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April 28, 2024 | Latest Issue
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Tom Jawetz
The Setonian
Arts

'Heart' looks at making of Francis Coppola film

By Tom Jawetz | October 23, 1996

This film is, perhaps, the greatest "making-of" film ever made. Such a claim is warranted when one considers what the directors of "Heart of Darkness: A Filmmaker's Apocalypse" had available to them when creating this film. In exploring the making of "Apocalypse Now," directed by Francis Ford Coppola, directors Fax Bahr and George Hickenlooper had at their disposal scenes edited out of the final version, as well as shots aborted while the cameras continued filming. They had interviews with cast and crew taken during filming, as well as several years later to provide a revealing juxtaposition.

The Setonian
Arts

'Fisher King' looks at sin and redemption

By Tom Jawetz | May 16, 1996

Dante once wrote in his "Purgatorio," "Not by the malediction of bishop nor priest is Eternal Love so lost, as long as hope hath still a speck of green." It is with this in mind that we look to director Terry Gilliam's "The Fisher King," a film about sin and redemption, despair and hope. Jack (Jeff Bridges) is a brash talk radio D.J.

The Setonian
Arts

'Munchausen' offers adventure, imagination

By Tom Jawetz | May 9, 1996

Sometime during the 18th century, there lived a man by the name of Karl Friedrich Hieronymous von Munchausen, who fought for the Russians against the Turks. It is said the good Baron gained quite a bit of notoriety for his acts, but even more so for his fanciful stories.

The Setonian
Arts

Gilliam's 'Brazil' contemplates profundity

By Tom Jawetz | May 2, 1996

Terry Gilliam has always worked with the past. In directing for Monty Python and in his first two independent releases "Jabberwocky" and "Time Bandits," Gilliam took us back to the medieval era, when knights battled evil beasts and rode in search of Holy Grails. Through the Python film "The Meaning of Life," Gilliam was able to make a transition into relative modernity, though certainly not normality.

The Setonian
Arts

Python ponders 'Meaning of Life'

By Tom Jawetz | April 25, 1996

In the course of life, humans are forced to ponder their existence and try to answer those deep philosophical questions, such as "why were we placed on this earth?" "What is the meaning of it all?" Finally, there comes a film that gives answers more explicitly stated than Jack Palance's quizzical "one thing" in "City Slickers." Monty Python address the puzzling topic of "The Meaning of Life," directed by Terry Gilliam, and breaks it down into its bare essentials. In doing so, Monty Python returns to its original BBC television style.

The Setonian
Arts

Monty Python's 'Life of Brian' satirizes religious stories

By Tom Jawetz | April 11, 1996

Okay, so Terry Gilliam did not direct this full-length feature of Monty Python. He does, however, play a prophet, a jailor and several other minor roles. Tonight the Loew Thursday film series will feature Monty Python's "Life of Brian," a film that pokes fun at the greatest messiah in Western history... and pretty much everyone else as well. Brian, played by Graham Chapman, was only a baby boy when he had his first adventure in life.

The Setonian
Arts

Thurs. Loew series focuses on Gilliam

By Tom Jawetz | April 4, 1996

He has a B.A. in political science from Occidental College in Los Angeles, he worked alongside Gloria Steinem in Harvey Kurtzman's humor magazine titled Help and he formerly illustrated for Mad Magazine. Yet Terry Gilliam, the focus of this term's Thursday Loew series, is perhaps best known for his work in the British comedy troupe Monty Python. While a member of Monty Python, Gilliam teamed up with Terry Jones to direct "Monty Python and the Holy Grail" and "Monty Python's Meaning of Life." In between these two films, spurred by a period of depression and soul-searching, Gilliam took his directorial skill out on its own to see what he could do. The first film on which he embarked without the official backing of Monty Python was the 1977 film "Jabberwocky." Incidentally, Gilliam did not continue the practice of inserting his own animation sequences outside his affiliation with Monty Python. "Jabberwocky" is based on Lewis Carroll's poem by the same name in "Through the Looking-Glass" -- "'Twas brillig, and the slithy toves did gyre and gimble in the wabe ..." But Gilliam, widely known throughout the film world for his absurd visions, said he shot the film because he wished to make "filth beautiful." Set in a time when heroes exemplified chivalry, fair maidens were always in need of a helping hand and terrible beasts roamed the land bringing destruction, "Jabberwocky" follows the path of Dennis (Michael Palin), the cooper's son. Carried throughout the film by fate and maintaining his optimistic, polite demeanor, Dennis may bring to mind Forrest Gump.

The Setonian
News

Theremin's life examined

By Tom Jawetz | February 9, 1996

The theremin is an odd instrument that stands straight like a podium with a horizontal loop and a vertical antenna sticking out of the top. The eery, etherial sound that is emitted is brought forth by musicians who need not even touch the instrument -- rather, the sound is created by the manipulation of an electromagnetic field. If this description sounds peculiar, the man who invented it was certainly, at least, equally peculiar.

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