Hey, everyone. "Moriarty" here with some Rumblings From The Lab.
I still haven’t seen this. I am a bigger Terry Gilliam fan than any of you... at least if we’re measuring by volume. I need to see this movie. I need to see it immediately. And, of course, Capone already has...
If you’re a fan of director Terry Gilliam’s work, then you know all about LOST IN LA MANCHA, a film that started as a simple “Making of...” documentary and turned into a masterpiece that embodies the struggle and frustration filmmakers sometimes go through to get a project done (or not). No screenwriter living or dead could have ever written the story of Gilliam’s efforts to get THE MAN WHO KILLED DON QUIXOTE off the ground. He’d spent years developing the script and getting the financing. We find out that no U.S. studio wanted to back the film, so he had to rely on foreign investors. As a result he was about to make what he said was a $100 million film with about $30 million. His struggles before the cameras were rolling mainly had to do with getting the most for very little cash. This task alone seems daunting.
As the cameras are on the brink of rolling, Gilliam begins to panic because his actors haven’t arrived or had time to rehearse. Directors Keith Fulton and Louis Pepe (who also filmed a documentary about the making of Gilliam’s 12 MONKEYS) have unbelievable access to cast and crew, especially Gilliam as he voices his panic attacks with a fair amount of regularity. Still, watching him work with special effects people, puppeteers, costume designers, etc. is a lot of fun. You really get of sense of every single detail that goes into a period piece as well as a cheaply made fantasy film.
Practically on the eve of shooting, things start to fall apart. Actor Jean Rochefort, who Gilliam has always seen as his Don Quixote, injures himself in Paris and hurt a part of his anatomy that would make horseback riding very painful (we’ll leave it at that). The other leading man in the film, Johnny Depp is Gilliam’s pillar of strength in terms of the actors. He seems game for everything, and we look to him for signs of hope. As if on cue, freakish storms (resulting in flash floods that destroy sets and equipment), annoying NATO flight exercises, and more injuries plague the first couple days of filming. Eventually Rochefort is forced to leave the production to recover, and Gilliam has no one in mind to replace him. It’s at about this time that a gaggle of investors schedules a set visit. Not good. The most amazing and ultimately frustrating part of watching LOST IN LA MANCHA are the few glimpses we get of scenes that actually were filmed; they are stunning to look at and make you very grumpy that this film will more than likely never get made.
LOST IN LA MANCHA affected me on so many levels. I felt privileged to be watching a master like Gilliam at work. Before things go horribly wrong, he seems genuinely excited to be making this close-to-the-heart tale. You almost cry watching his world fall apart due to circumstances entirely out of his control. I’ve heard so much about what a pain he can be working for, but the fact is, the gods atop Mt. Olympus conspired against him on this film. LOST IN LA MANCHA is not only one of the finest documentaries of 2002, it’s one of the best films I saw all last year. The film is already open in some cities and is scheduled to open in Chicago (at the Landmark Century Centre Theatre) and other cities on February 14.
Capone
Thanks, man.
"Moriarty" out.
