The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus

We went to see Doctor Parnassus a week ago. It was one of the most peculiar films I had ever seen. But peculiar in a good way as I was staring at the screen mouth open half of the time, not quite believing my eyes. What else would you expect from a man who has directed both Monty Python and Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas? And even though it started at 11 p.m. and it was a Friday night and it had been a loooong week, I never felt like falling asleep.
Visually it's a sort of mix of LOTR, HP, Narnia, Willy Wonka, Sweeney Todd, Stardust and about a zillion other films of that kind. There's the Knight Bus from Harry Potter and the (imaginary) chains around the girl's ankle from Stardust, the übercolourful land of Willy Wonka and the death and decay of the darkest places near Mount Doom and of the London of Sweeney Todd's time. And it's got the most deliciously dreadful London I had ever seen - everything from the beauty of St. Paul's and the magnificent Tower Bridge to the underside of Blackfriars Bridge, the run-down docklands and the most dilapidated houses on the banks of the Thames.
I loved the visuals throughout - as I already said, London was fabulous, the clash between now and then too apparent - mobile phones, the drunk clubbers, consumerism and shopaholics with their high heels and perfect hair-dos versus the shabby but too colourful horse-drawn carriage parked and opened in the most unexpected places. The various imaginary worlds were even more enchanting than reality. There were definitely some places reminding you of Monty Python and some psychedelic images from Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. But in addition, there were crumbling buildings next to the almost Teletubbies-like world of the greenest green pastures, flamboyant flowers and everything else in the brightest and happiest colours. There were also Salvador Dali-like endless ladders to heaven next to the deep and menacing gorges leading straight to hell.
And there was Heath, of course. I was quite surprised to see how much footage they had managed to shoot before he passed away. It might sound strange, but even when he wasn't on screen, his presence was almost palpable. It was his film from the beginning till the end, Johnny, Jude and Colin were just assisting. I was sure I wouldn't like to see Tony transform and would notice it immediately, but to my astonishment I actually didn't notice the first transformation happening when Johnny took over. I just discovered probably some minutes later that it wasn't Heath any more but Johnny instead and I don't know how it was possible as they aren't especially look-alikes, save the similar clothes and make-up. I had been contemplating about the colour of Tony's eyes during those few minutes, though, as Johnny's are much lighter brown then Heath's, so one can't say I wasn't suspicious at least.
To avoid any misconceptions, let's put it very clearly - I loved the film and the underlying story. It was so surprisingly absurd that it actually made a lot of sense.