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Reviews of Recent Independent, Foreign, & Documentary Films in Theaters and DVD/Home Video
LOST IN LA MANCHA
DVD Features: Additional Footage: Salman Rushdie and Terry Gilliam: A Conversation from the 29th Telluride Film Festival, IFC Focus: Terry Gilliam.
Cast & Crew Interviews. Deleted Scenes. Soundbites. Storyboards & Production Stills. Trailer. Scene Selection. Docurama Catalogue.
“If it’s not the F-16s, it’s thunder,” is film director Terry Gilliam’s summation of the first
day of shooting his doomed ten-year effort, The Man Who Killed Don Quixote .
This fly-on-the-wall documentary is a textbook example of Murphy’s Law. Gilliam and
his crew have to work on a limited budget, rarely with actors during preproduction, in a
studio with poor acoustics, and to contend with the flash flood that follows the thunder.
As the disasters increase, this film becomes more absorbing. Hovering throughout this
shoot is the ghost of The Adventures of Baron Munchausen, Gilliam’s hugely
expensive 1989 box office flop. Included are handsome looking glimpses of what might
have been. French actor Jean Rochefort, as Quixote, is already effortlessly in character
during a table read with sullen co-star Johnny Depp as a contemporary and coarse ad
exec. Those who like backstage stories, like Moon Over Broadway, will
especially be drawn to this detailed, amusing and bittersweet take on filmmaking.
The over four hours of DVD special features are a must for Gilliam fans. In the engaging
conversation between the director and novelist Rushdie, they discuss the battle with
Universal over Brazil, LA in the ‘60s, the current state of cinema, and Harry
Potter. Rushdie shares a funny and moving story of his first visit to the U.S. The complete
rough cut of another Gilliam interview with Elvis Mitchell covers much of the same
territory, but Gilliam’s enthusiasm remains contagious as he further elaborates. KT
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