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HE SCREAMS

LAUGHTER AND DRUMMING

THEY SHOUT

HE SHOUTS

As long as I can remember, I think he was talking about

doing Quixote. He believes in Quixote.

It's Terry's sort of film.

It mixes all his humour, his fun, his joy and his darkness.

It's the best sort of Terry Gilliam.

Every film Terry makes,

Terry somehow manifests himself as the characters.

And yeah, Quixote, there he is, a man charging against windmills.

DRUMMING AND CHEERING

This has been bugging me for a long time

and Quixote has been dogging me.

The first time we started this,

trying to get Quixote on the page was around '91.

I had been, you know,

fantasizing this for a very long time.

I made the film in my head. The pictures were there.

It's been played out many, many times.

Quixote, I think, has obsesses me for years,

because all my stuff has been about reality,

fantasy, madness, sanity. Quixote encompasses all of those.

Exterior. Spanish hilltop. Day.

In black and white, an ancient stone windmill.

OK, cut. See what I mean?

Sorry. Back to the top.

It's always difficult on the first scene. Back to the top.

Terry, Tony? OK, you guys ready?

We're going back? From the top.

I'm gonna go ahead and roll now. Scene one, take two.

Exterior. Spanish hilltop. Day.

An ancient stone windmill spins slowly in the breeze.

Don Quixote appears, gaunt, aged, a madly fierce gleam in his eyes.

Stand your ground, foul and fearsome giant!

I am Don Quixote de la Mancha!

Next to him is his fat partner, Sancho Panza.

It's just a windmill! Stand aside, Sancho!

Don Quixote lowers his lance and charges the windmill.

The lance impales the sail

and Don Quixote is wrenched from Rocinante

and spins high in the air, hooked on the revolving sail.

It's starting to look... See, it's like out that way.

Terry Gilliam, the maverick director

behind such films as Brazil, The Fischer King and 12 Monkeys,

has been trying to mount a film production of Don Quixote

for more than a decade.

It's interesting down there.

So the military map has loads of old windmills back there.

That's good. If we can get in there, that'll be interesting to see.

After several false starts

and financial mishaps with the project,

Gilliam has finally arrived in Spain to begin production.

Don Quixote seems to be at

the back of Terry's work for a long time.

In the broadest sense,

he's a hero that would appeal to Terry,

because the notion of someone gleefully battling in

the face of all odds, and logic and reality,

is one that appeals to him.

What happens in Cervantes' Don Quixote

is that you meet a man, an old man,

a man who surrounds himself with romantic novels,

tales of the deeds of great knights.

He then decides that he will go forth

and actually live out these romantic tales himself.

And so he puts together a suit of armour

out of bits and pieces he finds around the house.

The famous helmet is a shaving basin

with the piece cut out for the neck.

He saddles his horse, Rocinante,

who is an old nag, is falling to pieces.

All he's missing is his faithful squire.

And Sancho Panza is a short, fat guy with a donkey, a peasant.

So they set off and they start to look for daring deeds to do.

Quixote is so deluded that where other people see a windmill,

he sees a giant.

where other people see a windmill's sails,

he sees the flailing arms of this giant.

LAUGHTER

HORSE WHINNIES

Quixote's delusions are a major part of his appeal for us.

We want to see the world through Quixote's eyes.

Because the way he sees the world, I think,

connects with the way that we saw the world as children.

A world where objects did have a magical significance.

DRILLS WHIR

DRILLS WHIR

Gilliam has fought many battles to bring his vision

of Quixote to the screen.

After several unsuccessful attempts to develop the project in Hollywood

he decided to produce the film in Europe.

Quixote will be among the most expensive films

ever produced solely with European funds.

Bonjour, Terry. Bonjour, bonjour.

Ladies and gentlemen.

Ladies and gentlemen, we just, basically just called this meeting,

because we haven't had a sort of open forum.

At any stage up till now.

We're missing a few people, of course, but this is...

You represent the main bodies of the film

that are under work at the moment.

This is the first time that we have Senor Gilliam in Spain

and he's here to stay.

So there's no excuses for any of us now.

If we have any questions, if we have any doubts,

or there's something that we want to know,

this is the place to come to.

I've said this to a few different people,

I dunno if I said it to everybody, but I think it's going to be great.

Everyone's got a good sense of humour.

Everybody's smart, everybody's good at their job

And you, with any luck, will protect me from making

an utter fool of myself. LAUGHTER

One thing to say is, you know I'll keep demanding all sorts of things.

And you've got to scream, earlier than later.

Say, "No, can't, can't do it."

Cos, I mean, we all know, working on a budget that's way below

what we normally need to make a film like this,

we gotta do it for what we've got and find ways of doing it.

Basically, let's get on with it.

He's here now, he's a resource, let's use him, let's drain him.

He knows the film. He's been with it for... two years?

Let's give it ten. Let's do the whole decade.

Let's go with ten years. Been at it for ten years.

So he should know what he's doing.

WINDMILL CREAKS

Gilliam is not the first film-maker

to have struggled to bring Quixote to the screen.

In 1957, Orson Welles began production

on his own adaptation of Don Quixote.

The project would become Welles's creative obsession for

the next two decades.

In a village in La Mancha, whose name I prefer not to recall...

Welles took on various acting and directing projects

to help finance the film.

He would gather bits and pieces of footage whenever he could,

even after the project outlived Francisco Reiguera,

Welles's Quixote.

But by the time of Welles's death in 1985,

Quixote remained incomplete.

THEY CHATTER

The struggle to launch Quixote began just a year ago,

when Gilliam actually started pre-production on the film,

only to have a major financier back out at the last minute.

In order to get the film going this time,

Gilliam and his producer have had to scale back the budget,

from 40 to $32 million.

The budget of this thing is $32.1 million.

Which, by European standards, without American investment

is a big chunk of change.

For what we're trying to do, it's half the money we need.

In Gilliam's adaptation,

he has taken the fantastic story of Don Quixote

and embellished it with another layer of fantasy.

He's created the story of Toby Grosini,

a modern-day advertising executive who travels back into

the 17th century, where Quixote mistakes him for Sancho Panza.

Johnny Depp stars as Toby,

Vanessa Paradis plays Toby's love interest, Altisidora,

and the veteran French actor, Jean Rochefort, plays Don Quixote.

