Terrence Vance ‘Terry’ Gilliam, Born 22nd November 1940 is the next personal profile for my blog. I chose Terry Gilliam because I personally love his film-making and animating style. ‘Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas’, directed by Gilliam is one of my favourite films of all time. His adaptation of the Hunter.S.Thompson book should go down in film-making history. Gilliam is an American-born British screenwriter, director, animator, actor and one of the key members of the ‘Monty Python’ comedy group.

Gilliam first started out with animation and some would say his animating is his greatest profession. He worked using shooting photographic strips for the magazine ‘Help!’ but when the company shut down he moved to England. It was here he created animated features for children’s TV show ‘Do Not Adjust Your Set’ which is where he met his future Pythons colleagues Eric Idle, Terry Jones and Michael Palin. After previously meeting John Cleese when working for ‘Help!’

Gilliam was a part of Monty Python’s Flying Circus from the outset and although he was firstly the sole animator he was seen as a key member of the group because his animations are what linked the sketches together and some would say without those animations the show just wouldn’t have been the same.

When the Python inevitably broke up Gilliam then went into directing and screenplay from all the knowledge he’d picked up along the way and his surreal style this was sure to hit big. Gilliam then went on to create his Trilogy of the Imagination which was three surreal films about three different people of three different generations struggling to escape from society but through their imaginations. The first ‘Time Bandits’ was released in 1981, the second ‘Brazil’ in 1985 and the third ‘The Adventures of Baron Munchausen’ in 1988.

‘Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas’. I think this film needs a special mention as the screenplay on this film is fantastic. Johnny Depp as the lead character makes possibly his greatest performance as an actor with the help of Gilliam’s guidance this film was a sure fire hit with me. I also admire Gilliam’s style and how different it is to most animators/film-makers. Gilliam’s surreal animations in Python have such a distinctive, memorable style by mixing his own art, soft and odd bulbous shapes, with backgrounds and moving cut-outs from photographs mostly from the Victorian era just add that extra thing that the show would have missed without him. Truly one of the greatest animators of our time.