"Making a film is
essentially about two things: belief and momentum" - Terry Gilliam
Terry Gilliam on set
Lost In La Mancha may be the first 'un-making of'
documentary. In a genre that exists to hype films before their release, Lost In
La Mancha presents an unexpected twist: it is the story of a film that does not
exist. Instead of a sanitised glimpse behind the scenes, Lost In La Mancha
offers a unique, in-depth look at the harsher realities of filmmaking. With
drama that ranges from personal conflicts to epic storms, this is a record of a
film disintegrating.
In September 2000, when the cameras began rolling on Terry Gilliam's adaptation
of Don Quixote, the production already had a chequered past including ten years
of development, a series of producers and two previous attempts to start the
film. Gilliam had achieved the difficult task of financing the $32 million
budget entirely within Europe - a feat that would provide him with freedom from
the creative restrictions of Hollywood. The uphill journey was not, however,
inconsistent with Gilliam's career: his more than fifteen year history of
battling the Hollywood machine had cast him, like Quixote, as a visionary
dreamer who rages against gigantic forces.
Joining the Madrid based production team eight weeks before the shoot, Lost In
La Mancha directors Keith Fulton and Louis Pepe witness the successes as well as
the failures. Problems are quick to emerge: the multilingual crew struggles to
communicate detailed ideas; actors remain absent as they run over schedule on
other projects; and everything from untrained horses to a sound stage - that
isn't sound-proof - threatens the film. But through it all, there is the
palpable, mounting excitement that Gilliam's ideas will finally come to
fruition: the crew watch test footage of marauding giants; puppeteers rehearse a
troop of life-size marionettes; Gilliam and Johnny Depp brainstorm over the
script. By the time Jean Rochefort straps on his Quixote armour, success, though
far off, seems almost possible.
Not long into production disaster strikes: flash floods destroy sets and damage
camera equipment; the lead actor falls seriously ill; and on the sixth day
production is brought to its knees. Uniquely, after Quixote's cameras have
stopped rolling, the documentary continues to record events as they unfold: the
crew waits, insurance men and bondsmen scramble with calculators and
interpretations of 'force majeure' and behind it Gilliam struggles to maintain
both belief and momentum in his project.
In the best tradition of documentary filmmaking, Lost In La Mancha captures all
the drama of this story through 'fly-on-the-wall' vérité footage and
on-the-spot interviews. Gilliam's plans for the non-existent film come alive in
animations of his storyboards, narrated and voiced by co-writer Tony Grisoni and
Gilliam himself. And with the camera tests of the leading actors and the rushes
from the only six days of photography, Lost In La Mancha offers a tantalizing
glimpse of the cinematic spectacle that might have been.
Lost In La Mancha is less a process piece about filmmakers at work and more a
powerful drama about the inherent fragility of the creative process - a
compelling study of how, even with an abundance of the best will and passion,
the artistic endeavor can remain an impossible dream.
