Terry Gilliam Talks Brad Pitt’s Performance in ’12 Monkeys’ and Learning the Secret of Success From Mary Poppins
variety.comLise Pedersen U.S. writer-director Terry Gilliam had the crowd in stitches throughout his masterclass at the Lumière Film Festival, where he presented the restored version of his 1995 cult movie “12 Monkeys.” The former Monty Python member, whose career as a director started with the 1975 satirical comedy “Monty Python and the Holy Grail,” said that while he was keen to approach difficult subjects, he had learnt from Mary Poppins the secret of success. “She taught me that the sugar helps the medicine go down,” he quipped, to the audience’s delight.
On a more serious note, Gilliam said that his main goal as a filmmaker was “to make films that make you think about the world in a different way.” Rejecting the way reality is presented by the media, which he described as “too limited,” Gilliam said it could be “more fascinating, bizarre and surprising.” “I don’t make fantasy films, though, because that doesn’t interest me.
What interests me is this battle, the tension between imagination and reality. The most important of our senses is not hearing, or touch, or taste – it’s our sense of humor.
We live in an absurd world – as a species we’re rather absurd – and if we can’t laugh about ourselves, I don’t see the point of living,” he told the Lyon crowd.
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