Lost In La Mancha Review

Lost In La Mancha
Madrid, 2000: Terry Gilliam starts filming on The Man Who Killed Don Quixote, a pet project he has been working on since 1990. Despite major budgetary restrictions that allow him no margin for error, he must try to complete what is a seemingly jinxed prod

by William Thomas |
Published on
Release Date:

02 Aug 2002

Running Time:

93 minutes

Certificate:

15

Original Title:

Lost In La Mancha

Having already made The Hamster Factor And Other Tales Of Twelve Monkeys, filmmakers Keith Fulton and Louis Pepe were enlisted by Terry Gilliam to chronicle the making of his newest film, The Man Who Killed Don Quixote.

However, due to the catastrophic bad luck which plagued the production, their film, Lost In La Mancha, ended up being the first ‘un-making of’ documentary about a film.

From the early pre-production stage onwards, Fulton and Pepe’s unrestricted access to the set gives us a first-hand look at Gilliam’s creative vision coming to fruition. But having sacrificed the financial safety of Hollywood for creative freedom, there is no studio money to keep the film alive when flash floods hit the set, damaging sets and equipment — and the actor playing Quixote, Jean Rochefort, becomes seriously ill.

The film’s collapse is made all the more poignant considering the flashes of brilliance we have seen from the first rushes.

Vividly showing the ‘curse of Quixote’ in action, Lost In La Mancha is a tantalising vision of an unmade masterpiece.
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