Actor, writer, director, animator, producer… former Monty Python member Terry Gilliam has done it all, even production design for the Python film Life of Brian! He started out as a cartoonist and animator in the States but soon moved to England where he worked on Do Not Adjust Your Set and the legendary Monty Python’s Flying Circus. After Monty Python dissolved, he focused on writing and directing his own films. Gilliam plays with themes of imagination and rising against the establishment. His films lend themselves to fantastical production design very well – take a look for yourself.
Every Terry Gilliam Film: A Visual Terry Gilliam Production Design Retrospective Share on X
Every Terry Gilliam Film: A Terry Gilliam Production Design Retrospective
Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975)
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King Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table embark on a surreal, low-budget search for the Holy Grail, encountering many very silly obstacles.
Directors: Terry Gilliam and Terry Jones
Production Designer: Roy Forge Smith
Jabberwocky (1977)
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A young peasant with no interest in adventure or fortune is mistaken for the kingdom’s only hope when a horrible monster threatens the countryside.
Director: Terry Gilliam
Production Designer: Roy Forge Smith
Art Director: Milly Burns
Life of Brian (1979)
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Born on the original Christmas in the stable next door to Jesus Christ, Brian of Nazareth spends his life being mistaken for a messiah.
Director: Terry Jones
Production Designer: Terry Gilliam
Art Director: Roger Christian
Time Bandits (1981)
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A young boy accidentally joins a band of time-travelling dwarves as they jump from era to era, looking for treasure to steal.
Director: Terry Gilliam
Production Designer: Milly Burns
Art Director: Norman Garwood
The Meaning of Life (1983)
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The comedy team takes a look at life in all of its stages in their own uniquely silly way.
Director: Terry Jones and Terry Gilliam (animation and special sequence)
Production Designer: Harry Lange
Art Directors: Richard Dawking and John Beard (segment “The Crimson Permanent Assurance”)
Set Decorators: Sharon Cartwright and Simon Wakefield
Brazil (1985)
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A bureaucrat in a dystopic society becomes an enemy of the state as he pursues the woman of his dreams.
Director: Terry Gilliam
Production Designer: Norman Garwood
Art Directors: John Beard and Keith Pain
The Adventures of Baron Munchausen (1988)
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An account of Baron Munchausen’s supposed travels and fantastical experiences across late 18th-century Europe with his band of misfits.
Director: Terry Gilliam
Production Designer: Dante Ferretti
Art Directors: Maria-Teresa Barbasso, Giorgio Giovanni, and Nazzareno Piana, Massimo Razzi
Set Decorator: Francesca Lo Shiavo
The Fisher King (1991)
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A former radio DJ, suicidally despondent because of a terrible mistake he made, finds redemption in helping a deranged homeless man who was an unwitting victim of that mistake.
Director: Terry Gilliam
Production Designer: Mel Bourne
Art Director: P. Michael Johnston
Set Decorator: Cindy Carr
Twelve Monkeys (1995)
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In a future world devastated by disease, a convict is sent back in time to gather information about the manufactured virus that wiped out most of the human population on the planet.
Director: Terry Gilliam
Production Designer: Jeffrey Beecroft
Art Director: William Ladd Skinner
Set Decorator: Crispian Sallis
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (1998)
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An oddball journalist and his demented lawyer travel to Las Vegas for a series of psychedelic escapades.
Director: Terry Gilliam
Production Designer: Alex McDowell
Art Director: Chris Gorak
Set Decorator: Nancy Haigh
The Brothers Grimm (2005)
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Will and Jake Grimm are travelling con artists who encounter a genuine fairy-tale curse which requires true courage instead of their usual bogus exorcisms.
Director: Terry Gilliam
Production Designer: Guy Hendrix Dyas
Art Directors: Keith Pain, Jirí Sternwald, Andy Thomson, and Frank Walsh
Set Decorator: Judy Farr, Guy Hendrix Dyas
Tideland (2005)
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Because of the actions of her irresponsible parents, a young girl is left alone on a decrepit country estate and survives inside her fantastic imagination.
Director: Terry Gilliam
Production Designer: Jasna Stefanovic
Art Director: Anastasia Masaro
Set Decorator: Sara McCudden
The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus (2009)
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A travelling theatre company gives its audience much more than they were expecting.
Director: Terry Gilliam
Production Designer: Anastasia Masaro
Set Decorator: Caroline Smith
The Zero Theorem
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Management tasks a hugely talented but socially isolated computer operator to prove the Zero Theorem: that the universe ends as nothing, rendering life meaningless. But meaning is what he already craves.
Director: Terry Gilliam
Production Designer: David Warren
Art Director: Adrian Curelea
Set Decorator: Jille Azis and Gina Stancu
The Man Who Killed Don Quixote
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Toby, a disillusioned film director, is pulled into a world of time-jumping fantasy when a Spanish cobbler believes himself to be Sancho Panza. He gradually becomes unable to tell dreams from reality.
Director: Terry Gilliam
Production Designer: Benjamín Fernández
Art Director: Alejandro Fernández and Gabriel Liste
Set Decorator: Edou Hydallgo
Gilliam’s animations have always been one of my favourite things about Monty Python. I especially love the “Killer Cars” sketch. What’s your favourite Terry Gilliam film or animation?
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