MONTY Python star Terry Gilliam has been attracting the wrong headlines of late, squeezing the credibility of the #MeToo movement.
Now, Gilliam has softened his argument a little. While declaring that disgraced producer Harvey Weinstein has “got his just deserts”, he admits that he laid his argument on “a bit crudely.”
That’s not reason for focusing the spotlight on the film director today. After a quarter of a century, the man behind Monty Python and The Holy Grail and The Life of Brian has pulled off the film challenge of his life.
Gilliam has finally managed to complete his movie The Man Who Killed Don Quixote, in which Jonathan Pryce plays a Spanish cobbler who becomes convinced he is a medieval knight, supported by a television director, played by Adam Driver, who becomes his Sancho Panza wing man.
Gilliam explains why he didn’t give up on his magic realism project, despite a quarter of a century of Sisyphean boulder- pushing that saw lead actors die, huge legal battles commence, and financiers pull out.
Gilliam, like Don Quixote, mounted his horse, put on his armour – then stumbled and fell from what he thought was a stallion but turned out to be a tired old nag.
READ MORE: Terry Gilliam’s The Man Who Killed Don Quixote to screen at Cannes after court battle
But the American director continued to remount. Why? “Because I was surrounded by nice, intelligent, reasonable people who said ‘Let it go’”, he says, grinning. “I don’t want to listen to reasonable people. They may be right, but I think you have to continually push the boundaries to see what’s out there, to stop all these reasonable people limiting you.”
Orson Welles failed to make a Quixote movie. Gilliam was more determined. Or perhaps slightly off his head. Finally he raised the last of the money, not from the market place, but from an elderly fairy godmother who said: “Bing! Terry, you’re going to the ball.’”
What Gilliam’s fortitude does underline, however, is most of us need a reason to get out of bed in the morning, especially as the older years weigh down like a crushing blanket. We need that sense of purpose. We need to challenge ourselves, in whatever form.
It’s no real surprise to discover that playwright Tom Stoppard has, at 82, written a new play, Leopoldstadt, which has opened in London. Stoppard’s play, a partly autobiographical tale, set in the vibrant European city of Vienna nearly three decades before the Third Reich, took over a year to write but was many, many years in gestation.
He had to write it, he explained: “It’s a belief in a metaphysical dimension which operates really almost on every side of my life and I believe in it and depend upon it. I’m furtively competitive, which is one of the things which made me want to keep writing.”
Novelist Philip Roth says he always felt immortal when he needed a novel to finish. It was only when he stepped back from writing that he seemed to slow down rapidly.
The website Positive-Psychology.com says we need goals. “Setting goals helps trigger new behaviours, helps guides your focus and helps you sustain that momentum in life,” it says. “Goals also help align your focus and promote a sense of self-mastery.”
We often need to re-align our sense of focus. We often need to re-evaluate our positions in life, make a project happen we feel decidedly incomplete without. It’s perfectly understandable that my chum Dorothy Paul, in her early 80s, is looking for her next writing challenge.
READ MORE: Terry Gilliam's sign lights up after Pythonesque mix-up
It’s even understandable to see why Gwyneth Paltrow has decided to capitalise on her world acting fame and throw herself in the world of commercial project with her Goop website.
Paltrow’s acting career looked to be on the slow down, with a short Iron Man cameo. Then she decided to release a new scent that contained a whiff of her lady garden. It may be a lot of old nonsense, but she’s found a way to maintain a high profile, unconsciously coupling from acting, that is worth more than a quarter of a million dollars. (No wonder Paltrow has a constant smile on her face, or perhaps it could be down to the vaginal eggs which she also sells online.)
Sadly however, Terry Gilliam’s muse has now left him. During his career, he’d finish a film, always knowing he’d then turn back to trying to make Don Quixote happen. He’s now lost, he says. The Python legend, without his dream to fulfil is now facing a void. We need to grab life while we can, especially given the death of his comrade-in-arms, Terry Jones.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here