The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus
A long time ago, there was this discussion topic we had in French class about whether a strong message, political or otherwise, is beneficial of detrimental to the artistic value of a piece of literature. Our teacher brought examples of Paul Éluard who went on writing crappy communist stuff and Alfred Döblin who ended up being a mere shadow of himself (though I now don’t remember how exactly). With movies, I have the impression that similar things happen: When you have a very interesting premise, mostly coupled with fairly supernatural stuff, you end up with beautiful visuals, great dream sequences, but a crappy narrative. “Spellbound” comes to mind, one of the most beautiful dream sequences ever, and also “Pan’s Labyrinth” whose storyline was a total disappointment, or any Tim Burton movie. I am not sure what I exactly expected with “The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus”, but similar to “Pan’s Labyrinth”, I think I just expected something completely different.
In essence, I was not a big fan of the story. It was told in a somewhat confusing manner and at the end of the day I keep asking myself what it was all for. But I was an absolute fan of the visuals, wishing that they had spent more time in the actual imaginarium – that would have made the movie so much better, since all the best scenes were in it. The imaginarium is beautiful and creative, and the way characters get blown up was actually a little funny too. I was a little reminded of the world of “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory” when I saw this film, and in a good way.
I am also not a big fan of Heath Ledger, so there was virtually no value for me in seeing his last film. However, I had been looking forward to seeing this film for so long that I am glad I finally did. It would go a little too far to say this film is style over substance (the substance was not bad, just a little confusing and the characters one-dimensional), but oh boy what style. If I had all the funds in the world to decorate my house, it would be inspired by the imaginarium’s style.