Dr. Gradus ad Parnassum, and the Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus
Few of you probably recognized that the title of Terry Gilliam's awe-inspiring new "The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus"* is a reference to The Children's Corner Suite by Claude Debussy. I have had a cassette tape of the Children's Corner Suite since I was a child, and it took me on voyages of visual imagination comparable to that of Gilliam, if perhaps not as talented as his.
Wikipedia says that Gradus ad Parnassum means "Steps to Mount Parnassus", and that Parnassus is a mountain in Greece. On this particular topic, no pressing decision gives me any urgent reason to call the hivemind into question.
Unfortunately, my cassette tape has deteriorated over decades of play. It is not as easy to replace as you might think. I've tried. The CDs I used to purchase in my search contained performances of Parnassum which are mannered, orderly, and restrained. They just sort of go through the motions with a gentle emotional sensitivity similar to "The Snow Is Dancing". That will not do, for me.
I want the manic adrenaline of the Parnassum I grew up with. This should be music for careening along a loop-de-loop in an out-of-control mine car.
I have found many good performances on YouTube, such as this one (the part to which I refer is at about 1:45). None of them fell off the piano stool during the climax of the piece, their arms windmilling on the keyboard like a Tex Avery cartoon. Perhaps I have inflated this piece of music in my memory.
* I absolutely soared during this film. I think it will reward a second viewing, because certain questions kept me confused about the plot.
Question 1: How do the events inside the Imaginarium affect what happens in the mundane universe?
Question 2: Which description of the various deals with the devil are true, and which are tricks? Does Gilliam's version of The Devil ever say anything true?
The changes they made to the story, in order to have Johnny Depp, Jude Law and Colin Farrell finish Heath Ledger's scenes, were brilliant.
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