Hey, everyone. "Moriarty" here with some Rumblings From The Lab.
There must be something in the air up there in Northern California. Either that, or travel does wonders for the crusty seaman. All I know is, he’s doing a great job with his coverage, and his reports so far have been a real pleasure to read.
Take this one, for example:
Why God? Why does Freddie Prinze Jr.'s bankroll keep expanding? Why do you let Paul W. S. Anderson continue to get great big budget directing jobs? Why will you let studios spend billions of dollars on mediocre to shit level movies and ignore your faithful servant, Terry Gilliam, who has done nothing but push the boundaries of filmmaking? Gilliam is a genius, a true visionary filmmaker... The kind of man who makes movies that make geeks like me drool. Why do you make him suffer through just about every fucking movie he tries to make? What has he done to offend you? Are you really there? If you're there, why do you let these things happen?
Grrrrrrrr. Quint here... those were the thoughts running through my head while watching LOST IN LA MANCHA, Keith Fulton and Louis Pepe's documentary about the slow death of Terry Gilliam's THE MAN WHO KILLED DON QUIXOTE. Sure, our cinema gods have made sure Woody Allen is taken care of with a life long contract at DREAMWORKS and they keep the Coen Brothers busy, but they forgot Terry Gilliam, left him unarmed and vulnerable in a world full of spineless, bean counting fuckheads that run studios. Never mind the fact that Gilliam always turns in quality films, a bit off beat to be sure, but always high in entertainment value. His box office history ain't that bad either, especially when you count the video and DVD sales.
I don't know whether to love or hate LOST IN LA MANCHA. I know I love it because it's a great documentary. It always held my attention, got me emotionally involved with the people onscreen... But fuck, man. It just makes me furious to see Gilliam trying so hard to make his dream, a fantastical retelling of DON QUIXOTE, and seeing it crumble around him because of some bad luck.
If you're confused and have no idea what I'm talking about, this documentary was intended to be the making of documentary on Terry Gilliam's independently financed $32 million film THE MAN WHO KILLED DON QUIXOTE, starring Johnny Depp and French actor Jean Rochefort. The premise of the film was a modern day advertising exec somehow finds himself swept into a land of fiction where he meets Don Quixote, a loony old man who fancies himself a knight. Quixote mistakes Depp for his sidekick, Sancho Panza, and they go off on grand adventures. Gilliam had planned to take the original classic novel and make it more fantastic, adding even more fantasy elements into the story.
Gilliam got $32 million from European investors, staying far away from the studio system (to the studio's great relief is my guess) in hopes of keeping his vision of the film intact. This money was barely enough to go on (he had originally had the bare bones, lowest workable budget set at $40 million) and left absolutely no room for error. Any deviation from the set schedule could send the movie over budget and since there was no studio to keep pulling money from, over budget meant no more movie.
They built sets, props and had just about the entire preproduction stuff completely finished. They had their cast. They had their locations (what they could afford, at least). They started shooting. First day they shoot a scene where Don Quixote stops some Inquisition guards transporting chained prisoners, Depp among them, across the Spanish countryside. They get one scene shot, move onto the second scene of the shoot when all of a sudden there's a long, lasting booming noise as multiple Spanish Army Jets fly above. They soon find out that almost no sound can be shot at that location.
That's bad. But the next day God stepped in. Rain, thunder, lightning, hail... flooding. It's almost as if the gods were saying this film shall never be made.
Everything just unravels from there. I found myself very depressed after the movie, which is most definitely a compliment to the talent of directors Fulton and Pepe as they were able to get me worked up so much. I got depressed because the glimpses we see of Gilliam's vision... the storyboards, readings from the script, actual footage shot... well, I want to see that movie. It looked beautiful. I admit... all this bitching and moaning is really me being very selfish. I fully admit that. Because Gilliam gets fucked around so much I personally don't get to enjoy his films, which pisses me off. It's all Gilliam's fault for coming up with these great ideas, I tell you! GOOD OMENS? An apocalyptic black comedy starring an 11 year old Anti-Christ? I'm so fucking there! Oh wait, it didn't get made either... Damn you studios for depriving me of this film!
While watching the doc, I kept thinking, "How can Gilliam stand this pressure? What makes it worth all this pain?" But then I saw what makes it worth it for him. He shot some test footage of the "Giants," which were in reality 3 very obese and hairy Spaniards without shirts running in slow motion towards the camera, jiggling every which way. As Gilliam watched the returned footage in the last few weeks of preproduction he had a childlike smile on his face. He was wonderstruck. He very loudly giggled like a little girl and when the footage was over he said, "That's the trailer right there!" and continued giggling.
It was that moment that made putting up with all the investor/insurance/money problems worth while. In that small amount of time he remember why he wanted to do this film in the first place, what made him fall in love with being a storyteller. Speaking for a legion of Gilliam fans, I hope he never loses that giggle, that passion. As long as he keeps that passion alive and keeps fighting the good fight I'll have something to look forward to watching with my Gilliam-freak friends.
LOST IN LA MANCHA is very well made from the directors of the amazing documentary THE HAMSTER FACTOR, which chronicled the rollercoaster production of Gilliam's 12 MONKEYS and can be found on the 12 MONKEYS dvd. If you haven't seen it, go out right now and rent it. I think I prefer THE HAMSTER FACTOR to LOST IN LA MANCHA, but merely because of the way I feel after seeing each film.
With THE HAMSTER FACTOR, we know that all the shit Gilliam went through ended with some happiness... Hell, at least he had a movie at the end of it. With LOST IN LA MANCHA the only light at the end of the tunnel is the news that Gilliam has gotten addition independent funding to buy back the rights to his script, which were stolen by a fucking rat bastard Insurance Company. I also heard from the directors afterward that he might have just gotten even more funding. So, while this project is pretty much dead, it might pull a Dracula. I hope to all the cinema gods it does. I'm dying to see the film.
I hope that the gods killed this production for a reason. From the footage I've seen in the doc that was shot... I'm not a big fan of Jean Rochefort as Quixote. He's a French actor in his 70s who had been practicing his English for only 7 months before the production. His accent is so thick that I couldn't understand what he was saying half the time, never mind the fact that the character should most definitely not have a French accent, but a Spanish one. But he did look great in that armor, I'll give him that. I hope that if Gilliam gets his project back they'll recast and make the brilliant movie I know he wants to make without flaw.
All in all, I have to advise seeking this documentary out. Hell, if even to hear noneother than The Dude himself, Jeff Bridges, narrate. It's already released in the UK and will be out in New York, LA and San Francisco Jan. 31st of next year courtesy of IFC Films. Give support to this film. Be vocal. If you've ever loved any of Gilliam's films, try to help the guy out now when he needs you the most. The man's 61 years old. He can't afford to spend so much time putting up with all this bullshit.
I dare any of you studio people out there to dollar for dollar match the money Gilliam is able to raise and leave him alone to make his movie. I double dog dare you. I know that doesn't mean jack shit, but it makes me feel better anyway...
Well, that's about it. I got some more reviews coming, and I even snagged a rather nifty interview with a director that can-can-can, but that's all for another day. 'Til that day, this is Quint bidding you all a fond farewell and adieu.
-Quint
email: I'll be cursing the chicken shit studios... want to join me? Email me here!