The script is as ambitious as anything Gilliam has ever attempted.

Stand your ground, foul and fearsome giant,

I am Don Quixote de la Mancha!

It's not a giant, it is a windmill!

I am Don Quixote de la Mancha!

It's not a giant, it is a windmill!

More intense. "It's not a giant..."

It's not a giant, it is a windmill!

I must say, there are very few scenes that are simple.

Terry as we all well know, has the tendency of

overloading everything.

I mean, there is nothing ever simple and plain.

They'll be on things, so they can walk down.

Oh ho!

Ah!

I mean, that's what you're saying. Yeah, yeah, I know.

So he ends up like a kid holding on to it.

We rig this thing so the camera can get like that.

Because looking down will be amazing.

Basically, Terry came to make a Hollywood movie without Hollywood,

it's almost impossible. The difficulty is making a film

the best possible way with the money we have.

I think that's the better face.

Now, the sheep can go here very nicely.

They come around that curve, tons of sheep.

This will be very tumultuous. This film will not be easy.

Making a film with Terry, is like riding a bareback pony.

Just grab on to the mane,

dig in the heels and the knees and hang on.

Because you're in for the ride of your life.

THUNDER RUMBLES Distant thunder.

What's that? Don't look. Toby goes to twist around in his saddle.

Something's coming.

There's nothing there. Please, don't look.

Giant shadows rise across Toby.

He turns, he looks back.

Three giants loom up over the brow of the hill.

In their hands are great cudgels.

One plays castanets.

Me llamo Raul.

Me llamo Fernando.

HE LAUGHS

Let's see, let's see!

The third is fantastic.

Raul...

MAN SPEAKS SPANISH

Come to me.

TERRY GROANS

OK. Gracias.

You've got to see the giants.

TERRY LAUGHS Ah!

What is terrifying and what is extraordinary about it,

it's suddenly you're seeing what Quixote sees.

And it's like nothing you've seen in film.

It's like, "Whoa!"

HORSE NEIGHS

Altisidora and Toby charge down a corridor.

She wheels her horse. They set off down a dark tunnel.

Sounds echo behind them, their pursuers.

They emerge into an utterly dark space.

Altisidora reigns in her horse.

What's wrong? I thought this was the way, but...

Halt! They turn and are confronted by... Don Quixote.

Traitor! Judas!

As Don Quixote moves forward, we see he is a giant puppet.

Toby and Altisidora are suddenly surrounded

by a dozen armoured guards. The guards are puppets, too.

Uno y dos y tres y cuatro

y cinco y sies y siete...

When this thing splits apart,

Toby, he's got to have his arm getting caught in there.

There is no way that'll get his arm caught when it comes back together.

Absolutely. Have his arm caught?

Yes, this is like whole a key bit.

Could the whole thing become...

just chop and pull it, push it, make it thinner

so that he can get his arm in there.

So really that his... No, no...

We have to touch the molds, then.

I know you're going to have to touch the molds. To make it thinner.

That's what I'm assuming, yeah. Unless...

No, I'm just thinking about the time again.

I understand, I know, I know, yes.

I like taking on very complex and difficult challenges.

If it's easy, I don't do it.

If it's almost impossible to do, I have a go at it.

It seems that's what gets my adrenaline going.

Maybe it's what fires what creativity I have.

Without a battle, maybe I don't know exactly how to approach it.

The action is very simple,

the action is simple except that there's horses.

So the action of the horses is complicated,

but with the puppets, it's very simple.

Toby has got to lash out at the puppet.

It's gotta go "fft" in the air. He gets tangled

and "whoof" off his horse. I can do all that.

All that rigging. Yeah.

In the studio, I paint black the floor.

No, but you still have to do the wooden floor like that.

I have to cut part of the... No, no.

Why is it so difficult to have each of the structures on a plate?

Terry Gilliam has a history of hugely ambitious projects,

visually rich films that explore

the fantasy worlds of his protagonists,

all of them dreamers like himself.

But turning his dreams into reality has not been an easy thing

for Gilliam in the Hollywood studio system.

Beset with visions too elaborate for low-budget financing,

but often too eccentric for Hollywood taste,

all his productions have been a battle.

His wild visions are always accomplished on limited budgets

and have consistently met with both critical

and box office success.

The Adventures of Baron Munchausen was a painful exception.

Teamed with a producer

who spun tales of extravagant resources that didn't exist,

Gilliam found himself at the reigns of a production

that was already $10 million over budget by

the end of its sixth week.

Despite Gilliam's repeated efforts to scale back complex scenes,

the budget more than doubled by the completion of filming.

Munchausen became one of the textbook cases of a film fiasco

and Gilliam acquired a reputation as a director out of control.

That reputation has often made it

extremely difficult for Gilliam to launch his own projects.

There is a mismatch I think between the industry's perception of Terry

and how Terry has actually worked in the past.

And I know it used to drive Terry crazy.

He kept saying if someone mentioned Baron Munchausen again,

he wouldn't be answerable for his actions.

Because he felt,

that was a film that happened I think ten years before,

and people just thought about that

and didn't think of the actual work he had done in the film since then.

He's a responsible film-maker.

He understands the responsibility of film-making.

I mean he's, I think, enjoyed the...

Sometimes fencing under the cloak of enfant terrible.

But he's... a responsible enfant terrible,

if there is such a thing.

Just reaching that point now,

the actors are going to have to start turning up soon.

And we've only got what... What have we got now, seven weeks?

It's got lot of potential for chaos here.

Due to the production's tight budget,

many of the actors are taking less than their usual fees

and squeezing the film into their already busy schedules.

The situation has made it more difficult for Gilliam

to assemble the principal actors for script readings and rehearsals.

Well, I mean, I'm still trying to reach Johnny directly.

Erm...

But I think we just plan to go over there and we wait him out.

A flight from London for Tony, a flight from Paris for Jean,

and we'll surround him.

Yeah, well... But just find out all the possibilities.

We have to march forward.

But I still want to try to reach him.

So when do you see Vanessa again? I mean, here.

Vanessa, maybe...

Jean-Yves tell me, maybe four, five, six...

No. The 7th. From Johnny, yeah. When Johnny come here.

Well, this is what they're trying to organise.

