I went to see Terry Gilliam’s new film, *The Zero Theorem* last night. Still processing its layered imaginative plot to say anything definitive. But I can say this. For a certain genre of filmmaking—call it *fantasy-scifi*— it may be an exaggeration to say that in the history of such there’s pre-Terry Gilliam and post-Terry Gilliam, but only slightly. Terry Gilliam film enthusiasts—Time Bandits (1981), Brazil (1985), The Adventures of Baron Munchausen (1988), The Fisher King (1991), 12 Monkeys (1995), and The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus (2009)— know what I mean; there’s a distinctive Gilliam cinematographic signature, a certain feel of the visual theme and storytelling. I constantly see Gilliam’s art design, or mise-en-scène, distinctive influence in films of this genre. Gilliam’s frequent use of wide-angle lenses, unusual camera angles, particularly low-angle shots, high-angle shots, and Dutch angles create a hallucinatory world in its Baroque richness of detail. And there’s one common theme that recurs throughout Gilliam’s films: *the theme of imagination, and the importance of imagination*. His subject matter, too, is consistent with this theme: satirizing the bureaucratic, largely dysfunctional industrial world—and the *scientism* behind it! This is most prominent in his dark dystopian satires, such as Brazil, 12 Monkeys, and currently The Zero Theorem. In these, Gilliam’s unique mise-en-scène creates a surreal atmosphere of psychological unrest and a world out-of-balance. I mentioned the term “Baroque.” I mean a rich baroqueness and dichotomous eclecticity about his films. It has been observed that “Gilliam is fascinated with the Baroque due to the historical ages pronounced struggle between spirituality and logical rationality.” (More about this in a moment.) Gilliam’s visual, cinematographic style is so singular, so unique that I’ve been at pains to come up with a new term to give it justice. I know he’s been influenced by 1920’s German Expressionism in film (e.g., Metropolis) and that his art design has been compared to Fellini. The result has been dubbed retro-futurism” and “techno-fantasy.” (I think this has to do with his peculiar penchant for snakelike flex-ducts used in modern construction, which are prevalent in Brazil and now in The Zero Theorem.) I’m also aware that this techno-fantasy imagery used in Brazil has also been recognized as an inspiration for writers and artists of the “steampunk” sub-culture. But “steampunk” doesn’t seem comprehensive enough to account for Gilliam’s overall visual style. There’s something earlier than this crypto-Victorian imagery going on in his sets. If it’s “retro-futurism, then it seems to go back to the premodern period (a la The Adventures of Baron von Munchausen), like the 17th-century Baroque period; maybe even to the medieval period. (Notice in The Zero Theorem the juxtaposition of the futuristic digital world and medieval world of the protagonist, Qohen—played by the absolutely wonderful Christoph Waltz—; it’s 21st-century digital, video-game technology side-by-side with Victorian pneumatic pipelines, or “gravity-vacuum transportation,” counter-posed with the stained-glass medieval church he lives in.) So maybe “neo-baroque retro-futurism” is more descriptive? Which brings me to one point I do, after all, want to make about The Zero Theorem. I mentioned the thing about “Baroque” and Gilliam’s abiding passion for “the historical ages pronounced struggle between spirituality and logical rationality.” You’d think that with all the concepts of modern quantum physics being thrown around in the film that Gilliam would be providing the cinematic validation of the materialistic/mechanistic ruling paradigm. Think again! Like in Fritz Lange’s 1927 German Expressionist film, Metropolis, scientism is in league with the industrial capitalist master—and in his final scene he reveals the common agenda and calls his cog in the machine, the computer hacker Qohen, “a man of faith.” (Yes, he lives in a retro-fitted church, but he’s no ordinary “man of faith” in the Christian sense; neither would he be in the negative sense of atheist criticism!) A better term would have been—in keeping with Gilliam as an artist of the Imagination—“a man of the imagination.” And, as such, Qohen rejects the futuristic scientism of his dystopian world. He sides, in other words, with that “man of Imagination,” William Blake, who called the instrumental rationality of his benighted Industrial Revolution “Newton’s Sleep.” Sorry, “new atheists” of scientism, I’ve got some bad news for ya: if you’re going to see Terry Gilliam’s The Zero Theorem because you’re attracted to quantum physics and virtual reality, you’re going to be sorely disappointed—he’s not one of yours! Gilliam’s “virtual reality” is in and of the Imagination!
Posted on: Thu, 02 Oct 2014 23:58:47 +0000
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