November 06, 2004

Python of La Mancha

Been rereading Don Quixote & finding a lot of proto-Python and proto-Gilliam moments. Just for example, the heading to Part II, Chapter XXVI: "Which continues the amusing adventure of the puppeteer, together with other really very good things." And a paradox presented to the guardian of a bridge, and a knight errant wanted by the police for assault, and an impractical romantic worshipping a coarse, practical farm girl, and a comment about people with missing limbs (including the author himself, presumably) at least having a good livelihood available from begging and... well, that's where I run out of specific examples from this reading-through, but I'd thought there was a set-piece a little like the Cheese Shop Sketch in there too.

So as folks here know to their weariness, I always get too forensic about this kind of stuff, looking for scraps of earlier works in later ones with a mentality that's more investigative than properly literary. But from a properly literary perspective, is there a shared sensibility here or what?

Posted by Martha Bridegam at November 6, 2004 08:46 PM
Comments

Gilliam did try (and failed - how appropriate) to film Quixote a few years back. If you're interested in how films don't get made, Lost in La Mancha is a decent watch.

Posted by: Bobby Farouk at November 7, 2004 12:31 AM

What really hurts about Lost in La Mancha is the few tiny clips of finished material (Johnny Depp arguing with a fish stays in the memory). Gilliam says, iirc, that Don Quixote has long been a project of his.

Posted by: Mags at November 7, 2004 03:53 AM

Yes, I've seen "Lost in La Mancha" & actually what stung was comparing it with the behind-the-scenes documentary on Terry Jackson's "Fellowship of the Ring" that was released around the same time. It was just clear that Gilliam's movie could have been made after all, but he either wasn't thinking flexibly enough, didn't have enough money, or didn't have the guts to go through with it. Maybe a combination of all. Or maybe he was too deep in the romanticism of failure?

Posted by: Martha Bridegam at November 7, 2004 12:21 PM