It would be better to see Johnny,

I mean, you know, just also for one day. I know.

Or two days. Just so...

Everything is separated. The costumes are in Rome,

the cast is in England or in France, or in Prague.

Special effects... everything is everywhere.

And until we all get together,

that's when it's going to get to the hard work.

Yeah.

What we have to achieve on this,

is putting all these people that have been working

in separate places together.

The sets are being made in Spain, make-up is working from England.

Actors are here, there.

But they haven't been together at all.

I mean, it's just, we gotta put everybody together.

Everything has to be centralized in Madrid.

It's one more reason to have mess, to have one person in London.

But all the pick-ups are not in the same place.

The driver, we don't know where

the driver is coming from, because we are using this company...

I tell you what, with an actor,

we know that suddenly the actor is... we don't know where.

If we have to deliver a script change...

I mean, I don't know. So many things can happen.

So many things. For me, maybe...

Camera left.

Mas. Mas. Poco mas. Ah, si.

OK. Now, bring this foot to here.

And then that good. Like, Raul, look into the camera.

Lean over. Ah, si, si! Es perfecta.

Get violent.

Boom, boom, boom!

Ra-pa-pa-pa-pa-papum.

TERRY CHUCKLES

TERRY HUMS

Woo! Good!

Bravo, bravo! HE CHUCKLES

Filmed has turned.

Film has finally turned on this film.

Ah! HE CHUCKLES

That thing is great. Yeah, I know, the...

HE LAUGHS

That's the trailer for the film right there. Exactly.

"Coming Soon." HE LAUGHS

HOOVES CLACK

THEY SPEAK SPANISH

So do I. So do I.

We're on the same page there.

My goal, by September 25th, is to try and find

some actor who will come to Spain and do pre-production.

Because I'm a great believer in rehearsal.

And being prepared before you shoot.

My problem still isn't with training.

Cos I know all of these guys know horses.

My problem is the fucking organization,

because it's a locking nightmare.

Traditionally on film productions,

it's the responsibility of the first assistant director

to set a schedule which complements the film's budget.

In this particular case,

Phil Patterson has inherited a budget and schedule

which leave no margin for error, no safety net.

Every film is different.

So it's very hard to compare a Terry Gilliam film

to anybody else's films.

It's very hard to say what's right or wrong,

but this film is in, erm...

I'd like to say, complete disarray. Absolute and faffing total disarray.

But it is absolutely the correct way it should be, given that it's Terry,

given that it's a Gilliam film. Because Captain Chaos, erm...

is completely in his element at the moment.

Now, you walk this way. Come to me, lead on.

Down this way. Now, turn a bit. Turn a bit. Little bit.

It isn't a disaster.

It just has a lot of elements that seem to be a little different.

Rocinante.

Rocinante. HE WHISTLES

No, you can't eat. You're not allowed to eat.

Look at those ribs.

I thought we were going to need make-up look.

The pelvic bones are fantastic. Look at them.

We have a horse. You are here.

I am here, you are here, we are all here!

Jean Rochefort is the first of the principal actors

to be able to schedule a short trip to Madrid

for the necessary costume and make-up tests.

This is the ride for the theme park.

Rochefort has been learning English for the last seven months

in order to play the part of Don Quixote.

This is Toby Grosini. This is the Duchess.

Little, little it comes together. Spanish actors?

Yeah. Oh, yeah, the majority are Spanish.

Yes, yes.

They don't speak English. No.

Nobody speaks English on this film.

Language! Yeah, yeah.

Jean Rochefort is just so beyond perfect.

The spirit of the man is absolutely right,

and his comic timing is perfect, his dignity, is...

All of those things are all there.

What I'd like to try is, an experiment to make your nose

a little bit more Spanish. Something very small.

Cos Jean has a great nose,

but, I mean, I look at these Spanish noses...

Cos yours is... It goes...

And it's whether just needs a tiny bit more to make it

a little bit more Spanish.

It's something, if you think about it, "It's bad."

Yes, thank you. Because, perhaps if I have this,

I feel that I play Don Quixote. Oh, really?

I want to be Quixote.

I understand. I want to think I am Quixote.

Totally, yeah. Oh, thank you.

This is a marvellous day for me. THEY LAUGH

Not only is he perfect for the part, he's a great horseman.

That was always my biggest problem,

finding a guy old enough, 70 years old,

who looks right, can act well, and can ride a horse.

So the question is, the three of us, where...

I just want to know I want to get it down,

so I understand everything.

Where we are with Vanessa at the moment?

Vanessa is now where?

So where are we contractually? The contract is not signed.

The agent says, "No!" Each time we are asking something,

availability for your meeting, availability for the test,

the agent says, "No, she is not available".

"We need Vanessa on the 11th."

"No, she is not available."

So we are, more or less, a little bit... trapped.

If we have weather condition problems,

we have to have her agreement to change any dates. That's crazy.

We have very set pieces for the second-string actors.

Miranda, Bill Patterson, Peter Vaughan, etc.

The only thing we have in our favour is the notion of some flexibility

to move around the rest of the work we're doing

by having Vanessa on a picture deal,

Johnny Depp on a picture deal

and having Jean Rochefort on a picture deal.

If we take Vanessa as,

"It can only be this, this, this," we're in deep shit.

Yeah. It's not possible. We did the deal.

I don't understand how it slides.

Because, and this is what kind of makes me crazy,

the fact that contracts are allowed to run this long.

To be this close to shooting and not have a contract...

is crazy. We are so fragile.

This thing's so hanging on strings. No, no, yes.

And if we don't have any flexibility with her, we're dead.

Quixote struck me more powerfully when I reached middle age,

because that's what I though Quixote was very much about.

He's an older man, he's been through life,

it's kind of like a last "Hurrah" He has one last chance to make

the world as interesting as he dreams it to be.

Yeah, and I'll be 61 years in another couple months.

Just an old man! I've only done X number of films.

Wish I would have done more,

the amount of ideas that are floating in my head.

All of the film's interior scenes must be shot on a sound stage.

Gilliam's producers have been able to secure

the last available sound stage in Madrid.

And it's important for Gilliam and his team to inspect the site

before sets construction can begin.

So we're supposed to put all our sets in this... In here?

