Review of The Adventures of Baron Munchausen (1988) by Edith N — 21 Sep 2008

Am I the only person who just doesn't think Uma Thurman is that pretty? She's not unattractive, but if I were to cast a woman to play Venus, who is more beautiful than any mortal, I can think of dozens of choices, even just of women working in Hollywood in 1988, who were more beautiful than she. It's a fun game that you can try at home. Indeed, I think Sarah Polley grew up to be prettier than Uma Thurman, so that's at least one person within the film who is more attractive--though I'll admit that Sarah Polley could not yet fake-cry worth a damn! But I actually think that most of the women in this film were prettier, and I really wish the role had been cast differently.

Young Sally (Polley) is the daughter of Henry Salt (Bill Paterson), a theatrical producer in a town being stormed by the Turks. He is putting on a production of [i]The Adventures of the Baron Munchausen[/i], which is interrupted by the real Baron, who decides that the story must be told his way--because he knows how it all really went. Then, for reasons that don't necessarily make sense, he goes to get reinforcements to protect the town, which involves going, among other places, to the Moon and to Vulcan's volcano, Mount Etna. They meet the King (credited as Ray D. Tutto) and Queen (Valentina Cortese) of the Moon, who have known the Baron of old and are not exactly thrilled at meeting him again. They encounter Vulcan (Oliver Reed) and Venus (Thurman), and the Baron seduces Venus, to the fury of Vulcan. And so it goes.

This is, like last week's [i]Time Bandits[/i], another bizarre Terry Gilliam adventure. However, I like this one better. Oh, they're both well made, but I like this story better. It's quite silly, true, but it's trying to be silly. The whole point of the story is that you can't really tell what's real and what isn't. And once again, Gilliam gets to play with fantastic imagery. The stage production bits at the beginning are, well, just the beginning. I remember clearly (yes, from when I watched it with Raul) how striking the imagery from the Moon was. I didn't remember the delightful cameo by Sting, but it's typical of Gilliam's sense of humour.

The Baron's story goes way back. There's a 1910 film version, for starters, and a half-dozen or so after that. And the Baron has loaned his name to two psychological conditions--Munchausen Syndrome and Munchausen's by Proxy. In the first one, you make yourself sick so that people will pay attention to you--the Baron is, after all, about people paying attention to him. In the second one, you make your child (or someone else in your care) sick so that people will pay attention to you and how much you suffer when you take care of that person. It should be noted that, in neither case, is the activity concious. In both cases, it's just that you're not processing things right, or however you want to sum it up.

It's a beautiful film; Gilliam's films always are. He also likes working with certain people--we've got Eric Idle here, of course, and Jonathan Pryce. (He was in [i]Brazil[/i], another of Raul's favourites.) Indeed, even some of the music is composed by Idle. Gilliam does like working with his friends. Then again, he's not alone in that. Quite a few directors have crews that they accumulate, and certainly we've covered directors here (Herzog, Fellini, Bergman, Burton) who have preferred actors as well. Gilliam, I think, gets forgotten as a director by all by diehard fantasy/sci-fi buffs, and I think that's a shame. I wouldn't recommend [i]Time Bandits[/i] or [i]Munchausen[/i] for young children, but for older children? It's a great trip into the world of the fantastic.