Lost in La Mancha

"Watch this, Lise. You can actually pinpoint the second when his heart rips in half."

- Bart Simpson, referring to Ralph Wiggum

A friend mentioned that watching the last episode of Married in America was just like the quote above, and I have to say the same about watching Lost in La Mancha, the documentary that chronicles the almost-making of Terry Gilliam's The Man Who Killed Don Quixote. Gilliam (former Monty Python member and director of The Fisher King and Twelve Monkeys) secured funding from European backers and gathered a talented cast and crew, but in six days of shooting the production fell apart. Inclement weather destroyed equipment, difficult agent relations limited access to cast members, and the star of the film (Jean Rochefort) fell victim to back injuries which prohibited him from playing the part of Quixote.

When Gilliam's first assistant director drops the bomb on him -- that the film simply cannot go forward -- it's almost a shock. The entire crew have been dancing around the inevitable, none of them speaking the obvious, because once it has been spoken, it can't help but come true. You can actually pinpoint the second when Gilliam's heart rips in half.

Gilliam is reportedly trying to buy back the rights to his script from the insurance company that bailed out the production.