HE WHISTLES, WHISTLE ECHOES

HE CLICKS, CLICK ECHOES

The acoustics are appalling. Si.

Yeah.

We've got air-conditioning.

Is that air conditioning, do you think?

Or just stuff to make noise, so we get bad sound.

The sound is terrible here.

Yeah, I mean, we are enclosed and it still echoes. Yeah.

I mean, that was the first thing we said when we got here.

Said, "This is... It's a warehouse."

So I don't know how we do this. Because the sets have got to be...

HE CLICKS, CLICK ECHOES

..not that.

There's no other studios?

Properly done, proper, proper with everything...

I mean, sound is... I mean, it's critical.

I mean, I thought we were coming to a studio.

A studio. Yeah.

This isn't a studio.

I don't want to be doing a film like this.

I'm really getting... Very... Getting very nervous.

RUMBLING SOUNDS ECHO

SOUNDS CONTINUE

I think all versions of Quixote have always been plagued

by bad things. It's kind of like the Scottish play, I think.

It is a jinxed project.

The biggest threat of this whole thing is that,

I fear, it could be Munchausen II.

There's so many echoes of Munchausen that just keep happening.

And that's what scares me.

Luckily, those who weren't on Munchausen aren't scared.

And actually interesting, Jose Luis, who was on Munchausen, isn't scared.

We are on the edge, yes, We are on the edge, that's for sure.

We are not well covered, that's for sure.

But I don't think that means that we are repeating Munchausen.

Everyone knew on Munchausen, from the beginning,

from the beginning, that nothing was realistic.

So...

no, I don't think we are in the same...

The same things are happening at all, no.

Ah, shit!

Wah!

Than, we fill that in so it's solid.

You can't go wrong. It goes in there,

another arm starts flailing and that arm's caught.

Thanks.

OK, Giant test.

CACKLING

HE LAUGHS

Now, it's time to die.

SCREAMING

No!

What more do you want?

TERRY GROWLS

Hola!

It's OK.

He was asking if you knew... who he was going to...

He was just telling you, he's going to take Johnny Depp. Si.

Carnivore. Si.

Si, si, exactly, carnivore. Si.

Yargh!

Jean Rochefort was getting on a plane yesterday,

so I get a call yesterday afternoon from Rene Cleitman saying,

"Guess what.

"Jean, as he was about to board the plane, started feeling pain,

"and decided he might have a prostate problem.

"And cancelled the flight, didn't get on the flight,

"and is now seeing a doctor this morning."

If he hesitates about getting on a plane, I'll call him.

As soon as he sees the doctor, I will tell you.

You have to say, "I need you."

We've got to at least get a few hours with him today,

or we're in big trouble, so... But he...

But what's interesting is how powerful his mind is.

It's destroying his body right now.

It's a metamorphosis.

He suffers, like Don Quixote. Yeah.

I'm going to kill him. HE LAUGHS

It's ridiculous. Ridiculous. Ridiculous.

I mean, Jean has become totally psychosomatic.

Everything is like... HE GASPS

WOMAN GROANS Yeah.

SHE CONTINUES GROANING

On Munchausen, we didn't have costumes or sets

at the beginning.

And now this one, we don't have actors.

We've got costumes and sets, but no actors.

Jean Rochefort panicked on Sunday.

I am very calm.

Nothing like a false sense of security.

There's none of that around here, is there?

I don't think there's any sense of security,

false or real. HE LAUGHS

How would you describe the state of things?

Sheer panic.

HE LAUGHS

Like, total panic.

You know, chickens with no heads running around.

I mean, it is real panic now.

It's one week before production, what's worrying you the most?

Pre-production. Tell the truth.

The first location that we shoot in

is adjacent to a NATO bombing range,

that I was told it only operated a maximum of one hour per day.

We don't really have any horses. PHONE RINGS

We don't really have any actors. PHONE CONTINUES RINGING

I have a phone.

Hello? How are you?

I got an actor. I have an actor. He's sitting here.

Yeah, last time, I know, he didn't have an actor last time,

now we got an actor.

You're the new boy in town.

This is called our film. What's the name of it?

It's not Chocolat.

Oh, did I finished that one?

This is the inn. But there's gonna be a herd of sheep in the inn.

For the lonely people.

This is Antonio Gil. You know him, he was on Chocolat.

Yeah, he was on Chocolat. Yeah, he's a good guy.

That's Bob Hoskins and... Danny DeVito.

Ian Holm... Ian Holm, all put together.

Bastard child. And he's a dwarf.

Oh, good. And he sings opera.

Makes sense.

You spin around and Quixote is already charging you.

It's not that he's standing there saying, "Stand aside".

He's in full charge right at you.

I don't know what else Toby should be doing.

The only thing I was thinking

is that would Toby's initial thing be, like,

maybe he's on a set of commercial.

What I was thinking maybe the first thing he would do

is want Bob to yell, "Cut".

THEY LAUGH

"Bob!" "Cut, Bob! Bob!"

That's great. That's really... No, that's great.

Just to bring it back to that. Yeah, that's really good.

There's got to be an explanation for it.

And obviously here's Don Quixote

and there's the windmills and all that shit...

"Cut this." Yeah.

And then it's clear that... No, it's great. It's really nice.

While Gilliam and Depp discuss the script,

Vanessa Paradis arrives for screen tests

of her many make-up and costume changes.

The production, however, is still missing it's his Don Quixote.

Have you heard any more about... from him?

Yes, because my assistant, Corinne... Yeah.

..went with him at the airport, yes, to be sure this time.

Oh, good. Good, good, good. And he was in very good shape.

But it's not... Is it really a prostate infection?

Infection. So it's nothing more than a small infection?

He can sit...? The problem is, can he sit on a horse? Yeah, no, no.

It was panic. He was... There's always panic.

Panic, yes.

Uh-huh.

No, no, no, no.

I like the uneven, more irregular.

He made it. Don Quixote made the armour.

There was one piece here, one piece there, one with...

HE SQUEAKS AND CLICKS

..sewing and, "Ah, a knight!"

Even if you take, just for the moment, just to look,

that piece on there.

It's suddenly, immediately... Bom! It's good.

Yeah, we need...

So he's just got a piece tied on there.

That isn't much elegant.

Oh, yes.

He's got to be sad, pathetic. Yes.

