Terry Gilliam

From Monty Python’s resident animator to director of Time Bandits, Brazil and Twelve Monkeys, Terry Gilliam has brought us his twisted, surreal visions of the world for the past five decades. But as Python turns 50 and the celebrations begin, the Hollywood rebel is ready for something completely different.

- James Mottram

In Cannes 2018, Terry Gilliam arrived with The Man Who Killed Don Quixote finally complete. And what happened? Legal fights with former producer Paulo Branco almost derailed the closing night screening and caused Amazon Studios to pull out of releasing it. Worse still, Gilliam had just suffered a perforated medullary artery. Just his luck after 25 years of trying to get Quixote made.

Thankfully, the 78-year-old Gilliam is fighting fit when TF catches up with him a year later. Well, almost. The Minnesota native, who formally renounced his US citizenship in 2006, has just been playing with his granddaughter. “I’m exhausted… she’s obviously trying to kill me and make room for herself!” he giggles, something he does with huge frequency.

Gilliam is back talking about where it all began. Fifty years ago, a giant pink foot splatted for the first time on our screens as Gilliam’s animations for Monty Python’s Flying Circus were unleashed. It wasn’t his first TV gig – he’d met fellow Pythons, Michael Palin, Eric Idle and Terry Jones on children’s show Do Not Adjust Your Set – but the groundbreaking BBC sketch comedy was the perfect platform for his surreal worldview.

By 1975, Gilliam had graduated, codirecting with Jones the group’s first feature, medieval romp Monty Python And The Holy Grail, before picking Palin for the lead in his first solo effort, Jabberwocky, two years later. This blend of dark fairytale, fantasy and humor would come to characterize the Gilliam style in everything from Time Bandits to The Adventures Of Baron Munchausen to The Brothers Grimm.