Baron Munchausen Films

[Small Man Big Horse]

I saw the Gilliam version of Munchausen as a teenager I didn't click with it, but I rewatched it recently and loved it, and that gave me the urge to seek out other versions of the tale, I've only seen two others so far but will add more to this thread as and when I can.

The Hallucinations of Baron Munchausen (1911) - A short film by Georges Méliès, this sees a drunken Baron dragged to bed, where he has a number of increasingly strange hallucinations / dreams, including an angry Egyptian, a stroppy dragon and a freakishly disturbing spiderwoman, all of which are beautifully weird. 8.1/10

Baron Prasil (aka The Outrageous Baron Munchausen 1962) - A Czech take on the adventures of Baron Munchausen, this is largely shot with tinted lenses and a mixture of live action, painted backdrops and animation, though occasionally there's a burst of another colour, all of which combined makes for a visually stunning affair. With a far dryer sense of humour than Gilliam's version it's just as absurd, if not even more so at times, as the Baron is on the moon drinking wine with a few pals (including Cyrano de Bergerac) when he meets an astronaut, Tony, and travels down to the planet with him. Antics include the duo meeting a princess and saving her, with both wishing to seduce her, the entire the Turkish armada attempting to kill them, being swallowed by a giant whale, and various other bits of madness, all of which never less than enormously entertaining, and this is a rare occasion where I wish a film was much longer as it's ludicrously fun. 8.7/10

The Adventures Of Baron Munchausen (1988) - When I first saw this as a teenager I didn't particularly like it which confuses me no end as I loved it to pieces today, and so can only presume my younger self was an absolute c***. It's the shaggiest of shaggy dog tales, constantly inventive and playful, and even Eric Idle is likeable somewhat amazingly, while Neville is majestic as the lead. I think in the scheme of things I just about prefer Brazil but this comes a close second, and is Gilliam at the very top of his game. 8.3/10

I know there's also a German 1943 effort which is handily in youtube in full, a Russian tv movie and a two part German tv film, all of which and more I hope to watch soon.

So are there any other fans? And has anyone read the original novel?

[Shit Good Nose]

I've seen the Melies, the 43 German one, the Russian one, and a 70s French cartoon, but really the Gilliam and Zeman ones are the only ones you need to see.  Both absolutely essential.  Even the Melies one is a bit rubs once you look past the technical achievement of the time (like quite a few of Melies' films).

Never read the book.

[Small Man Big Horse]

I've seen the Melies, the 43 German one, the Russian one, and a 70s French cartoon, but really the Gilliam and Zeman ones are the only ones you need to see.  Both absolutely essential.  Even the Melies one is a bit rubs once you look past the technical achievement of the time (like quite a few of Melies' films).

Never read the book.

That's disappointing to hear about the others, I'd hoped they might have been as inventive and as mad as the other the Gilliam and Zeman films, I'll probably still watch the German one as it's easy to see but might not bother obtaining the others.

Why didn't you like the Melies one out of interest? I know it doesn't really have much to do with the Baron and is just a selection of weird events, but the bizarre silliness of it all really appealed to me.

[Ant Farm Keyboard]

Go watch them all. You shouldn't experience Munchausen by proxy.

[Catalogue Trousers]

That said, the 70s French cartoon version SGN mentions (I'm pretty sure it's the same one) has, in its English dub, a Sultan who looks and sounds remarkably like Eric Cartman, which I enjoyed a lot.

[Small Man Big Horse]

Go watch them all. You shouldn't experience Munchausen by proxy.

Ha, lovely stuff!

That said, the 70s French cartoon version SGN mentions (I'm pretty sure it's the same one) has, in its English dub, a Sultan who looks and sounds remarkably like Eric Cartman, which I enjoyed a lot.

Well now I have to see that. And I've learnt there's also another Czech version made in 1940 which has a character based on the Baron but bar that has little to do with the book, but apparently it's still quite fun so I will be watching it soon.

[Shit Good Nose]

That's disappointing to hear about the others, I'd hoped they might have been as inventive and as mad as the other the Gilliam and Zeman films, I'll probably still watch the German one as it's easy to see but might not bother obtaining the others.

Why didn't you like the Melies one out of interest? I know it doesn't really have much to do with the Baron and is just a selection of weird events, but the bizarre silliness of it all really appealed to me.

Oh, there's absolutely nothing wrong with the others (that I've seen), I just think that the Gilliam and Zeman ones are the best of them (that I've seen) and none of the others (that I've seen) really live up to them. 

As for not liking the Melies one - admittedly seeing the Gilliam and Zeman ones first, I guess I was kind of spoilt by them.  In comparison, Melies' is a bit unfocussed and messy, even by his standards.

That said, the 70s French cartoon version SGN mentions (I'm pretty sure it's the same one) has, in its English dub, a Sultan who looks and sounds remarkably like Eric Cartman, which I enjoyed a lot.

Oh well now I feel I've missed out having only seen the French version in French with subtitles...

[mothman]

Go watch them all. You shouldn't experience Munchausen by proxy.