And he's wonderful. Cos it's all in his mind.

We'll design this for you, Gabriella.

You'll get another Oscar. Another Oscar for this.

It's getting there.

I think Don Quixote... slowly becomes real.

I'm here to save you, Sancho. Stand aside!

Suddenly, we are in the fields of Montiel.

Destiny guides our fortunes

more favourably than we could have wished ourselves.

Look, Sancho, my friend!

A beautiful princess!

She's in gave danger!

We must save her. Those giants are almost upon her.

Don't you see them?

Giants! Giants with arms six-miles long!

HE LAUGHS

Just face it, Dulcinea del Toboso does not exist.

Now, I understand. You have a plan, Sancho.

You are very clever for a peasant. Erm...

HE LAUGHS

Fantastic! It's going to be an extraordinary film.

Yes, yes, yes.

I think that your face is so wondrous,

your eyes, the words.

All this stuff and the costumes,

the sets and the location.

I mean, it's going to be an extraordinary film.

It's going to be beautiful and terrible at the same time.

Yes. Yep.

The shoot begins in Las Bardenas,

a natural preserve four hours north of Madrid.

Due to the distance,

all the cast and crew must be lodged nearby.

The extra expense makes it all the more critical that

the production remains on schedule.

The first scene to be shot,

is one in which Quixote rescues Toby

from an inquisition chain gang.

DOS, DOS. Director On Set.

Let's clear please.

Everyone behind there. HE SPEAKS SPANISH

Everybody hidden behind, please.

FAN BUZZES

Load it up, everywhere. We're shooting now.

You good, Carlos?

All right, here we go. Roll camera!

Here.

And action, Richard.

Action crane!

SHOUTING AND JEERING

OK, and cut it.

And cut!

Excellent. Excelente.

With the first shot of the day in the can,

the crew prepares for

a choreographed portion of the scene.

Go, go, go, go, go, go, go.

In this part of the scene,

one of the guards drops the key to the chain

and the 12 prisoners must scramble to retrieve it.

Cos he's the only one with the free hand,

everybody else has got two hands. The guy in the front

has got a free hand. Cos he's in front of them.

So it's a domino thing.

OK, now, while that's going on, OK, what's happening here?

We got the key somewhere?

Who's got the key?

Did we manage to get the key to the lock?

Accion.

How are we doing for time?

Badly. Good.

Come on, on your feet. What happened to you guys? Nobody's getting up?

You gotta make a start! Wakey, wakey, folks!

People have to start getting up!

I thought this was rehearsed.

This is not rehearsed!

Fuck!

We didn't have the extras.

So we need to tell the extras what we do.

You see what I mean?

On Saturday, we didn't have the extras to rehearse? No.

No, we didn't have the extras.

Since when? What was the point of having a rehearsal without them?

We couldn't get the extras.

You need extras to do the rehearsals.

If you don't get them, you'd better tell us,

so we know in advance that we're fucked! We are fucked!

And we didn't know it.

I want to know when we're fucked in advance,

not in the middle of a shoot.

HE GROANS

To try to get the most out of the day,

Gilliam and Phil Patterson decide to move on

to another part of the scene.

It's Jean Rochefort, not a double. Walking in.

Walking in, basically doing the dialogue, doing the scene.

I mean, this is a wide shot. So we go through all the action.

And then we will... Yes, and the master.

Yeah, but this is a master.

So whatever we can get is good.

Lock it up, everyone. We're shooting now.

Background action!

And action, Jean!

PLANE ENGINE ROARS

Cut, cut, cut! What's going on?

PLANE NOISE CONTINUES

PLANE NOISE CONTINUES

We're fucked. We have now spent all this time and we got fighters.

But we're doing the scene anyway. I don't give a fuck about sound.

We will use the close-up sound. We shoot through everything.

And we need people who can work horses.

And I feel nobody can work horses here.

Action, Jean!

PLANE NOISE CONTINUES

Move the horse.

Move the fucking horse!

Somebody push his horse. Fuck, push his horse.

Tell me sir, why do you lead these poor wretches in chains?

They are convicted criminals,

condemned to serve the king in his galleys.

I am Don Quixote de la Mancha,

dedicated to chivalry and the protection of the weak!

Whoa!

No-one make any sudden moves.

You have nothing to fear from me,

provided your intentions are honourable.

Thank God for that.

Cut! There's good, good, good bits in there.

The F-16 gets the award!

Well done for putting up your voice.

That was good. There was lots of good...

I want to do one more and then I think we have this.

All right, let's stand by,

let's just check this opening position.

Everybody lean down.

Stand by.

Juan.

Ow! Fucker, that hurt!

Why am I being punished with this god-awful nightmare?

Fine. This isn't real.

It's just a dream. Doesn't hurt.

Doesn't hurt.

Ow, Jesus Christ!

Don't blaspheme!

Cut! Let's go to lunch.

Very strange weather today.

Strange weather, strange horses.

This is going flat.

Slowly coming in?

Very hard to understand what the boundaries are.

So what we're going to do is, we start with you and Rocinante.

Yes. Two sizes. One like this, and one like that.

Yes. So, Joe, you'll just be off-camera.

So we won't have to worry about the other horse. Yes.

Got the same weather report

at lunchtime that I got yesterday...

..and the day before.

Oh, it's always the same, is it, each day?

Well, that's good. It's consistent. We know what we're doing here.

THUNDER RUMBLES

That's a nice sound

If it isn't the F-16s, it's thunder.

You're right, Phil.

In another half hour, it'll be clear,

once this cloud comes over.

Lock it up everyone! We're shooting now!

You good, Carlos?

All right, here we go.

Rehearsal.

You have nothing to fear from me,

provided your intentions are honourable.

Thank God for that. We wouldn't stand a chance...

would we, boys? HE CHUCKLES

It doesn't seem right that honourable men like yourselves

should be the executioners of your fellow men

when they have not wronged you.

WIND HOWLS

It's a sad, sad world.

According to the duty of my profession,

I have no choice, but to take these men under my protection.

THUNDER RUMBLES, HORSE WHINNIES

Yield to Heaven's command!

Ladies and gentlemen, just listen up for a second.

I suspect there's a large bunch of lightning

and a storm about to hit us.

