by

Following is a IMDb synopsis of the movie “The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus” with a steller cast including: the late Heath Ledger, most women’s heartthrob Johnny Depp, Jude Law, Christopher Plummer, Verne Troyer, Colin Farrell and the aforementioned Tom Waits.

“The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus is a fantastical morality tale, set in the present day. It tells the story of Dr Parnassus and his extraordinary ‘Imaginarium’, a travelling show where members of the audience get an irresistible opportunity to choose between light and joy or darkness and gloom. Blessed with the extraordinary gift of guiding the imaginations of others, Dr Parnassus is cursed with a dark secret. Long ago he made a bet with the devil, Mr Nick, in which he won immortality. Many centuries later, on meeting his one true love, Dr Parnassus made another deal with the devil, trading his immortality for youth, on condition that when his first-born reached its 16th birthday he or she would become the property of Mr Nick. Valentina is now rapidly approaching this ‘coming of age’ milestone and Dr Parnassus is desperate to protect her from her impending fate. Mr Nick arrives to collect but, always keen to make a bet, renegotiates the wager. Now the winner of Valentina will be determined by whoever seduces the first five souls. Enlisting a series of wild, comical and compelling characters in his journey, Dr Parnassus promises his daughter’s hand in marriage to the man that helps him win. In this captivating, explosive and wonderfully imaginative race against time, Dr Parnassus must fight to save his daughter in a never-ending landscape of surreal obstacles – and undo the mistakes of his past once and for all” more information from IMDb

In The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus Tom Waits is the devil. I’m just guessing, however, I imagine Waits will slip into this role as easily as a stinky foot settling into an old house slipper. I’m also guessing that this film is high art. The muses must have been working overtime.

I am really looking forward to devouring this film. “The film’s world premiere was during the 62nd Cannes Film Festival, out of competition.[] The UK release of the film was scheduled for 6 June 2009 but pushed back to 16 October 2009 due to its successful premiere at Cannes. The film was given a limited release in the US on Christmas Day 2009 and a wide release on 8 January 2010” more from Wiki

I imagine that Waits (Mr. Nick, the devil) will show off the same Tom Waits’ flash-bang acting style that I expierienced in a room at the Tropicana Motor Hotel in Hollywood in the mid 70s. Picking up my Martin D-28, Waits manhandled that sweet guitar as though it were a weapon, snapping the strings with ice-cold defience and a laser focused energy producing sounds that stung like hot bullets through the ego. If that guitar were a gun, I’d be long-dead under the rubble of the long-gone Tropicana Motor Hotel.

My good friend CEW would accuse me of parasitical journalism for posting this article.

Access IMDb pages for this film

Visit the main pages of the LasVegasBuffetClub