Animator, Python (Monty Python’s Flying Circus) and film-maker, Terry Gilliam, was invited earlier in the year to select favourite films.

Given the run of Criterion’s DVD Closet, he excitedly chose:

Yojimbo

RIFIFI

The complete Jaques Tati

A box-set of Ingmar Bergman

8 1/2 (which he says is a great truthful insight into being a Director)

and Paths of Glory – which changed his life when he saw it as a youth because he suddenly saw film could be about injustice – and which set him on a course to making films about injustice but which are also entertaining enough to watch.  (In another interview, he refers to this as his Mary Poppins inspiration – to sugar-coat the medicine).

On Prime

Having watched this video, I enjoyed watching the current Prime video “In conversation with Terry Gilliam” – and also an old video on Youtube of how he made the paper animations for Python.

Sound on film

The BBC has listed a huge range of programmes it has made on/with Terry Gilliam on Tv and…. frustratingly, they are no longer accessible.  However, slip into the less-glamorous world of “BBC Sounds” on BBC i-Player and you can access even ancient 1991 recordings like this on a programme called “Meridian”.  Perfect for having on in the background while cooking dinner or other things needing done.

Terry 2015

There is a long (hour and a half) more-recent interview with the BBC culture correspondent, Will Gompertz, in 2015, following the publication of Terry’s memoirs.  Although the interview sensibly goes through the sequence of Terry’s life, this is no mere sentimental saunter down memory lane – Terry is fizzing about where is community nowadays when there is such a wide range of media?  What are the effects of constant newsfeed of violent news – observing wryly that every government loves to have a terrified population.  At the end, there is a generous Q&A session.

Conversation in Royal Festival Hall, presented by Intelligence Squared and Southbank Centre