What I would like everybody to do right now

is to make all the gear completely safe.

Cover up. We're going to wait for this lightning to pass,

see what the weather on the other side of the front is,

whether or not we can reconstitute,

but, at the moment, what I need everybody to do

is to make safe and get under cover.

THUNDER RUMBLES

Yes! Whoa!

Which is it, King Lear or Wizard of Oz?

WIND HOWLS

THEY SHOUT

I don't know what we got out of this.

How much money we get insurance-wise?

We got to clear...

I mean, all that gear is going to take... a day? I have no idea.

We have to clean up everything and it has to dry OFF.

Yeah. Are we covered with insurance for things like that?

Now, look, we have to come here in the morning,

see if we're all right and see what we can do.

This could be dry. It may not. Weather might be shitty.

It's going to be a mud hole.

It's not going to dry overnight.

No. It's... No.

Urgh.

Interesting situation.

Almost checkmate, but not quite. Mm.

We'll wriggle out of this somehow.

A call to the insurance company has revealed that although

the production is covered for any damage to equipment,

they won't necessarily be covered

for the shooting time lost due to acts of God.

In an attempt to salvage something from the day,

the producers have suggested that they try to resume

shooting parts of the chain gang scene.

If we go ahead and try to shoot today,

we won't get that done.

We'll shoot half a day today, we'll shoot half a day tomorrow.

And we'll probably not get Friday.

Now, the correct way, the correct way to ensure

that you continue on in a fully and the most operational way you can,

is to take this day to put the unit back together.

But don't you see,

would it not have been possible to go with a small unit?

No. That's my answer, no.

And you can say that, that you talked to me and I said no.

I agree that most of the crew

will have to reconcile everything, but why didn't you whisk ten people

to shoot inside the taxi... It's not, you know...

We need 10 people or 15 people. It doesn't work like that.

This film unit is not able to function today, in any capacity,

except for maintenance and putting ourselves back together.

PLANE ENGINE ROARS

Although the sets have finally dried out,

the heavy rains have entirely changed the colour of the desert.

The landscape that Gilliam chose for its starkness,

is now tinged with brown and green

and won't match what's already been shot.

To make matters worse,

the first part of the chain gang scene

was shot in bright sunlight and now there's no sun at all.

HE MIMES GUN FIRING

It's pointless. It's wasted time to be honest,

because we don't have the light. And I don't know if there ever will.

Do you think it would be possible, just to anticipate,

to come back to the base camp,

and if the weather is keeping like that,

to try to re-shoot the sequence?

I know that the sequence is written with big, sunny weather,

but I don't think we have other options.

If we want to do something...

Yeah, yeah, I know, I know. I know, I know.

Nicola.

Here's a thought.

Taxi is bullshit. We don't want to do taxi.

But we could do Johnny, tighter shots, and light him,

even in this light.

For which scene? Continuing the scene back there.

The crew decides to move camp in order to shoot a different scene

which doesn't require bright sunlight.

The move will take several hours out of the day.

PLANE ENGINE ROARS

INAUDIBLE

We wait them out. I don't want to waste time,

shooting dialogue while that's going on.

No, we can't. Yeah.

By the time... No, no, no, no.

There's going to be something else soon.

There'll be something else, I don't know what it is, but...

I mean, set there, ready to go. These guys arrive.

And then we just stir in a little bit of Munchausen.

Why don't we try to shoot this?

This, the first...

No, we were setting up for that shot. Yes.

There's a plan,

there's a very clear plan what we're doing

and we're the victims of that.

And if we keep running for each thing,

all we do is run in circles.

I mean, this is... I don't know what else to do.

All of us have done a lot of stuff,

but none of us know the answer right now.

Everybody is just, like...

HE MOANS

All right, ladies and gentlemen, we're a minute away.

Let's do final checks. Yes, it says!

Be steady, Sancho. Trust me...

It may happen that before we pass six days together,

I shall conquer a number of kingdoms.

Fuck you! We had a deal!

And your loyalty shall be rewarded.

Cut!

We're fucked! Did you see him sit on the horse?

Fucking crazy! The pain when he sat down...

He can't fucking act.

He can't do it. It ain't gonna happen.

I was watching his face very carefully as

he got on that horse and it was just, "Oh, fuck."

He can't ride like that,

he certainly can't act like that

and he certainly can't jiggle hand props with that.

Honestly, I want to go to the French and say,

"I'm going to refuse to shoot with Jean Rochefort on a horse

"until he is medically fit."

The producers want to put him on the horse.

Terry wanted to put him on the horse.

Rochefort himself came out of the trailer

and they put it to him and he wanted to get on the horse.

And I just overruled Phil and said "OK, he's got to do it.

"He's got to put somebody on film. He's been working seven months.

"He hasn't a chance to do anything. Let's do it."

Lock it up everywhere, shooting now.

Action.

It may happen that before we spend six days together,

I shall conquer a number of kingdoms.

Cut. I will crown you king of one of them.

King!

OK, and cut.

That was nice. HE SIGHS

One more, OK? Yes, one more.

When it was time for him to get off,

it took two men to carry him off the horse and put him in a chair.

Took him 40 minutes from there to be able to walk to his car.

We're checking the gate, ladies and gentlemen.

Thank you very much.

I know it hasn't been the best week for everybody.

I know it's been really, really difficult.

And I know we've had a lot of calamity,

but I'd like to thank you all very much for hanging in

and doing your bit. And all I can tell you is

I'll endeavour to make it better next week.

And I hope you'll join me at Monasterio de Piedra

and we'll start making the film. THEY LAUGH

Thank you very much, one and all. That's a warp. Let's pack it up.

Do we get snow next week? LAUGHTER

Because the greater problem wasn't just within the unit...

Never, never, never,

in 22 years I've been in this business,

I've never seen such a sum of sfiga, we say in Italian...

bad luck. I mean, sfiga is actually a better word than bad luck.

Because sfiga is the negation of the pussy.

La figa is the pussy, la sfiga is the negation of it.

Everything that can go wrong, goes wrong.

I mean everything. Everything, everything, everything.

If you write a script

and you think of the worst possible situation,

you can't make it up. I mean, it's...

I don't know.

I think storyboards is the only way I'm gonna get my brain together.

The producers are looking for a solution to the film's problems.

