It's enough to make you think it's cursed: Terry Gilliam certainly does. Orson Welles came a cropper trying to film Don Quixote, and recently Gilliam's seen his own attempts crumble to nothing. Lost in La Mancha depicts the ex-Python's struggle against the elements and human fallibility to make The Man Who Killed Don Quixote, an adaptation-cum-update of Cervantes' classic. Initially, this documentary was meant as a simple 'making of' piece: directors Fulton and Pepe covered the production of Twelve Monkeys (1995) as The Hamster Factor (1996), a not entirely flattering account which Gilliam gamely championed and which ended up accompanying the feature itself onto video and DVD. This time round, the film in question was never completed - indeed, it was hardly started - and this stands as a document of the chain of events that brought it down.
The footage assembled here is often excusably lo-fi: in particular, the sound quality is sometimes so poor it requires on-screen subtitles. What makes for compelling viewing is simply witnessing the hurdles Fate throws Gilliam's way: a flash-flood that demolishes sets; a sound-stage that isn't remotely soundproof (witness the owners trying to talk Gilliam round, just as a jet passes noisily overhead); and most disastrously, Jean Rochefort - Gilliam's Quixote of choice - being invalided from the shoot within days, never to return - having got a major hernia from the horseriding. It's unclear whether Gilliam's conspiring to broadcast his darkest hours here to fan the flames of a potential remount or else out of sheer bloody-mindedness, but given his track record, it's probably the latter.
Thankfully Fulton and Pepe don't overdo the obvious romance of Gilliam tilting at windmills, but instead present perhaps the most unglamorous insight into film-making yet seen. (Hearts of Darkness (1991) might be grim, but at least Coppola got his film finished). It's heartbreakingly clear that all concerned are genuinely enthusiastic about being involved. There's no little pathos in the shots of Gilliam lost to quiet despair, while his trusted lieutenant, first assistant director Philip Patterson, emerges as a steady hero - only to quit before he's fired as a scapegoat. It might only be a movie about a movie, but it's evocative and involving nonetheless.
It's as well that Fulton and Pepe avoid any grandstanding frills and stick to the jaw-dropping facts. We see Gilliam and his co-writer Tony Grisoni reading aloud from the unrealised script, illustrated by production designs, and what little complete footage there is from the shoot gets an airing. No-one's about to declare this documentary a masterpiece, but it succeeds in unfussily detailing exactly what went wrong. Gilliam-heads will adore it, but then surely no-one could resist falling for the man, seeing him at once so excited and so embattled. If this can help in some small way to save him from Nike adverts and Development Hell, then it's all worthwhile. It's sobering to think that the hysterically chuckling visionary is now pushing 62, and could do without many more Acts of God being visited upon his career.
Reviewed by Andy Murray
Reader comments about Lost in La Mancha
Steve (Email address withheld) writes:
Not only a poignant picture of battling against impossible odds but one can see that the finished film (Don Quixote) would probably be as good as Time Bandits - and that's saying something.
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