The Song Fight Bulletin Board

just saw this fascinating documentary about terry gilliam's attempt to film the jinxed "don quixote". anyone interested in filmaking should see this. very entertaining.

It made me very very sad, because it just started out with the premise that "We're going to make this movie but since the movie never got made you already know how this will turn out" and then it just keeps on building up hope while more and more crap happens until the end when it's just all like resigned "Maybe some other time. :( :( :("

yeah, terry gilliam is really bummed in the end when they pull the plug. you can really see his passion for the movie and feel his pain. and i'm a huge Jean Rochefort fan. the adventures of baron munchausen is one of my all time favorite movies. gilliam/rochefort/depp....man, you don't get any better than that.

I concur, t'was a great film. I had mixed emotions at the end because the doc itself was really well done but then you realized that all that stuff had actually happened to them and that he might never get to make the film. Fuck man. If anyone can do Don Quixote justice, it's Gilliam.

I thought it was a fascinating glimpse into filmmaking as well, but the documentary itself sort of lost steam the same way the movie they were trying to make did.

Anyone seen a fake documentary that's just like LILM but is made-up? It's called "And God Spoke". The filmmakers are trying to make this huge biblical epic but they have a small budget and everything goes wrong. It's an underrated "Spinal Tap"-like comedy. Eve Plumb (Jan of the Brady Bunch) plays herself in it and is cast in the movie they're making. They keep referring to her as "Jan".

Jim of Seattle wrote:I thought it was a fascinating glimpse into filmmaking as well, but the documentary itself sort of lost steam the same way the movie they were trying to make did.

A fellow technician in my category urged me big time to see this film, and I was psyched when I had a chance to rent it about a year ago and I have to say I was pretty disappointed. I think the most disappointing aspect was the locations that were chosen by Terry Gilliam or his location manager (which usually gets ok'd by the director/producer in these circumstances). Now, I am a big fan of Gilliam's, but to shoot right beside where they were testing fighter jets was just stupid and made me pretty annoyed being one of those sound persons who cringes over bad locations. There must have been a better location to shoot at and I, really, had no sympathy for Gilliam for shooting there. I was pretty meh about it.

This is a good movie for indicating how not to make a feature film. I found the struggle a little stagey. Personal opinion ofcourse.

For those interested in great war stories of filmmaking gone awry, check out The Devil's Candy by Julie Salamon, which documents the making of Brian DePalma's disastrous film "The Bonfies of the Vanities". It goes into great detail from the very beginning of production to the final shot. Rather than looking like a terrible train wreck, it's a much more subtle story where there are a thousand slightly incorrect decisions which ultimately sneak up into it being a terrible movie. Extra credit if you've read the brilliant Tom Wolfe novel the movie is based on.

tonetripper wrote:

Jim of Seattle wrote:I thought it was a fascinating glimpse into filmmaking as well, but the documentary itself sort of lost steam the same way the movie they were trying to make did.

A fellow technician in my category urged me big time to see this film, and I was psyched when I had a chance to rent it about a year ago and I have to say I was pretty disappointed. I think the most disappointing aspect was the locations that were chosen by Terry Gilliam or his location manager (which usually gets ok'd by the director/producer in these circumstances). Now, I am a big fan of Gilliam's, but to shoot right beside where they were testing fighter jets was just stupid and made me pretty annoyed being one of those sound persons who cringes over bad locations. There must have been a better location to shoot at and I, really, had no sympathy for Gilliam for shooting there. I was pretty meh about it.

This is a good movie for indicating how not to make a feature film. I found the struggle a little stagey. Personal opinion ofcourse.

i seriously doubt anyone had any indication that fighter jets would be flying over the location on the one or 2 days they were filming those scenes, when it was planned and chosen far in advance. i mean, they are in the friggin desert. what are the chances that on the exact day and time they wanted to film, this would happen? same with the storm. who could predict a hell hath no fury storm would show up, with hail and flash floods and wash all their gear away down a muddy river. or that rochefort would have to leave the film for health issues at the time they needed him most to shoot.

i'm sure the producers would love to find a scapegoat to blame but i can't find one.