The Fisher King (1991)

[bruttenholm]

Fisher King is also a sort of enigma for me... I wonder if it's "a very atypical film for the time" because its intrinsic nature or because of how Gilliam looks at it... It could be inches away from a romantic comedy with Tom Hanks and Michelle Pfeiffer or something but it's how Gilliam makes all the rough edges pop that gives it its purpose and meaning I think. Just the flashback of the murder of Parry's wife is incredibly graphic and is an image engraved in your mind when you think of the film... And I made sure to check, it's not in Lagravenese's script, which is more allusive :


It's a romantic film viewed through an unromantic lens, to some extent. The beauty of it is that it's not just Gilliam trolling the script, it's him reacting to it on a deep level, wishing to avoid cliché to find an emotional (and mythological) truth...