''Lost in La Mancha'' is a 2002

documentary film A documentary film or documentary is a non-fictional motion-picture intended to "document reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction, education or maintaining a historical record". Bill Nichols has characterized the documentary in te ...

about

Terry Gilliam Terrence Vance Gilliam (; born 22 November 1940) is an American-born British filmmaker, comedian, animator, actor and former member of the Monty Python comedy troupe. Gilliam has directed 13 feature films, including '' Time Bandits'' (1981), '' ...

's first attempt to make ''

The Man Who Killed Don Quixote ''The Man Who Killed Don Quixote'' is a 2018 adventure- comedy film directed by Terry Gilliam and written by Gilliam and Tony Grisoni, loosely based on the 1605/1615 novel ''Don Quixote'' by Miguel de Cervantes. Gilliam tried to make the film m ...

'', a film adaptation of the 1605/1615 novel ''

Don Quixote is a Spanish epic novel by Miguel de Cervantes. Originally published in two parts, in 1605 and 1615, its full title is ''The Ingenious Gentleman Don Quixote of La Mancha'' or, in Spanish, (changing in Part 2 to ). A founding work of West ...

'' by

Miguel de Cervantes Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra (; 29 September 1547 (assumed) – 22 April 1616 NS) was an Early Modern Spanish writer widely regarded as the greatest writer in the Spanish language and one of the world's pre-eminent novelists. He is best kno ...

. The documentary was shot in 2000 during

pre-production Pre-production is the process of planning some of the elements involved in a film, television show, play, or other performance, as distinct from production and post-production. Pre-production ends when the planning ends and the content start ...

and filming and it was intended as a "

making-of In cinema, behind-the-scenes (BTS), also known as the making-of, the set, or on the set, is a type of documentary film that features the production of a film or television program Television, sometimes shortened to TV, is a telecomm ...

" documentary for the film. However, Gilliam's failure to complete his film resulted in the documentary filmmakers retitling their work as ''Lost in la Mancha'' and releasing it independently. Written and directed by Keith Fulton and Louis Pepe, ''Lost in La Mancha'' presents Gilliam's effort to make ''Don Quixote'' as a parallel to Quixote's quest to become a hero. It co-stars

Johnny Depp John Christopher Depp II (born June 9, 1963) is an American actor and musician. He is the recipient of List of awards and nominations received by Johnny Depp, multiple accolades, including a Golden Globe Award and a Screen Actors Guild Awa ...

Jean Rochefort Jean Raoul Robert Rochefort (; 29 April 1930 – 9 October 2017) was a French actor. He received many accolades during his career, including an Honorary César in 1999. Life and career Rochefort was born on 29 April 1930 in Paris, France, to ...

, and

Vanessa Paradis Vanessa Chantal Paradis (; born 22 December 1972) is a French singer, model, and actress. Paradis became a child star at the age of 14 with the international success of her single "Joe le taxi" (1987). At age 18, she was awarded France's hig ...

, who were cast as stars for ''The Man Who Killed Don Quixote''. It is narrated by

Jeff Bridges Jeffrey Leon Bridges (born December 4, 1949) is an American actor. He has received various accolades throughout his career spanning over seven decades, including an Academy Award and two Golden Globe Awards. Bridges comes from a prominent ac ...

. Gilliam ultimately succeeded in making ''The Man Who Killed Don Quixote'', which was released in 2018. Fulton and Pepe have made a follow-up documentary, titled '' He Dreams of Giants'', which covers Gilliam's entire scope of work on the Quixote project.

Background

Finding the source material written by

too vast, Gilliam and his co-writer decided to create their own version of the Quixote story. They made a major change inspired by

Mark Twain Samuel Langhorne Clemens (November 30, 1835 – April 21, 1910), known by his pen name Mark Twain, was an American writer, humorist, entrepreneur, publisher, and lecturer. He was praised as the "greatest humorist the United States has pr ...

's 1889 novel ''

A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court ''A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court'' is an 1889 novel by American humorist and writer Mark Twain. The book was originally titled ''A Yankee in King Arthur's Court''. Some early editions are titled ''A Yankee at the Court of King Arth ...

''. They planned to have the character of

Sancho Panza Sancho Panza () is a fictional character in the novel ''Don Quixote'' written by Spanish author Don Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra in 1605. Sancho acts as squire to Don Quixote and provides comments throughout the novel, known as ''sanchismos'', ...

appear only early in the film. He was to be replaced by character Toby Grisoni, a 21st-century marketing executive thrown back through time, whom Don Quixote mistakes for Panza. Gilliam was excited about the film, as he felt that the story of Don Quixote embodies many of his own themes (such as the individual versus society, the concept of sanity, etc.). He intended to film it entirely in Spain and other nations in Europe.

was cast to play Don Quixote, in preparation for which he spent seven months learning English. Toby was to be played by

and

would have been his love interest. Fulton and Pepe had previously filmed a making-of documentary about Giliam's earlier film ''

12 Monkeys ''12 Monkeys'' is a 1995 American science fiction film directed by Terry Gilliam, inspired by Chris Marker's 1962 short film '' La Jetée'', starring Bruce Willis, Madeleine Stowe, and Brad Pitt, with Christopher Plummer and David Morse in ...

