Lost in La Mancha by Keith Fulton, Louis Pepe (Review)

Lost in La Mancha is the story of a film gone horribly, horribly wrong. Filmmakers Fulton and Pepe were hired by Terry Gilliam to shoot a behind the scenes documentary on the set of his new project, The Man Who Killed Don Quixote. However, just days into the shooting schedule the film began to unravel and not only were Fulton and Pepe not thrown off the turbulent set, Gilliam actually actively encouraged them to continue shooting.

The result is an incredibly intimate look into a failed production. It’s all here; the chaos of preproduction, actors showing up late for costume fittings and rehearsals, sets washed out by turbulent weather, days of shooting lost to passing fighter jets, serious illness striking one of the principal actors, infighting amongst the crew, and finally the money pulling out and production shutting down.

It’s amazing that these two documentarians were granted access to all of this, and they captured the unfolding collapse with a surprising degree of honesty and intimacy. Granted, this is a film likely to only appeal to Gilliam fanatics (like me) or major film industry geeks, but for what it is, Lost in La Mancha is pretty exceptional.

Written by Chris Brown.