Most of you will know about my mild obsession with Terry Gilliam and his amazing films. Gilliam’s movies are some of the most regularly re-watched in my extensive collection, along with those of the Coen Brothers and Christopher Nolan. All of them delight in visually stunning extravaganzas combined with off-beat yet engaging characters, and Twelve Monkeys is no exception.

Twelve Monkeys is Gilliam’s 1996 sci-fi time-travel confuso-thriller starring Brad Pitt, Bruce Willis and Madeline Stowe amongst others. The basic story is based around the surreal French short film La Jetee, centering around a man from the future who has seen his own death as a child. In this re-telling our soon to come dystopian future has the remnants of he human race living underground, holding on after a devastating virus has killed most people. Willis plays James Cole, a prison inmate chosen to go back into the past to try and investigate what happened and ultimately retrieve a pure source of the original virus so the future/present scientists can create a cure. With me so far? Well there be spoilers ahead, so be warned.

Once back in the past Cole is captured and put in a psychiatric ward as no-one believes his stories of a destroyed future, and it is here that we first meet Brad Pitt as the crazed son of a Nobel prize winning virologist (played by Christopher Plummer). This was a stand out transformative role for Brad Pitt, previously type cast as a dull pretty boy – remember this was before Fight Club. Many people did not believe Pitt could do the role, but Gilliam pushed through and rightly so – never doubt Terry’s eye for casting. Great stuff.

From here things get even more confusing, with Cole moving back and forth in time and falling in love with his psychiatrist, played by Madeline Stowe. Eventually she starts to believe his apocalyptic ‘visions’ and goes from being kidnap victim to willing participant in an extreme example of Stockholm syndrome. At the end they agree to escape together to sunny Florida and end up at an airport where Cole is shot right in front of his young/past self while attempting to kill the real person behind the contagion. Cole has failed, the contagion will be released and his attempt to escape into the past has come to naught. Of course it’s a reflection of how dense Gilliam’s movie is, that it was only on this re-watching that I realised that when the real bad guy gets on the plane he sits next to one of the scientists from the future who introduces herself as working ‘in insurance’ – genius.

This really is a must watch movie, second only to Gilliam’s Brazil for a dark future vision, with stand out roles from a trio of top notch actors. You may find it a bit confusing at first, as time travel plots are never the easiest to understand, but the effort is well worth it. Plus on the DVD there is ‘The Hamster Factor’, a fascinating behind the scenes documentary named after Terry’s obsession with the detail that drips off every image. What do hamsters have to do with it? Well in a scene where Bruce Willis is sitting naked in a lab drawing his own blood for scientific tests there is a hamster in a wheel in the foreground. This small element of the overall scene is of particular importance to Terry as part of the symbolism of the movie, and getting the correct ‘performance’ out of the hamster (as well as his human co-star) is what makes a Terry Gilliam film a Terry Gilliam film – much to the general chagrin of most of his financiers. However we, his viewers, love him for this dense, obsessive approach to the visual art of film making.

Last night we had the joy of seeing Terry Gilliam’s latest film, The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, followed by a Q&A with the great director himself. All very exciting stuff.

The film is awesome, a fantastical myth making tale along the lines of Baron Munchausen, with great performances from all the actors. The way in which Heath Ledger’s untimely departure from halfway through filming is handled extremely well and, if anything, adds to the film – as in some scenes Heath’s English accent veers a little antipodean or is smothered in excessive use of the word ‘mate’.

Lily Cole is visually stunning and hypnotising as Parnassus’ daughter, unaware of her imminent fate as the trade made in a bet between Parnassus and the Devil – played excellently by Christopher Plummer and Tom Wait respectively. Why are Gilliam’s casting choices always so spot on?

After the fun of the film we got to spend a while in Q&A with Terry Gilliam. He was at ease, happy to go into stories, and full of interesting anecdotes. The only annoyance was the apparent inability for some audience members to not ask questions regarding Heath’s death and family, all of which had been answered by Terry in many of his recent interviews or were just deeply inappropriate.

Post Q&A Terry was thronged by fans outside in the bar, some more greedy with his time than others, but thankfully he found a few seconds on the way out the day to sign my favourite Brazil DVD. Huzah! Fanboy #2 goal achieved (#1 being meeting Eddie Izzard back in ‘98 of course).

Stripped is standard Eddie fare, ramblingly hilarious discursions on how the world can be put to rights, how cool iPhones are and how giraffes hide. What’s good to see is that after so long punting the LA stand-up scene, he seems very happy to be back on home ground. The jokes seem more relevant to a UK audience, although at times the American references passed most of the audience by. That said, the audience didn’t seem to mind – and that audience included random celebrity attendees Lenny Henry & Dawn French.

So another big thanks to Mr Izzard for another splendid night, and to those of you who don’t have tickets – get your arses down to the returns queue like we did and keep your fingers crossed! It’s worth the wait.