A remarkable behind-the-scenes look at a movie that wasn't, Lost in La Mancha is an incisive, entertaining document of the difficulties inherent in the moviemaking process.
A remarkable behind-the-scenes look at a movie that wasn't, Lost in La Mancha is an incisive, entertaining document of the difficulties inherent in the moviemaking process.
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For years, one of filmmaker Terry Gilliam's great dreams was to make a screen adaptation of Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra's classic tale Don Quixote, and in 2000 it looked as if his dream was to become a reality. In collaboration with Tony Grisoni, Gilliam had written a script called The Man Who Killed Don Quixote, in which a 20th century advertising man accidentally travels back in time and is mistaken by Don Quixote for his faithful companion, Sancho Panza. After ten years of shopping the
project to American studios with no success, Gilliam and his producers had secured financing for the film from a consortium of European sources, and Johnny Depp had been cast as the time-tripping adman, with the venerable French actor Jean Rochefort as Don Quixote. However, as the production moved closer to its start date, more and more things began to go wrong -- contracts went unsigned, key cast and crew members had not yet arrived, and the carefully prepared budget seemed stressed to the breaking point. Nevertheless, Gilliam soldiered on, but after a mere six days of shooting, during which Spanish Air Force jets ruined several takes, flash floods destroyed several sets, and Gilliam struggled to keep his dream afloat, Rochefort suffered a severe back injury. The film's financiers decided to cash in their chips and pulled the plug in order to cash in on their insurance, though Gilliam struggled for months afterward to find a way to put the production back on track. Documentary filmmakers Keith Fulton and Louis Pepe had been invited by Gilliam to make a film about the production of The Man Who Killed Don Quixote, and after shooting 80 hours of footage of the chaotic pre-production process as well as the aborted shooting schedule, they instead created Lost In La Mancha, a look at the "un-making" of the film, which along with the story of the project's brief rise and messy collapse, featured a look at several completed scenes from the film, as well as animated versions of the film's storyboards which offered a glimpse of the look and scale of the film Gilliam was attempting to create. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
Wondrous document of a film gone wrong and an artist who inspires fans, cast and crew, even as he terrifies financiers, insurers and anyone more firmly footed in filmmaking reality.
A fascinating study in the cinematic arts, as we watch a talented director and a committed crew and cast thwarted by nature, human failings and just plain bad luck.
Gilliam himself is a joy to behold. His wit stays sharp even as his fortunes dull, and the conditions that conspire against him only prove the mettle in our man of La Mancha.
One hopes that some day Gilliam gets to realize his dream, but in the meantime, in Lost In La Mancha, the shards of that dream offer tantalizing -- and tear-inducing -- glimpses of what might have been.
It's worth watching to catch glimpses of the Gilliam works, and to be strangely reassured that disasters and misfortune happen even to the best artists.
This is a lively film, as optimistic in tone as Don Quixote is in character. And Terry Gilliam is a bright, expansive and enthusiastic filmmaker, a likeable, charismatic guy who jokes about having a budget of US$31.5 million being "half the money we need"
Terry Gilliam: At least if we're going to be fucked, let's know we're fucked ahead of time. "They have a story... but they've lost the plot"Lost in La Mancha is a fascinating documentary of Terry Gilliam's failed attempt to bring Don Quixote's story to life in film. He had worked over a decade on the film and says
countless times throughout this documentary that he has ran through it in his mind several times. Jeff Bridges narrates and there are several interviews from the crew and actors, including Johnny Depp, working on the picture. Gilliam and his team have to work through endless amounts of bad luck, including planes flying over while they are shooting, bad weather and a lack of funds. Worst of all, the actor playing Don Quixote(Jean Rochefort) isn't in the best of health. It's said that Gilliam isn't the only one to try and fail to make an adaption of Quixote. Orson Welles tried for many years to make Quixote, but never ended up finishing it.Lost in La Mancha is a pretty entertaining and extremely interesting look at some of the struggles that occur during production. It's definitely worth a watch if you enjoy seeing how films are made, or in this case tried to be made.
August 17, 2011
Melvin White
Super Reviewer
Lost In La Mancha is a video diary of Terry Gilliam's attempt to make his adaptation of Don Quixote in which a modern day advertising executive finds himself transported back in time and mistaken for Quixote's faithful companion Sancho Panza. Failing to get financial backing from Hollywood because of the shadow of his
one heroic failure Baron Munchausen looming over his head (despite the fact that he had made financial successes before and since), he tried to make the film using European money and although he was forced to work with half the budget he would have liked, it was actually shaping up quite nicely. Unfortunately a catalogue of catastrophes plagued the film in the first week of shooting, from the set being buzzed by F-16s to the star being diagnosed with a double hernia. Not to mention the fact that Gilliam had to watch all of his equipment being washed away by a freak flash flood! It's actually a fascinating look behind the scenes of the movie making process; from Gilliam's mind's eye being transformed into storyboards, to the process of costume design, make up, scouting, screen testing and eventual (if disastrous) shooting. The footage that was actually shot (of which there is maybe a minute!) looks like it could have been another of his great successes and it is strange how there seems to be a real parallel between Quixote and Gilliam himself; in this case the grim reality that defeats him is represented by the insurance men who avoided paying out by claiming that a 70 year old actor falling ill was an "act of god". It makes you wonder why any of us ever pay for insurance for anything in the first place. The suits still own the rights to his script, and I for one hope that Terry will continue to shout at these pinstriped windmills and never accept defeat.
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