The Adventures of Baron Munchausen
Directed by Terry Gilliam
- fantasy
- adventure
- comedy
The story
An account of Baron Munchausen's supposed travels and fantastical experiences with his band of misfits.
What it’s like
Sprawling, grubby and gloriously overstuffed, with candlelit theatre interiors, smoke-filled taverns and a siege town lit in ochre and rust, then suddenly the cold silver of the moon or a dazzling pale sky full of hot-air balloons. Gilliam's camera swoops, cranes and lurches with restless energy, cutting between fever-dream tableaux and sets built from crumbling baroque stone, rusted machinery and gaudy costume. Its sound is a clattering mix of bombast and hush: orchestral swells that abruptly drop away, creaking gears, bursts of comic brass. The vibe is giddy, anarchic and wistful, a satire of pomposity wrapped in bawdy wonder, with an undertow of melancholy about age and the cost of imagination. Its pacing is episodic and breathless, with one absurd set-piece tumbling into the next, and its people are a battered, ageing band of misfits slowly rediscovering their nerve and wonder. The violence is mostly slapstick and mock-heroic, with a few brief cartoonish threats and no real gore; some bawdy humour and nudity appear in the sequence at the court of the sultan, and fear is light. It suits a rainy weekend, a comfort rewatch, or anyone who wants a wild, handmade escapade for grown-up imaginations and dreamers who enjoy whimsy with an edge.
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