Terry Gilliam isn’t just a filmmaker that doesn’t hold back in interviews and says what’s on his mind. His films, much like the man who creates them, are consistently pushing the envelope of genres and conventions, giving audiences something unique with each one. So, in the same way that Terry Gilliam is a polarizing figure himself, the filmmaker’s works are just as divisive. And according to Gilliam, he fully expects his films to split an audience, as they’ve done for decades, but he does have a bone to pick with certain types of reviews.
In a new conversation with Variety, while out promoting his latest film, “The Man Who Killed Don Quixote,” Gilliam talked about the reception his filmography has received and why he fully expects bad reviews.
“Every film I’ve made always splits, usually the critics even more than the audience. Even with ‘Brazil,’ when we first started screening half the audience would walk out. Now when we show ‘Brazil’ it’s this classic and all that bullshit, all that crap,” he said.
Gilliam continued, “It doesn’t surprise me. I know that my films work better for some people. There is a certain way of approaching life or looking at the world. They get on the ride with me and go all the way.”
That being said, the filmmaker realizes that his tastes, and therefore his films, aren’t for everybody. He doesn’t mind the occasional bad review. However, Gilliam does notice some of those bad reviews are more appreciated than others.
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He explains:
“I don’t mind a bad review when it’s about the film I made. When I read reviews sometimes they just miss the film, I don’t know what they were taking in. It’s those cut and paste reviews that I don’t like. There are so many of them that once you get a review out there, there is a laziness in a lot of reviewers, or an inability to have a clear thought about what they are writing about, so they just cut and paste what exists.”
So, the obvious question remains — who does Terry Gilliam think is the ideal audience member for one of his films? Well, he has an answer. “People with a good visual imagination tend to respond. Also I think musicians… I know that creative people, almost 100%, like what I do… I also find children, and I know on this film in particular, they just got it, they went for the ride,” said the filmmaker.
He also says that his brand of humor, which most people recognize from his work on the various Monty Python projects, asks the audience to think differently than they might normally.
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“We [Monty Python] were very smart, but we were also very silly. It was very difficult for intellectuals, they don’t like that! For them you’ve gotta be serious. And I am very serious about what I do, and so were the other guys in Python, but I will undercut it all the time if I want to, if it’s funny,” he said.
“The Man Who Killed Don Quixote” was all over the festival circuit and is playing internationally. No US release date has been announced.
