EX MONTY Python Terry Gilliam was in Dublin for a very busy 20 hours this week for the launch of the 11th ACCBank Dublin Film Festival. His film Twelve Monkeys opened the festival and before the screening he spent the afternoon in a public question and answer session with film buffs. Despite being nearly flattened with flu, the very affable director went well over the allotted time answering questions that he found to be "unusually well informed and articulate".
The day after the screening he was booked on to a 7.30 a.m. flight to Brussels for another film festival. "I'm a travelling salesman; film making these days is like being an entertainer in the Middle Ages, you have to go around beating the drum to make people come." Commenting on the speech makers at the launch party, Terry had high praise for the laugh making ability of Dublin's soon to be ex city manager, Frank Feely.
Welcoming the Norwegian Ambassador, Jan Ostern, to the launch, Frank recalled a speech he gave some years ago in Norway. Wanting to include some words of Norwegian in his introduction and being well practised in these matters, he took his cue from the words on two familiar looking doors in the auditorium. As soon as he opened his mouth, he realised from the stricken faces of the audience that he must have made a serious error. He was later told that he had addressed the audience as "Toilets and Urinals".