Gilliam’s Manhattan in London
Next Wednesday evening, moviegoers across the pond will have a chance to take in Terry Gilliam’s 1991 The Fisher King, the first entry in a monthly screening series at London’s historic Regent Street Cinema cosponsored by Criterion. After imagining the frenetic dystopian future of Brazil (1985) and the fantastic voyage of The Adventures of Baron Munchausen (1988), the American-born British director took a departure into more contemporary and realistic territory with the Manhattan-set Fisher King, a romantic drama starring Jeff Bridges as a disgraced talk-radio personality and Robin Williams as a delusional homeless man seeking the Holy Grail—two men who forge an unlikely friendship, ultimately helping each other recover in the wake of recent tragedy. As critic Bilge Ebiri writes in his liner essay for our release, “it’s a film about kindness, love, and friendship in a world that seems to have no place for them,” one that finds the typically absurdist Gilliam letting his guard down a bit, “knowingly, and unironically, giv[ing] us a love-conquers-all ending.” For those unable to make the screening, our Blu-ray edition of Gilliam’s film is also available in the UK on June 19. And stay tuned for upcoming events in the series, including presentations of Stalker in July and Lord of the Flies in August.
