Lost In La Mancha (DVD)

Lost In La Mancha (DVD) ... Patterson ... / DVD released 24 February, 2003 at Optimum Home Entertainment / Features of the DVD: PAL / Lost in La Mancha is not so much a "making of", more an "unmaking of" documentary which follows director Terry Gilliam through eight weeks of pre-production, six days of filming and finally the aftermath as his long planned feature The Man Who Killed Don Quixote falls apart. Documentarians Keith Fulton and Louis Pepe--the team who produced the excellent feature-length The Hamster Factor about Gilliam's Twelve Monkeys--reveal a tragi-comedy about the director's struggle to bring to life another of his wondrous stories of madness and sanity, fantasy and reality. Unfortunately Gilliam's take on Spanish classic Don Quixote is mirrored all too closely by reality, as everything goes wrong, from noise-ridden locations to flash-flooding to a seriously ill star, Jean Rochefort. Gilliam goes from boyish enthusiasm to bad tempered frustration to near despair, the victim of circumstances beyond his control which turn a cherished dream into a farcical nightmare. Meanwhile, we get glimpses of what could have been and are left hoping that someday, somehow, Gilliam will realise his remarkable vision. --Gary S Dalkin