Netflix pick for 3/7/16 – ‘Lost In La Mancha’

As heard in episode 165 of Cinema Crespodiso.

From 2002, “Lost In La Mancha” started life as a making-of documentary for Terry Gilliam’s bizarre adaptation of the classic novel “Don Quixote,” which was to be titled “The Man Who Killed Don Quixote.” Starring Johnny Depp as a 21st-century fella who time travels to a time and a place in which Don Quixote is alive and real, this movie was a dream project for Terry Gilliam, and the beginning of this production was a moment for him to celebrate. This celebration was quickly cut short, as problems plagued the production immediately, to the point where this making-of documentary became its own film, and became an “unmaking-of” film, the story of a movie production that stalled out and then died, a tale of “what could have been.”

Why are documentaries about unfinished movies or disastrous movie productions so fascinating? Joining the ranks of great films like “Jodorowsky’s Dune” and “Lost Soul: The Doomed Journey of Richard Stanley’s Island of Dr. Moreau,” this particular documentary shows us everything – we see the idea take shape, and the elements come in to place to get the production started, and we see cameras roll and we get an idea of what this movie was even going to look like and how Gilliam was going to pull off certain effects, and then we see the shit hit the fan one piece at a time, until the whole things gets mucked up to the point of no return. Thanks to the extreme level of access these filmmakers had to the production, they were there for it all and they captured it all, which then means we get to be the flies on the wall of this failed film, which is something many people don’t get to see.

How many of us even know how much goes in to making a movie? How many of us know how easily it is for the production to go wrong? This doc provides a fascinating and essential insight to the world of movie making, and should be seen by anyone who has any interest in trying to make anything like this, because if Terry Gilliam, filmmaking veteran, has these problems with a film production, how can you expect to get through a production unscathed in any way? This acts as a good primer on epic failure, and how we can’t let it define us. After all, not only did Gilliam eventually go on to direct his next movie and continue to work despite the disappointment of this film not happening, but he also refused to give up and pushes forward with “The Man Who Killed Don Quixote,” which he now plans to start shooting this September. And hopefully he’ll have cameras running on the behind the scenes stuff again, because who knows, we might actually get a “Lost In La Mancha 2,” which would be insane.

Watch “Lost In La Mancha” here on the Netflix Instant and heed the warnings and learn the lessons!