Episode 409: The Imaginarium Of Doctor Parnassus

We celebrated Annie's birthday by seeing The Imaginarium Of Doctor Parnassus and then hitting Varsity afterward. The film was, honestly speaking, one of the strangest things I've ever seen. Anti-narrative, perhaps? I understand that Heath Ledger died in the middle of filming and that must have really messed things up, but I somehow felt like the film was missing scenes that would have made the whole thing make more sense. I think the best way to describe it is to compare it to a film that's adapted from a book series, so it's like too much has been compressed into too little. Probably explains why the film felt like it had a couple of false endings. Minor quibbles aside though, the film is visually very, very stunning. It's like the cinematic equivalent of a rich dessert. More like a dessert smorgasbord, to be honest. I wasn't quite sure what to feel by the end though. It seemed like it should have been uplifting, but it was barely minutes after one of the main characters had been hanged! Like, what is going on here? It was just slightly disconcerting, that's all I'm saying. We had to stay inside the pub because it was raining, so it was just as well that we managed to commandeer the back of the pub. Am totally knackered now though, which isn't good because I've got a seminar at 9 am. Sigh...