And it's often the case on film productions,

that the first solution is to replace

the assistant director.

In this case, Gilliam's right-hand man,

Phil Patterson.

I think that actually if you fire him,

he would be very happy, the first reaction,

then he probably would, because he...

It's basically he's taking all the responsibility on his shoulders.

And he's feeling it's just a complete failure

and it's his fault. And that's ridiculous.

That's where that's coming from.

So that kind of sense of responsibility

and dedication is really rare.

Because Phil has been one of the few people

holding this thing together.

His strength is that he just won't let go, he'll keep going.

And if he can regain

some sense of being able to control, you know, the mess...

I don't know.

PLANE ENGINE ROARS

Later that day, Jean Rochefort flies back Paris, to see his doctor.

Although Rochefort will be returning in a few days,

his departure leaves the production in a quandary,

about what to do with the next week's shoot.

I stated my opinion quite strongly that we should pack up,

and we should take the unit back to Madrid

and reconstitute ourselves

and make a decision about where we were going.

Any form of shooting was wasteful.

There's a lot of argument to say, "Cut and run now. Stop."

But I would rather keep shooting,

because at least we're putting stuff on film,

and we got people who just gave us $16 million,

coming down, 60 of them.

Yeah, we gotta shoot on Monday. We have to shoot no matter what.

Here we go.

THEY CHATTER

Welcome to Spain, to the set, to the movie.

With Rochefort scheduled to return in two days,

Gilliam and the producers have decided to forge ahead

and shoot the scenes that don't require him.

They're especially concerned that the location

will be unusable in a few weeks

when leaves begin to fall from the trees.

They also have their principal investors visiting the set.

You fiddle with the fish. Beat his brains out

and the horse comes up and nudges you over that way.

So is that me?

I hope so. Or the horse. He's very good. He's a professional.

Lock it up everyone. We're shooting now.

HORSE WHINNIES

We've loaded the fish. The fish is loaded.

Here we go.

Roll camera!

Action.

DEPP GRUNTS

Horse come on. Come on, horse, come on, horsey.

Huh? Fucker?

Cut it, cut it. Let's do it again, straight away.

Fast. Action.

Horse come on. Horse.

We're moving in. Is the horse about to move? OK.

Good, good, good, good. Good idea.

Cut, cut, cut, cut, cut, cut, cut.

Turn the camera on this. Turn the camera on Johnny, looks in.

Let's just get on with it. Johnny, we go into a close-up.

We don't have to be anywhere. Johnny can do it from here.

Leave the camera there,

he turns in the camera and walks out.

Get some shots. This is fucking stupid. Jesus!

As Gilliam troubleshoots the scene,

news arrives from Paris that it will be at least a week

before Jean Rochefort is well enough to return.

You now what they're going to ask us to do?

They're going to say, let's start him off without...

It's a funnier look from there. OK.

But that was really good though. Everything sort of clicked.

Lock it up everywhere. Shooting now.

HE MOANS

You want to fuck with me, huh? Fucker!

What were you thinking? What were you thinking?

HE LAUGHS

And cut it!

Cut it. Just cut it out.

Ladies and gentlemen, that's a wrap.

You're supposed to be at the front. I'm the football.

LAUGHTER

The team! Excellent.

THEY LAUGH

I'll be down here, like this.

OK, we give you one, two, three.

At three, I will be shooting, all right?

Hi! Hi.

LAUGHTER Thank you.

Thank you.

As the investors leave the set, the insurance adjusters arrive.

They've come to investigate last week's claims

and to decide how to proceed in Rochefort's absence.

Just so you know, we're not going to shoot tomorrow.

OK? So we're going to travel back to Madrid.

Just check in with production before you go.

Eight o'clock, we meet at the base camp,

have breakfast together and decide what to do.

All right?

Meeting at eight o'clock at the base camp,

have breakfast together.

We'll see. We're not shooting, but we'll see.

We don't known the state of Jean Rochefort's health.

We don't know whether he's going to come back whole, or come back.

Or what. We don't know.

I mean, he's been tested, prodded, probed, poked.

And I suppose we'll know in a couple more days what his state is.

In the book,

Cervantes does something very strange and very cruel.

At every turn, Cervantes mocks Quixote.

At every turn, Cervantes goes out of his way

to show how foolish the old man is.

And the crueller he is, the more we love Quixote.

So that when this man becomes sane at the end,

as a reader, we can't stand this.

We don't want him to be sane, we want him to remain mad.

Because we know full well, that when he's sane, he will die.

We're waiting to hear what the doctor says.

What test he wants to do.

Or does he just say, "Jean, you need to rest"?

We're just waiting to hear. Literally, just waiting to hear.

On film productions, a completion guarantor

assumes financial responsibility for ensuring

that a film will be completed and delivered on schedule.

Fred Millstein has come to Madrid to protect his assets

and to help the production team cope with the recent setbacks.

I think there is no worse situation

than not knowing anything.

So everyone is keeping asking every day,

"What do we have to do?" "When are we going to restart?"

And nobody is able to give an answer.

We don't know. We don't know.

No, that's all the news we have.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah.

OK, the castle? No, we moved that from Wednesday.

Fantastic. Brilliant.

Absolutely fantastic.

They're wonderful.

I mean, I keep working. I keep marching ahead.

It's the one thing I've always been pretty good at,

is just to keep marching ahead and doing it and saying,

"Yeah, we can do it, let's keep going, let's keep going."

We're not shooting Monday, Tuesday. So you can have a holiday til then.

The production team has been working to arrange a new schedule

based on Rochefort's return,

but the news comes in from Rochefort's doctors

that he will not be returning for at least ten more days.

And while the production continues to spend money

to keep the crew working,

the insurance company seems to be claiming that Rochefort's illness

may be a "force majeure" event,

an act of God, not covered by the policy.

His opinions is more that if there's an insured event,

it's not "force majeure". It needs to be defined.

It needs to be defined.

But, clearly, it's for acts of God.

And he doesn't think the illness of another actor

is a force majeure event.

The "force majeure", it's necessary to have a definition

of the force majeure to be applicable.

He was looking at the contract and he said there is no definition,

no real definition of the force majeure. In that case,

for him, I don't know, it's not applicable at all.

