In anticipation of The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus

Finally, some good news about Heath Ledger's last movie, Terry Gilliam's The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus...

A little bit of the Cannes Film Festival came to Los Angeles Tuesday night when U.S. sales rep Cinetic Media hosted the first domestic screening of The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, Terry Gilliam's highly anticipated movie featuring the last performance of Heath Ledger. (The film is scheduled to have its world premiere at Cannes later this month.) All of the major independent buyers in town packed Hollywood's DGA theater for the screening, and while most left feeling a bit befuddled (as one often does coming out of a Gilliam feature) the consensus was that the movie is better than expected. [ read more ]

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Above, Heath Ledger's photo from his last film, The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus. More photos and updates after the jump.

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Plus some more good news from the LA Times:

At first glance, the movie would appear to have numerous built-in sales hooks, most notably that it was the last film of actor Heath Ledger, who died of a drug overdose during its filming. Because Ledger was unable to complete the film, a trio of prominent actors stepped in to finish his role: Johnny Depp, Colin Farrell and Jude Law.

Those A-list names -- and the mystique of the last performance of the Oscar-winning "Dark Knight" co-star -- would seem to create enough publicity to drum up some audience interest; there's a fan website tracking the film's history and posting images from the film. Gilliam, who directed the critics' darling "Brazil" but also the flop "The Adventures of Baron Munchausen," is not some direct-to-video hack. On top of all that, the film was selected to play out of competition at this year's Cannes festival, where it will be shown Friday night.

But U.S. buyers, who were shown the movie in a screening at the Directors Guild of America theater in Los Angeles a week before the festival started, so far have been quite cool on the movie. Interviews with half a dozen American distributors here revealed a consistent reaction: Whatever publicity Ledger's death may generate for The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, the film itself is too oblique to stand on its own. The buyers said they were both dazzled and puzzled by some of Gilliam's choices, and though they found much to admire, it wasn't enough to tip the scales.

Lastly, Ain't it Cool's Quint posted his awesome review of the film, and excerpts follows:

THE IMAGINARIUM OF DOCTOR PARNASSUS is pure, unadulterated, unhomogenized, unrestricted Terry Gilliam. You see the best of all of his past work, including a scene (involving cops) that could have pranced right out of Python sketch. A return to form? Yeah, I think you could say that. It's certainly a welcome return to fantasy, especially when we're given such a flawed character as Tony to be our lead.

I can see why Ledger was attracted to this role. Without giving anything away, you'll think you know exactly where they're going with him and his character about a quarter of the way through the movie and I'm telling you right now... You're dead wrong. Let's just say this character would not exist in a studio film.

I imagine we'll be seeing a lot of word about the movie out of Cannes. I'm sure you'll see those passionately against the film and those passionately for it, like all of his best work. Love it or hate it, this is pure Terry Gilliam. [ read more ]

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