlioz stated that he would 'never again find such verve and Cellinian impetuosity, nor such a variety of ideas.' The plot revolves around Cellini's wooing of Teresa, a match frustrated at every opportunity by his rival, the cowardly Fieramosca. Benvenuto Cellini is a pithy work combining romance, excitement, violence, comedy and spectacle; the perfect stage for Terry Gilliam's stylishly colorful and larger than life directing.

8.5

Benvenuto Cellini

The Florentine sculptor and silversmith Benvenuto Cellini rapidly attained a degree of renown that went beyond the confines of Italy. Invariably embroiled in conspiracies, intrigues and quarrels, Cellini is commissioned by the Pope to cast a large sculpture of Perseus. He is loved by Teresa, but she is promised to Fieramosca, an academic artist who has not been favoured with a papal commission. Terry Gilliam’s exuberant production draws the protagonists into a delirious and joyful yet claustrophobic and megalomaniac world: a flaring up of contagious madness.

5.6

The Wholly Family

An American family's magical adventure in Naples.

6.5

Miracle of Flight

We're given the history of man seeking flight, however not by the channels of 'do-it-yourself': men jump off of cliffs while trying to flap their arms, be them in armor or other outfits.

6.3

Storytime

The first story-time segment is about a cheerful cockroach named Don, who scurries throughout his mansion home, walks beneath the floorboards and does unspeakable things in the darkness of the cupboard, before being splatted by somebody's foot. The second segment is about an ordinary man named Albert Einstein ("the only Albert Einstein not to have discovered the Theory of Relativity") whose hands have a life of their own, staying out late at night, misbehaving and committing adultery with feet. The third segment – hasn't much story to it at all, and instead concerns the inhabitants of the moving pictures on an over-sized Christmas card, who interact with each other in all sorts of bizarre ways.