Lost in La Mancha

Clintons Cat

Warning Contains Spoilers

This is the Doccumentry of the failed attempt to bring Terry Gillinghams Version of Don Quiotes to the Big Screen.Following in the tradition set by previous film makers attempts to film Don
Quiote. Gillinghams ambitions met with a series of disasters and bad luck that brought filming toa premature halt after only six days.

The style of the film and the early narrative is set by a series of short surrealist animations,story boards interspersed with shots of Gillingham drawing animatedly and inspecting set models.
This is by far the most intresting part of the movie and sets the scene beautifully especially as rare Black and white footage of Orsons Wells failed version is seamlessly blended into the narritive alluding to a story of epic preportions.

Unfortunately as the movie moves into the preproduction stages the charm and quirkyness of the early scenes is lost.The lack of film footage of the early stages of production ironically turns out to be the movies main strength.As the movie switches to more formal doccumentary film making techniques.
The viewer is treated to various scenes of meetings where no one appears to know what is going on and various people point fingers at other people,usually at the People not present.

The main victim of this blame appropriation is Jean Rocheforte,the Lead role.Jean is accused by various crew members of being a hypochondric and a psychosymatic.Yet was it fair to accuse such
a distinguished actor of being a malingerer? Jean Rochefortes injuries were far from imaginary and yet the implication is made twice if not three times during the film.

Nobody but nobody seems to question the wisdom or health implications of dressing an old man up in a suit of armour and sitting him on a horse in the middle of the desert.

But whilst Rochefortes compacted hernia ultimately brought filming to an end,it was not there that the blame lay.Gillingham unable to secure Hollywood Backing or expertise was forced to
rely upon a conclomoration of european backers,some whose promised funding never materialised forcing early budget cutbacks which left no margin for error or shooting over runs.

With a convoluted logistics,props were manufactured in London,costumes in france and italy and all shipped piecemeal to italy.The fleeting shots of props briefly raise intrest levels in
the film.Though the explanations of why exactly Johnny Depp would be fighting an army of puppets were perplexing.

More problematic were some very bizarre location decisions.
Firstly the sound stage essential for any movie turned out to be a disused warehouse with terrible accoustics.Secondly the main shoot was next to a nato bombing range,which the crew
alledged they had been told would only be in use one hour a day.This turned out to be an over optomistic assessment as planes constantly interupted shooting.

Whilst trying to shoot the opening scenes with unprepared extras a severe rainstorm washed away most of the set and turned the desert into a marshland.Precipitating a change of location,where the lack of preparation and rehersal was once again exposed as the horse failed to respond to cue with an unfamilliar person.

One of the most intresting parts of the middle feature was the meeting of Investors,who seemed to lack any Svengali type characters.The ernest investors were treated to a meeting as slick as any timeshare presentation.Which inadvertantly made me question some of buisness ethics of the production staff

This is very much a movie of two halves,if you are a fan of Terry Gillingham you might just get your moneys worth out of seeing the way his eyes light up in pleasure at a spanish firework festival
like a five year old in going to see santas grotto for the first time.
Indead gillinghams enthusiasm is contagious and you might well end up rooting for his vision,even though you already know the outcome before the film begins.

But casual fans of gillingham would be better off watching the Hamster Factor which comes free with the Twelve Monkeys DVD.
Others might be swept along by the the PT Barnum Style Burlesque which offers "the greatest story never told,Complete with three living giants,marvel as they walk the earth".
Unfortunately beneath the facade their is very little substance and you might like me leave feeling short changed

But as PT Barnum's rival David Hannum said "Theres a sucker born every minute."...