Cast

John Neville, Sarah Polley, Oliver Reed, Uma Thurman, Bill Paterson, Eric Idle, Jonathan Pryce, Peter Jeffrey, Charles McKeown, Valentina Cortese, Jack Purvis, Terry Gilliam, Sting

awards

BAFTA Film Award 1990 – Best Costume Design, Best Make Up Artist, Best Production Design; Italian National Syndicate of Film Journalists 1990 – Silver Ribbon for Best Cinematography, Best Costume Design, Best Production Design

Film description

When one of cinema’s bravest visionaries began work on the fantastical stories of Baron Munchausen, the effects could be nothing else than spectacular. Adapting the book, first published by Rudolf Erich Raspe in 1785, gave Gilliam all the reason he needed to bring some of his most marvellous and outlandish visions to the screen. Along with the Baron, we travel from a gilded Turkish harem to a Méliès moon, passing through the court of Venus and Vulcan before being swallowed by a monstrous sea creature. A medley of characters, amazing landscapes, costumes and stage sets created by brilliant Cinecittà Studios artists all make the film seem like something between fantasy and dream, between an altered reality and fanciful theatre. The world of Baron Munchausen is maintained in an unsteady balance between the excessive emotions of baroque and the thoughtful restraint of the Enlightenment – ideally symbolised by the King of the Moon whose wise head is separated from his frivolous body (Kant would have approved). There is no clear beginning or ending and successive stories do not necessarily belong together – the best the audince can do is to follow the example of little Sally: trust the Baron, hold on tight, enter a world of fantasy and delight in the elaborate scenes masterfully filmed by cinematographer Giuseppe Rotunno.