My feeling, or my wish more than my feeling,

is that we should at least stop for a few weeks or months

and reorganise everything, because,

of course the location now is a big mess,

cast is a big mess, crew is a big mess.

So the best thing for everybody, and for the film,

would to be able to stop,

but I know that, financially, that's a lot of money.

The insurance company was saying,

"Hold on, you have to be very careful.

"So keep everybody on track,

"but on the other hand, don't spend money."

The question is whether they would re-insure Jean.

That's the problem.

And then the pressure would be to re-cast

and that's what I don't want to do.

And I don't even know who can do the job.

Cos, I mean, We spent a long time coming to Jean Rochefort.

And then he spent a year and a half thinking about it,

seven months learning English and he's magnificent.

Another problem with recasting the film,

is that Gilliam, Depp and Rochefort

are what are contractually known as essential elements.

If any one of them leaves the project,

the film must be entirely refinanced.

THEY CHATTER

The idea is to reschedule the film as soon as possible.

Check with everybody, actors, erm,

all the departments and locations about their availability of

the new schedule, based on starting on the 16th.

What's happening if Jean is not back on the 16th?

There are many possibilities.

The film is going to be done. It doesn't matter how.

The film is going to be done.

APPLAUSE AND CHATTER

I'd just like to know, for the record,

where is the director of this film?

This is no way to make a film, even a small film.

This is just crap. No.

I mean, to make one like this, it's impossible.

The fact is, nothing is pushing us right now.

There's no motor any more in this.

We're just waiting for the insurance to tell us what to do.

Nobody seems to be in control, of anything.

I like shooting things,

even if it's completely fucked up and totally useless.

At least, there's some images. Something to pay...

To justify the several years of work.

So much denial going on.

You know, the fact, the 27th of November,

Jean Rochefort is going to be back, dancing, jumping on the horse.

Forget about it!

I mean, accept the idea this man won't be fit to make the movie.

No, but see, the problem is, we had force majeure last weekend

and we should have used that in order to straighten house.

And when I say to Bernard, like I did today, "Bernard,

"tell me now, tell me straight to my face

"that if Rochefort comes back,

"and we have him on the set, and I turn to you

"as the first AD, on the set,

"and say 'this man is incapable of working,'

"are you going to sail me down the tube again?

"Are you going to vote against my decision?"

And I'm trying to remain...

You're not... succeeding, particularly, but go on.

Somewhat rational... Somewhat is good enough.

Here's what's making me crazy.

OK, we've stopped shooting and now we're reorganizing ourselves.

Well, are we reorganizing ourselves? No.

No. That's what pisses me off, this is the whole point of the time,

is to go through and get ourselves

in fighting-fit shape to actually do the film.

And nothing is happening. Nothing is happening.

We're running around in circles.

And the days are just floating past.

We're getting in worse shape than we were when we stopped.

I don't know how one gets out.

Not being... Having been in this stuff before,

I ploughed on. And I don't have any energy to plough on at the moment.

This isn't a ploghable... Yeah, I know. I know that.

So I don't know how a plug gets pulled on a thing like this.

Look, I'm going to go back to Algete

and I'm going to tell the French producers

that I'm not going to continue in the project the way it is.

And explain to them the reason that I'm leaving the film

is that I don't have confidence in the producers

to support me in the decisions that need to be made

in terms of making the film.

HE GROANS

We can't make the film. Not the film you want to make.

HE SIGHS

You know, I'm sorry to be,

as always, the bearer of fucking bad tidings and...

whatever, but...

Yeah. Mm.

I don't know any more. I've lost it completely.

I can't imagine the film any more. That's my problem.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Exactly.

And now everyone's limping off to other jobs, even already.

Have you heard any more since

the fact that doctors are just doing more tests today?

Yeah, for the insurers all going to Paris tomorrow.

It's almost like I've forgotten about this film.

It's like it doesn't exist, it can't exist.

Cos if it does exist, it's too painful.

I'll just hang around here.

Yeah, yeah, a shell. Yeah.

OK. All right, thanks. Bye.

Well, the insurers are all meeting in Paris tomorrow.

Rene's going up there to decide what to do.

But there's been a little complication.

Fred Millstein, the completion bond...

..guy has been down here the last few days, trying to...

..sort things out.

And he was saying something to Jose

about the fact that the paperwork isn't quite correct

between him and the insurance company.

And it could mean that he's going to get stuck with the bill.

Which would be disastrous for him,

cos he's not protected in the way insurance companies are.

And Jose is saying, you know, of course he'll fight it

and it'll probably end up in court,

with them fighting over who picks up the pieces,

or picks up the pieces of paper that need paying.

It's like what it is is the curse of Quixote.

Going on around us. Interesting.

WIND HOWLS

Listen to that wind.

It started with the deluge,

and now the great wind is sweeping it clean,

blowing Quixote away, out of Spain, forever.

It's howling out there, "It's over."

By the end of October, it's clear that Rochefort will not return.

He's been diagnosed with a double herniated disc.

And he requires at least another month of recovery.

What is the state of the film now?

Often, when you have problems in prep,

when you have a shaky film production

the usual catchcry of the film is,

"Let's start shooting and straighten it out."

Always in the belief that to begin filming will

help you get on track and send you down one path.

The old train theory.

It didn't work this time.

Jean Rochefort was the sort of tragic end to it.

A series of problems that beset the film quite early on.

Maybe the only real responsibility of Terry is, about all this mess,

that is in order to make it happen,

I believe he lowered too much his targets.

And he gave an impression of being about to do

a more simple movie than it is.

Because again, it's been going on for so long for him.

I mean, that's what we don't consider,

for him, this is not the first time.

Terry is very good at being proud

of how impossible something might be,

but no director is going to start a picture thinking,

"We may not ever get through this".

It was very painful to see it all coming horribly true.

Like I say, it was...

the most painful thing was seeing reality win

over Don Quixote in the end. Because it did.

I honestly don't know what I'd like to see happen

I suppose on one hand, I'd like Jean to get better

and us to be able to make the film.

And that would be... On the other hand, I don't know.

I mean, I just, like...

I've done the film too often in my head, too many times.

I've seen it, I've been through it, I know how it goes.

Is it better, you know, to just leave it there?

I really don't know.

TERRY CHUCKLES