Terry Gilliam has had a
fascinating and at times cursed life. Many remember his brilliant
animation between sketches on the Monty Python television show.
Although first hired as an animator, Terry soon became a full-member of
the Monty Python gang which included John Cleese, Michael Palin Terry
Jones, Eric Idle, and Graham Chapman. When discussing his animations,
Gilliam said "There's a side of me that always fell for manic things,
frenzied, cartoony performances. I always liked sideshows, freakshows.
Jerry Lewis was a freakshow...Absolutely grotesque, awful, tasteless. I
like things to be tasteless."
.
Terry was born in Minnesota, and is the only non-British member of the
Monty Python gang. although he gave up his U.S. citizenship in 2006 as a
protest against US President George W. Bush, and became a
full-time Brit. It was during his Monty Python association that he became a film director
and screen writer, and directed several popular films, including Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (1998), The
Fisher King (1991), Brazil (1985), and Time Bandits (1981).
Terry has been cursed on several of his film productions. A few
days after he started filming The Man Who Killed
Don Quixote in 2001 with Johnny Depp and Jean Rochefort, Rochefort
developed an intestinal virus that meant he had to return to France for
treatment, and shooting was stopped .During the filming of Brazil (1985), Terry became so stressed that he
temporarily lost the use of his legs. Problems began to appear in
nearly every subsequent film. Warner Brothers refused
to hire him to direct Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone because
of his cussed production even though J.K. Rowling specifically requested
him. The curse continued in 2008 when
Heath Ledger died during the filming of Gilliam's The Imaginarium Of
Doctor Parnassus.
Many
critics regard Brazil (1985) as his
masterpiece. Although a success in Europe, the film was unsuccessful in its
initial North America release but has since become a cult film.
The plot revolves around a
bureaucrat in a retro-future world who tries to correct an administrative
error and himself becomes an enemy of the state. Terry once commented, “I’m
thinking of suing George Bush and Dick Cheney for making the remake of
‘Brazil’ without my approval,” he told a New York screening audience,.“Their
version isn’t as funny, though.”
So in honor of Terry's prophetic, sly, and frightening vision
of the future, what would be a more appropriate dish to serve Terry on his
birthday while watching Brazil.
than Brazil Nut Pesto with
Pasta and Broccoli? Even though Terry likes things to be tasteless, we are
sure that he will make an exception when he tastes this meal.
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