[Small Man Big Horse]

Oh, there's absolutely nothing wrong with the others (that I've seen), I just think that the Gilliam and Zeman ones are the best of them (that I've seen) and none of the others (that I've seen) really live up to them. 

As for not liking the Melies one - admittedly seeing the Gilliam and Zeman ones first, I guess I was kind of spoilt by them.  In comparison, Melies' is a bit unfocussed and messy, even by his standards.

Ah, I'm back to looking forward to tracking them down then, I won't rush to do it as the Zeman is so fresh in my mind, but it'll take place at some point. And I understand where you're coming from on the Melies front, but I'm a whore for pretty visuals and it delivered on that front at least.


Oh well now I feel I've missed out having only seen the French version in French with subtitles...
[/quote]

[Ant Farm Keyboard]

For completion's sake the French cartoon version by Jean Image (born in Hungary as Imre Haj, get it?) got a sequel five years later, Le Secret des Sélénites, aka Moontrek, that's centered on Munchausen's travel to the Moon, with some sci-fi added. Image self-produced seven animated feature films that were quite low budget and academic, in parallel to his work for French TV, and the Munchausen diptych was his final work

[Small Man Big Horse]

Thanks for the above, I'll see if I can find them online.

Baron Prásil (aka Baron Munchhausen, 1940) - A Czechoslovakian film featuring the famous Baron Munchausen, though it bares very little resemblance to the character found elsewhere apart from his penchant for tall tales, but even then they're not that unusual. There is a very slight element of the supernatural as whenever anyone lies in the Baron's castle his (never actually seen) grandfather's ghost causes a plate to fall from the wall and smash, but oddly this is only a very minor aspect of the film and mostly it's a farce where Arnost Benda is the Baron's new secretary and secretly married to his daughter, but soon the Baron's wife thinks she's the object of Anost's affections while the Baron is hiding the fact that he has a sod load of illegitimate children and that Arnost might be one of them. There's little here you won't have seen before, but the dialogue is strong, the cast very likeable, and it moves at a decent pace and has a quaint charm. 6.8/10

[Small Man Big Horse]

Münchhausen (1943) - A lavish, sumptuous German take on the story which looks pretty stunning, and which features a rather horny Baron (there's even a fair amount of topless nudity in a couple of harem set scenes) whose antics include

Spoiler alert

an affair with Catherine The Great, a cannonball trip to a Turkish King, a visit to Italy and Casanova, and a final trek to the moon

[close]

. It has a dryer sense of humour than the others that I've seen so far but there's still plenty of absurdity, including rabid flying clothes, a duel in the darkness, and the

Spoiler alert

time broken moon is very strange place indeed

[close]

, and it made me laugh a fair amount, while the ending is oddly sweet and touching. 7.9/10

Edit: I meant to add, a really great looking 1080p print is on youtube if anyone fancies it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NTs0TxQBhG4

[Small Man Big Horse]

The Very Same Munchhausen (1979) - Russian tv movie that sees the Baron wish to marry his second wife, the only problem being that he's yet to divorce the first, and to do so he has to deny that his famous fantastical pursuits ever took place. While there's much discussion of his adventures we see very little of them as this is a satire of how society both exploits but also waters down eccentricity, and it's really overlong, it has moments that are amusing but the second half drags, it hammers home it's point over and over again, and only a very charismatic performance from Oleg Yankovskiy as the Baron stopped me from being annoyed that I watched it. 5.4/10

[Small Man Big Horse]

That said, the 70s French cartoon version SGN mentions (I'm pretty sure it's the same one) has, in its English dub, a Sultan who looks and sounds remarkably like Eric Cartman, which I enjoyed a lot.

I ended up watching the French version in the end as it was four minutes longer, which I'll get to in a bit...

Les Fabuleuses Aventures du légendaire baron de Münchhausen (1979) - French animated take on the Baron's adventures, and right at the start the Baron's dog Diane tells us that the Baron's tales are all lies making her a very bad dog indeed. Story wise we get

Spoiler alert

the antics of an eight legged hare, the stag with a cherry tree on its head, the bet with the Turkish king, imprisonment leading to cannonball flight, underwater mermaid seduction and swordfish fighting, the giant whale, and finally the bird court,

[close]

and it's all fine, amusing enough, with a few fun short songs, and if I'd never seen any of the other versions I might have liked it more, but as I have I can't really rate it higher than 6.0/10.

I did check out the English dub and was amused by the very effeminate Cartman sounding Turkish King, and I also watched the mermaid song as whoever did the (otherwise great) subtitles didn't translate it, and noticed that it had been recut so that while you saw the mermaids, all of the close up's where they're visibly topless had been removed, presumably as the site of a tiny nipple would have caused English children to faint.

For completion's sake the French cartoon version by Jean Image (born in Hungary as Imre Haj, get it?) got a sequel five years later, Le Secret des Sélénites, aka Moontrek, that's centered on Munchausen's travel to the Moon, with some sci-fi added. Image self-produced seven animated feature films that were quite low budget and academic, in parallel to his work for French TV, and the Munchausen diptych was his final work

There's a dubbed version of that on youtube which I've downloaded and will watch at some point, but as I only quite liked the first in the series I won't be rushing to do so.