Trump conman, idiot, says Gilliam film director
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afp25 monty pythons terry gilliam could be forgiven for thinking the whole donald trump presidency is a joke on him1 for years i was saying we are getting to the point of having a complete conman for a president the film director and animator told afp and now here we are1 for somebody who likes turning things upside down i should be enjoying this but trump is an idiot said the maker of brazil and fear and loathing in las vegas1 and humour is no defence. not even the pythons in their 1960s pomp could match the surreal madcap nature of the presidency he insisted its absurd1 the reality is funnier than anything one can do gilliam laughed1 the life of brian their classic satirical take on a false messiah now seems all too prophetic he said completely relevant to the world we are living in1 it makes me feel like ive gotten very old and i am living through a nightmare he added1 for his latest project gilliam 77 is directing the opera benvenuto cellini in paris1 its so crazy and there is no way you can do anything. so i have become apolitical i am candide he said referring to voltaires naively optimistic hero. i am going to be tending my garden thats what i am going to do1 yet the madness of it all still gets gilliams famously brilliant brain going1 look at america under trump look at england under the conservatives it is just a joke. britain is part of europe and to think it can be great britain again is utterly foolish1 nor is gilliam now a british citizen afraid to call out his old friend and fellow python john cleese for supporting brexit telling afp bluntly he is an idiot1 but even the political climate cannot curb gilliams boundless optimism and creative fire for long1 at 77 he is still fizzing with ideas with a stack of projects in his sights including a musical1 this is a man after all who renounced his american citizenship in protest at george w. bush1 the movie has gone down in hollywood history as one of the most cursed projects ever beset by such a string of disasters that the saga spawned an acclaimed documentary1 im free gilliam declared i was the prisoner of don quixote for 26 years1 the best thing about it being finished is that i like it because i thought for all those years i would only disappoint myself. but its great adam driver of star wars fame and jonathan price are extraordinary the whole cast is wonderful he said1 metoo mob rule1 gilliam has dedicated the movie to the actors jean rochefort and john hurt neither of whom lived long enough to play don quixote1 ever the mischief maker the director said the film includes scenes of women behaving inappropriately1 it is his little jab at the metoo movement which he claims has morphed into something ugly and dangerous1 its like when mob rule takes over the mob is out there they are carrying their torches and they are going to burn down frankensteins castle1 its crazy how simplified things are becoming. there is no intelligence anymore and people seem to be frightened to say what they really think. now i am told even by my wife to keep my head a bit low he said ignoring her advice1 while gilliam condemned harvey weinstein as a monster he claimed that he was not alone. the mogul was exposed because he is such asshole he said1 i think some people did very well out of meeting with harvey and others didnt. the ones who did knew what they were doing. these are adults we are talking about adults with a lot of ambition1 harvey opened the door for a few people a night with harvey thats the price you pay said gilliam who is in paris to direct an opera benvenuto cellini next week1 he said power had always been abused in the film world and i dont think hollywood will change. power takes advantage it always does1 the great irony he said was that while metoo has been in full flow a self-confessed pussy-grabber is the president of the us and is just walking around unchallenged he added1 in fact the maker of time bandits the fisher king and 12 monkeys is on a high having finally finished the man who killed don quixote after nearly two decades of development hell1