Vicky Biccy's Blog

Keep it simple, please

Last night I went to the cinema to watch ‘The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus’, directed by Terry Gilliam. It’s a fantastical, theatrical, larger-than-life film, and I loved it. However, I’m surprised to find that many critics didn’t share my view. The Times said “The film could have benefited with a lot more hard story and a lot less whimsy.”

Apparently, we have a limited appetite for ‘whimsy’ on the big screen. Surely you can guess from the title that if you’re looking for ‘hard story’ (whatever that means), you’re in the wrong place!

What bugs me is this phrase from the same critic: “The problem is that it is impossible to unscramble what it all means.” I don’t think that’s the real problem. The real problem is that as viewers, we can’t be bothered to ‘unscramble’ the meaning. We would prefer the meaning to be nicely laid out for us, easy to understand, leaving us with a warm feeling. We don’t want to be pushed to think about it, to explore the possible meanings and messages entangled in the story. We certainly don’t want an answer that gives us more questions.

Nobody wants to be told what to think. But if we aren’t prepared to do the thinking for ourselves, what more can we expect?
 

Created on Thu 29th October 2009 16:41