Fails the Bechdel test
The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus
2010. Directed by Terry Gilliam, written by Terry Gilliam and Charles McKeown.
The Bechdel test
Bechdel score
2 / 3
Fails
-
Yes
1. At least two women
21 women characters. 7 of them speak. -
Yes
2. Who talk to each other
Women do talk to each other. -
No
3. About something besides a man
Every conversation between women that our parser found mentions a man.
Second opinion
Agree bechdeltest.com readers give it 1 out of 3.
The film
In London, the sideshow troupe of Doctor Parnassus promises the audience a journey to the "Imaginarium", an imaginary world commanded by the mind of Doctor Parnassus, where dreams come true. In the stories that Doctor Parnassus tells to his daughter Valentina, the midget Percy, and his assistant Anton, he claims to have lived for more than one thousand years; However, when he fell in love with a mortal woman, he made a deal with the devil (Mr. Nick), trading his immortality for youth. As part of the bargain, he promised his son or daughter to Mr. Nick on their sixteenth birthday. Valentina is now almost to the doomed age and Doctor Parnassus makes a new bet with Mr. Nick, whoever seduces five souls in the Imaginarium will have Valentina as a prize. Meanwhile the troupe rescues Tony, a young man that was hanged on a bridge by the Russians. Tony was chased until he finds and joins the group. Tony and Valentina fall in love with each other and the jealous Anton discovers that his competition may be a liar.
- Released
- 08 Jan 2010
- Genres
- Adventure, Comedy, Fantasy
- Rated
- PG-13
- IMDb
- 6.7 / 10
- Metascore
- 65 / 100
- Awards
- Nominated for 2 Oscars. 5 wins & 23 nominations total
- Elsewhere
- View on IMDb
Starring, by lines spoken
- Women
- Men
- Not in the cast list
- Bigger name, more lines
- Valentina 139 lines, woman
- Tony 122 lines, man
- Anton 112 lines, man
- Dr. Parnassus 111 lines, man
- Doctor Parnassus 82 lines, man
- Percy 75 lines, man
- Mr Nick 41 lines, man
- Man 23 lines, man
- George 19 lines, man
- Louis Vuitton Woman 15 lines, woman
Full cast, 72 people
- Christopher Plummer as Doctor Parnassus
- Lily Cole as Valentina
- Heath Ledger as Tony
- Andrew Garfield as Anton
- Verne Troyer as Percy
- Tom Waits as Devil
- Johnny Depp as Imaginarium Tony 1
- Jude Law as Imaginarium Tony 2
- Colin Farrell as Imaginarium Tony 3
- Fraser Aitcheson as Dancing Policeman
- Bart Anderson as Young Boy's Father
- Patrick Bahrich as Dancing Policeman
- Michael Bean as Dancing Policeman
- Mark Benton as Dad
- Moya Brady as Aunty Flo
- Lisa Bunting as Charity Guest 3
- Bobby Bysouth as Louis Vitton Woman's Reflection
- Wendy Carson as Nun 1
- Ben Cartwright as Policeman 1
- Lorraine Cheshire as Mum
- Gwendoline Christie as Classy Shopper 2
- John Stewart as Dancing Policeman
- Chris Cochrane as Dancing Policeman
- Joann Condon as Shopper
- Erika Conway as Young Boy's Mother
- Ray Cooper as Vladimir
- Bruce Crawford as Face Changed Martin
- D. Harlan Cutshall as Charity Guest 1
- Simon Day as Uncle Bob
- Deni DeLory as Charity Guest 2
- Michael Eklund as Tony's Assistant
- Paloma Faith as Sally
- Craig Fraser as Debonair Gent
- Carrie Genzel as Female Journalist
- Lewis Gott as Diego
- Ryan Grantham as Little Anton
- Mackenzie Gray as First Monk
- Jason Griffith as Dancing Policeman
- Sarah Groundwater-Law as Sales Girl
- Johnny Harris as Policeman
- Georgina Hegedos as Baboushka
- Emil Hostina as Serge
- Igor Ingelsman as Gregor
- Michael Jonsson as Paramedic 2
- Emma Karwandy as Valentina's Daughter
- Vitaly Kravchenko as Piotr
- Montserrat Lombard as Sally's Friend
- Quinn Lord as Young Boy
- Katie Lyons as Martin's Girlfriend
- Donna Lysell as President's Wife
- Amy Marston as Classy Shopper 1
- Scott A. McGillivray as Dancing Policeman
- Charles McKeown as Fairground's Inspector
- Christine McMahon as Nun 2
- Dean Moen as Smiling Policeman
- Peter New as Paramedic 1
- Mark Oliver as Male Journalist
- Carolyn Pickles as Shopper
- Richard Riddell as Martin
- Gavin Rolph as Policeman 2
- Lucy Russell as Classy Shopper 3
- Cassandra Sawtell as Olga
- Sian Scott as Linda
- Richard Shanks as Friend of Martin
- Charles Singh as Security Guard
- Maggie Steed as Louis Vuitton Woman
- Peter Stormare as The President
- Pearce Visser as Dancing Policeman
- Amanda Walker as Shopper
- Ian A. Wallace as Third Monk
- Kis Yurij as Second Monk
- Charlie Carter as Shopper (uncredited)
Who talks, scene by scene
Lines of dialogue in every 2 scenes, start to finish. Women above the line, men below. 4% of lines come from characters we couldn't match to the cast list and aren't shown.
