File puptcrit/puptcrit.1001, message 11


Date: Sat, 2 Jan 2010 13:00:15 -0500
From: Andrew <puppetvision-AT-gmail.com>
To: puptcrit-AT-puptcrit.org
Subject: Re: [Puptcrit] Imaginarium / Puppetry in the 2010s


Stephen, I haven't seen Imaginarium yet (truthfully, I'll probably wait for
the DVD as I find Terry Gilliam's films visually brilliant but often a
little weak in terms of storytellling) so I can't speak to it, but I was
intrigued your mention of feeling alienated as a "presenter of arcane and
anachronistic performance styles", even if you only meant that comment
half-seriously. Maybe I just live in the right country/city, maybe I just
hang out around the right sort of people...or maybe I'm crazy, but I just
don't feel that way. I think that the 2010s are going to be a fantastic
decade for puppetry. Dare I say...maybe even one of the best ever.

I have been reading in a lot of newspapers and blogs lately about the return
of "handcrafted" films like Fantastic Mr. Fox, Coraline, Where The Wild
Things Are, etc. and how they have been embraced by audiences. Likewise, the
most celebrated cultural event of 2009 here in Toronto was Robert LePage's
brilliant puppetry opera "The Nightingale". Puppets seem to be a staple of
the cultural landscape and I'm not sure you could say that 10, 15 or 20
years ago.

I wrote a little more about this trend in my blog last month for anyone
who's interested -
http://puppetvision.info/2009/12/never-had-a-year-like-09.html

Monday is the first day of pre-production on a real, honest-to-goodness all
puppetry feature film I'm involved with and just the fact that that is
possible I find terribly exciting. I probably shouldn't say too much about
it online at this point, but an independent, truly professional puppet
feature film that doesn't star the Muppets never would have gotten off the
ground even just a few years ago. It only found funding now because there is
a perception in whatever marketplaces exist out there that audiences want to
see more puppetry, not less.

Thankfully, all of the old cliches about puppetry being "just for kids" or
"audiences won't watch puppetry" have been shattered by the likes of Ronnie
Burkett, Basil Twist, Julie Taymour, et al and exposed for what they always
were...complete and utter nonsense. While the financial crisis has no doubt
hit artists everywhere hard, has there ever been a more exciting or vibrant
time for puppetry in the past 30 years?

Here's to a fantastic, fun-filled decade of new and exciting puppetry!

- Andrew


On Sat, Jan 2, 2010 at 12:00 PM, <puptcrit-request-AT-puptcrit.org> wrote:

>
> Date: Fri, 1 Jan 2010 12:15:24 -0500
> From: Stephen Kaplin <skactw-AT-tiac.net>
> Subject: [Puptcrit] Imaginarium
> To: puptcrit-AT-puptcrit.org
> Message-ID: <CF17D004-CFAD-48A4-B89D-F436D53CA958-AT-tiac.net>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII; format=flowed; delsp=yes
>
> Hello puptpeep,
>
> A happy, glorious, prosperous, creative New Decade to you all.
> Unfortunately, however, I can not shake the feeling the 201x's are
> going to be anything but. Well be that as it may,
> As an antidote to such  foreboding thoughts I suggest you go see Terry
> Gilliam's new film, "The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus." Not that it's
> all that bright and cheery a movie, but it does somehow put the
> creative endeavor into a thoroughly contemporary context. It is as
> though Shakespeare's "Tempest" has been transported into 21st Century
> London, and instead of Prospero and Miranda inhabiting their own
> idyllic tropical island, they are tossed into the midst of a bleak,
> late capitalist city-scape. Dr. Parnassus (Christopher Plummer, who is
> as magisterial a wizard as he's ever been in the recent Harry Potter
> films, only more gritty, dotty and drunken here) is the 1000 year old
> purveyor of a horse-drawn, early 19th century style cabinet of wonders
> entertainment, that should feel familiar to any itinerant puppeteer.
> His complete cluelessness to modern culture is a sort of running gag
> throughout the film. He has made a Faustian deal with the Devil (Tom
> Waits, who alone is worth half the admission price) for his daughter's
> soul. She, in typical teenage fashion, takes matters into her own
> hands and escapes them both into a sort of glossy, middle-class
> contentment .
>
> The final scene of the film is a glorious toy-theater reduction of the
> Imaginarium, which Parnassus is selling on the street as a do-it-
> yourself kit -- a happy end of sorts in that somehow the wild
> imaginary world he represents has found a toehold in the contemporary
> world as a consumer item.
>
> I'd be interested to hear from other folks out there if this film
> struck a chord in you in depicting the alienation one feels as a
> presenter of arcane and anachronistic performance styles in this day
> and age.
>
> Stephen
>
>
>
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