''.

Production

''Lost in La Mancha'' explores how the film's production issues soon overran schedule and budget. Gilliam tells his crew not to be afraid to tell him that something is too complicated or expensive to be done, because he needs to be restrained sometimes. In another interview, he says he wants his films to be seen and enjoyed by the widest audience possible. But natural forces were more important than his excesses. On the first day of shooting, the crew discovered that their outdoor filming location, in the area known as

Bardenas Reales The (sometimes referred as ') is a semi-desert natural region, or badlands, of some in southeast Navarre (Spain). The soils are made up of clay, chalk and sandstone and have been eroded by water and wind creating surprising shapes, canyons, plat ...

, was plagued by nearly constant noise from a nearby

NATO The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO, ; french: Organisation du traité de l'Atlantique nord, ), also called the North Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmental military alliance between 30 member states – 28 European and two N ...

aircraft target practice area. Gilliam decided to continue shooting footage, knowing that he could replace the audio in post-production. But during the second day of shooting, hail and a

flash flood A flash flood is a rapid flooding of low-lying areas: washes, rivers, dry lakes and depressions. It may be caused by heavy rain associated with a severe thunderstorm, hurricane, or tropical storm, or by meltwater from ice or snow flowing ...

damaged equipment. In addition, it permanently changed the appearance of the location, where some shots had not yet been completed. The entire sequence would have to be reshot. More significantly, days later it became apparent that Rochefort was injured. Within a week Gilliam learned that Rochefort had a

herniated disc Spinal disc herniation is an injury to the cushioning and connective tissue between vertebrae, usually caused by excessive strain or trauma to the spine. It may result in back pain, pain or sensation in different parts of the body, and physical ...

and would be unable to continue filming. This ended production completely, resulting in a record $15 million insurance claim. The insurance company owned the rights to the screenplay for several years, until they were transferred back to Gilliam. He restarted production of ''

'' in 2008. Keith Fulton and Louis Pepe had previously made a documentary about the making of Gilliam's film ''

'' titled ''The Hamster Factor and Other Tales of Twelve Monkeys''. They were strongly supported by Gilliam throughout their filming on the Don Quixote project. Gilliam reportedly often has people documenting the making of films so that should something go wrong, he has a record of the events from his perspective.

Reception

Released in 2002, ''Lost in La Mancha'' received very positive reception from critics. Review aggregate Rotten Tomatoes reports that 94% of critics have given ''Lost in La Mancha'' a positive review based on 100 reviews, with an average rating of 7.53/10, making the film "Certified fresh" on the website's rating system. It also holds a "Top Critics" score of 89%. The website's critical consensus is "A remarkable behind-the-scenes look at a movie that wasn't, ''Lost in La Mancha'' is an incisive, entertaining document of the difficulties inherent in the moviemaking process." On

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...

, the film has a weighted average score of 74 out of 100, based on 35 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews". Critic

Leonard Maltin Leonard Michael Maltin (born December 18, 1950) is an American film critic and film historian, as well as an author of several mainstream books on cinema, focusing on nostalgic, celebratory narratives. He is perhaps best known for his book of fi ...

has described ''Lost in La Mancha'' as one of the best films about the process of film-making. It was nominated for various awards, including a

BAFTA Award The British Academy Film Awards, more commonly known as the BAFTA Film Awards is an annual award show hosted by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) to honour the best British and international contributions to film. The cer ...

and a

Satellite Award for Best Documentary Film The Satellite Award for Best Documentary Film is an annual award given by the International Press Academy. Winners and nominees 1990s 2000s 2010s 2020s Multiple wins *Asif Kapadia-2 (one tied with Joshua Oppenheimer) *Jeff Orlowski-2 See ...

. It won a

Satellite Award The Satellite Awards are annual awards given by the International Press Academy that are commonly noted in entertainment industry journals and blogs. The awards were originally known as the Golden Satellite Awards. The award ceremonies take place ...

for Best Documentary DVD.

Sequel

In May 2018, a few days before the premiere of ''

'', Fulton and Pepe said they would release a follow-up documentary, to be titled '' He Dreams of Giants''. It would cover the entire history of the film's making, with particular focus on what happened after the events depicted in ''Lost in La Mancha''. Pepe said that the film would be "more introspective" than ''Lost in La Mancha'', saying,

"This is more a film about an internal struggle in an artist’s mind. What is it like for an artist to be standing on the brink of actually finishing this project finally? ..Even on the set we would say the conflicts raging around Terry right now of making the movie are not nearly as interesting as what’s going on inside his head."

The film is in the editing process. The filmmakers have not said whether it will be a bonus feature on ''The Man Who Killed Don Quixote''s home media release, or will be released independently, as was ''Lost in La Mancha''.

References

External links