Women
Men
Scene 1 Scene 75
Hover, tap or tab to a bar to see those scenes: where they happen and who's talking.
Show the numbers
| Scenes | Women's lines | Men's lines |
|---|---|---|
| 1 to 2 | 0 | 5 |
| 3 to 4 | 0 | 0 |
| 5 to 6 | 2 | 13 |
| 7 to 8 | 0 | 3 |
| 9 to 10 | 8 | 16 |
| 11 to 12 | 14 | 15 |
| 13 to 14 | 5 | 29 |
| 15 to 16 | 2 | 7 |
| 17 to 18 | 29 | 28 |
| 19 to 20 | 0 | 4 |
| 21 to 22 | 0 | 27 |
| 23 to 24 | 0 | 4 |
| 25 to 26 | 3 | 5 |
| 27 to 28 | 5 | 9 |
| 29 to 30 | 5 | 9 |
| 31 to 32 | 7 | 68 |
| 33 to 34 | 7 | 7 |
| 35 to 36 | 4 | 9 |
| 37 to 38 | 2 | 8 |
| 39 to 40 | 3 | 8 |
| 41 to 42 | 0 | 18 |
| 43 to 44 | 5 | 69 |
| 45 to 46 | 9 | 13 |
| 47 to 48 | 0 | 3 |
| 49 to 50 | 2 | 2 |
| 51 to 52 | 0 | 20 |
| 53 to 54 | 13 | 36 |
| 55 to 56 | 9 | 17 |
| 57 to 58 | 1 | 20 |
| 59 to 60 | 22 | 57 |
| 61 to 62 | 0 | 3 |
| 63 to 64 | 9 | 43 |
| 65 to 66 | 0 | 4 |
| 67 to 68 | 2 | 14 |
| 69 to 70 | 10 | 21 |
| 71 to 72 | 0 | 32 |
| 73 to 74 | 8 | 4 |
| 75 to 75 | 0 | 5 |
The evidence
- Straight from the script
- Counted from the script and the credits
Tap an exhibit to open it.
Exhibit A: every 100 lines
Out of every 100 lines with a known speaker, 22 are women's.
186 lines from women, 655 from men.
- Women
- Men
Exhibit B: who's in it
21 women and 42 men in the cast. 7 women and 24 men from it get lines.
Characters
With lines
- Women
- Men
Exhibit C: who gets heard
The first woman speaks at line 20 of 877.
The longest stretch with no woman speaking runs 43 lines.
Every line of dialogue, first to last
- First line by a woman
- Longest stretch with no woman speaking
Words spoken
Women speak 16% of the words (1,252), men 84% (6,463). Women have 22% of the lines, so their lines run shorter than men's.
Exhibit D: the test the other way
Two named men talk to each other about something besides a woman. It passes the reverse test.
Conversations between two named characters
Two women
1
Two men
42
Exhibit E: behind the camera
6 of the 17 people in these jobs are women.
Across the whole crew, 40% of the people whose gender is listed are women.
- Directed by
- Terry Gilliam (man)
- Written by
- Terry Gilliam (man), Charles McKeown (man)
- Produced by
- William Vince (man), Terry Gilliam (man), Amy Gilliam (woman), Samuel Hadida (man)
- Shot by
- Nicola Pecorini (man)
- Edited by
- Mick Audsley (man)
- Music by
- Jeff Danna (man), Mychael Danna (man)
- Production design by
- Anastasia Masaro (woman), David Warren (man)
- Costumes by
- Monique Prudhomme (woman)
- Cast by
- Irene Lamb (woman), Colleen Bolton (woman), Maureen Webb (woman)
The crew, department by department
-
Other crew
9 women, 15 men, 2 not listed
-
Costume & Make-Up
7 women, 0 men, 4 not listed
-
Production
4 women, 5 men, 2 not listed
-
Art
2 women, 5 men
-
Sound
0 women, 2 men, 2 not listed
-
Directing
0 women, 1 men, 1 not listed
-
Visual Effects
0 women, 1 men, 1 not listed
-
Writing
0 women, 2 men
- Women
- Men
- Gender not listed on TMDB
Exhibit F: how old the stars were
Women: 21 on average. Men: 43 on average.
The top-billed cast, at the film's release.
Women
Lily Cole 21
Men
Andrew Garfield 26, Heath Ledger 30, Colin Farrell 33, Jude Law 36, Fraser Aitcheson 36, Verne Troyer 40, Johnny Depp 46, Tom Waits 59, Christopher Plummer 79
Exhibit G: the money
It made 2.1 times what it cost.
- Budget
- $30 million
- Box office
- $64.4 million
From TMDB, not adjusted for inflation.
About this analysis
Our parser read the script: 75 scenes and 877 lines of dialogue. The bechdeltest.com rating comes from that site’s readers. How the test works
