Film review: Lost In La Mancha.
Okay, okay, so strictly speaking, this isn't a film, it's a documentary. But it's a documentary about a film, isn't it? I just saw this, after wanting to see it for ages, and it was fascinating.
"It's going to be an extraordinary film. It's going to be beautiful .. and .. terrible, at the same time." -- Terry Gilliam, about The Man Who Killed Don Quixote.
Who is terry Gilliam? At first glance, you'd say he's an overzealous old man with a mullet who calls himself a director of sorts. But once you look closer, you notice there's a lot more to him. He is, in fact, not just a director, but an acclaimed and highly imaginative director even, of films such as Brazil, 12 Monkeys and Monty Python and the Holy Grail. He has, on more occasions than one, been called a visionary.
This visionary happened to have a dream; adapting Miguel Cervantes' Don Quixote for the silver screen was it. And Lost In La Mancha chronicles the making of this film, called The Man Who Killed Don Quixote.
A quick taste of what Gilliam has gone through to get his dream off the ground. In early pre-production, everything seemed peachy, but soon it became clear that this would not be a smooth ride. The only available soundstage had horrible acoustics, and the actors -Johnny Depp, Vanessa Paradis & Jean Rochefort- simply refused to show up for dress rehearsal. Mere days before shooting began, they finally showed up.
Then the actual shooting began.
On day one scenes turn out to have never been rehearsed, and fighter jets kill every chance of capturing good audio. On day two, a torrential rain of biblical proportions washes away entire sets and thousands of dollars in equipment. On day five, the lead actor, Jean Rochefort, turns out to have several herniated discs, rendering him incapable of even sitting on a horse, let alone riding one while acting out his scenes; he'll end up being unable to do anything for an entire week, which turns into ten days, which turns into a month. Minor setbacks follow, but Rochefort's absence is crucial.
Several days later, the project, Gilliams dream project for over a decade, is shut down.
Out of the wreckage of Gilliam's never-finished film comes Lost In La Mancha, a brilliant documentary that perfectly chronicles everything that went wrong, from the first eight weeks of pre-production to the downright disastrous six-day shoot that followed. What is interesting is that we see two sides to Gilliam throughout the documentary; one minute he's giddy with delight at making his dream film, and the next he's spouting obscenities due to the project collapsing all around him. And it's not just Gilliam who suffers, as everyone involved with the film, both in front of & behind the camera, gets dragged down right along with him as all hell breaks loose on this doomed production.
What this documentary does so well is that it doesn't dramatise anything; no dramatic music, no slow motions, nothing. It simply shows us, the viewers, what it takes to get a film off the ground, and why this group of people, under these dire circumstances, could not manage to pull it off. The documentary's harsh and neutral approach to the subject matter is what makes this so interesting to watch - it truly is as if you're there.
"It's going to be beautiful .. and .. terrible, at the same time", Gilliam himself, at some point during pre-production, said about this project. It had the potential to indeed become something beautiful, but alas, all it was, was terrible.
Though, not all is pain and misery. Gilliam is supposedly preparing for a second attempt at shooting the film, and, having seen the film's potential in this superb documentary, I wish Gilliam all the best in finally bringing his Don Quixote project to the silver screen. Judging by the glimpses shown in Lost In La Mancha, I certainly believe it will be a truly great film.
An 78 out of 100.
"It's going to be an extraordinary film. It's going to be beautiful .. and .. terrible, at the same time." -- Terry Gilliam, about The Man Who Killed Don Quixote.
Who is terry Gilliam? At first glance, you'd say he's an overzealous old man with a mullet who calls himself a director of sorts. But once you look closer, you notice there's a lot more to him. He is, in fact, not just a director, but an acclaimed and highly imaginative director even, of films such as Brazil, 12 Monkeys and Monty Python and the Holy Grail. He has, on more occasions than one, been called a visionary.
This visionary happened to have a dream; adapting Miguel Cervantes' Don Quixote for the silver screen was it. And Lost In La Mancha chronicles the making of this film, called The Man Who Killed Don Quixote.
A quick taste of what Gilliam has gone through to get his dream off the ground. In early pre-production, everything seemed peachy, but soon it became clear that this would not be a smooth ride. The only available soundstage had horrible acoustics, and the actors -Johnny Depp, Vanessa Paradis & Jean Rochefort- simply refused to show up for dress rehearsal. Mere days before shooting began, they finally showed up.
Then the actual shooting began.
On day one scenes turn out to have never been rehearsed, and fighter jets kill every chance of capturing good audio. On day two, a torrential rain of biblical proportions washes away entire sets and thousands of dollars in equipment. On day five, the lead actor, Jean Rochefort, turns out to have several herniated discs, rendering him incapable of even sitting on a horse, let alone riding one while acting out his scenes; he'll end up being unable to do anything for an entire week, which turns into ten days, which turns into a month. Minor setbacks follow, but Rochefort's absence is crucial.
Several days later, the project, Gilliams dream project for over a decade, is shut down.
Out of the wreckage of Gilliam's never-finished film comes Lost In La Mancha, a brilliant documentary that perfectly chronicles everything that went wrong, from the first eight weeks of pre-production to the downright disastrous six-day shoot that followed. What is interesting is that we see two sides to Gilliam throughout the documentary; one minute he's giddy with delight at making his dream film, and the next he's spouting obscenities due to the project collapsing all around him. And it's not just Gilliam who suffers, as everyone involved with the film, both in front of & behind the camera, gets dragged down right along with him as all hell breaks loose on this doomed production.
What this documentary does so well is that it doesn't dramatise anything; no dramatic music, no slow motions, nothing. It simply shows us, the viewers, what it takes to get a film off the ground, and why this group of people, under these dire circumstances, could not manage to pull it off. The documentary's harsh and neutral approach to the subject matter is what makes this so interesting to watch - it truly is as if you're there.
"It's going to be beautiful .. and .. terrible, at the same time", Gilliam himself, at some point during pre-production, said about this project. It had the potential to indeed become something beautiful, but alas, all it was, was terrible.
Though, not all is pain and misery. Gilliam is supposedly preparing for a second attempt at shooting the film, and, having seen the film's potential in this superb documentary, I wish Gilliam all the best in finally bringing his Don Quixote project to the silver screen. Judging by the glimpses shown in Lost In La Mancha, I certainly believe it will be a truly great film.
An 78 out of 100.
5 Comments:
Nice review. I find it interesting that two of the greatest visionary directors of the 20th century (Terry Gilliam & Orson Welles) started but did not finish film versions of Don Quixote.
I am wondering, though, in what sense a documentary is not a film.
Admittedly, it's a fine line between a film and a documentary, and it is up to each person to draw (or not draw) it.
I personally make a distiction between film and documentary, in the same way that I make a distinction between a self help book and a novel.
Cheers
Yeah, but you're from Oz.
Cheers
I'm in a quandry now, because some of my favourite "films" are documentaries.
Gilliam is a genius, and Brazil is his masterpiece. It is to most modern cinema what the Mona Lisa is to toilet graffiti.
Well put, Pearce.
Cheers
Post a Comment
<< Home