He Dreams of Giants

A "sequel" documentary from the guys who made Lost in La Mancha almost 20 years ago. And while the first is a more straight documentation on what was happening during production of a movie version that never was, this one is a more reflective, melancholic and overall better presented film.

To be honest, the second attempt of making Don Quixote was running smoother but director Terry Gilliam himself is older, less flexible and impatient. So they focus a lot on the anguish of a man who struggles to keep things running.

Movie making isn't an exact science and I love doomed backstage stories. This time we know things come to fruition but we still feel like walking a line over failure while watching it.

PS: interestingly, producer Paulo Branco is missing in action.

When I was a kid, we all laughed when the teacher had an accident such as dropping chaulk or whatever. I'm not sure why that was funny or why it's funny today but I suppose that when you look up to people and then they banjax it, and show themselves to be human, there's a certain humor and entertainment value but not in a cruel way. 'lost in la mancha' was mr. Gilliam's dropped chaulk. So many different funny moments and insights. This doc has it's moments but what's the point except to try justify and redeem, which is neither funny or entertaining. If the movie he finally made had been very good, it would be a force and you'd be compelled to watch this doc, but ultimately the film wasn't that great, or even that good. It didn't do that well at the box office. If it wasn't for the epic failure before that, it probably would have been panned altogether. Sure it wasn't marketed very well but that probably was because the producers probably knew it wouldn't attract that much of an audience. The film was simply mediocre all around. Like this follow on documentary, what mr. Gilliam wants to show us, is not necessarily what we want to see. So you have to wonder if the first production didn't have so many speed bumps, would it have been successful, or just mediocre too.

I hear about that the fantastic filmmaker Terry Gilliam had struggled hard with getting the film "The Man Who Killed Don Quixote" (2018)made, and I saw him interviewed before the first showing of the film in the film festival in Karlovy Vary. He told about that the film had stranded after six days due to flooding and a sick main character, but I didn't know more about this fantastic movie, before I saw the film about the troubled nightmare production "Lost in La Mancha" (2002).

Here is the documentary about how the film was finally made, and as the two above mentioned, this is also a must to see. Not only if you enjoy the film, or terry Gilliam's films, but if you love the very art of filmmaking.

Great stuff from a no longer young filmmaker and his struggle to get a doomed project out of his head, and more than 20 years in the making.