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Politics : Support the French! Viva Democracy! -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: zonder who wrote (1352)	6/24/2003 4:52:50 PM
From: gwb-trading	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 7841

The key is that the 9/11 nonsense is the BEST SELLING Book in France and at the top of ALL the French lists for over 3 months. This defines that it is the mainstream belief of all the pathetic Frenchies, rather than just a lunatic fringe book.... > Really. Get over your hate. You'll be a happier person thereby. Use your mind. Review the facts. You will be a much more objective person thereby.

To: zonder who wrote (1352)	6/24/2003 7:03:40 PM
From: epicure	Respond to of 7841

:-) French financing makes this an "oh so relevant" article for this thread, plus it amused me. I hope it amuses you too. Tilting at Disaster By PETER M. NICHOLS François Duhamel/IFC Films Jean Rochefort, as Don Quixote, and the director Terry Gilliam in "Lost in La Mancha," a documentary. With documentaries about the making of movies so common on DVD these days, it's interesting to come across one that tells how a movie wasn't made. "Fell through" is too mild a term for the filmmaking fiasco chronicled in "Lost in La Mancha," to be released next week by Docurama. In 2000 the documentary makers Keith Fulton and Louis Pepe went to Madrid to record the director Terry Gilliam's efforts to film "The Man Who Killed Don Quixote." After months of every conceivable mishap, the project was abandoned, leaving Mr. Fulton and Mr. Pepe with a drama of their own. With no feature film, what would happen to their documentary? "It was a double-edged sword," Mr. Fulton said last week. "Every documentary maker is looking for conflict. What you hope for is a story with arc, like a fiction film where things start to go bad but somehow goodness prevails. In this case nothing prevailed." Acclaimed for films including "Brazil" and "The Fisher King," Mr. Gilliam favors fanciful concepts that have often caused difficulties for producers. Before "Lost in La Mancha," the most extreme case of a Gilliam production gone haywire was "The Adventures of Baron Munchausen," which went $10 million over budget on its way to becoming a financial and critical failure. In his Quixote film, a modern office worker (Johnny Depp) finds himself deposited in the 16th century as the servant Sancho Panza. That is, he would have found himself. A troublesome topic for filmmakers in the past, "Don Quixote" was a particularly involved and expensive proposition with Mr. Gilliam, whose schemes often run into the realm of impracticality no matter how much money is available. "Making a film with Terry is like riding a barebacked pony," the movie's first assistant director, Phil Patterson, says on the DVD. "Grab onto the mane, dig in the heels and the knees, and hang on because you're in for the ride of your life." Money for Mr. Gilliam's film came primarily from French sources attracted partly by the casting of the French star Jean Rochefort as Don Quixote. But he developed a herniated disc and had to withdraw. That was only one problem for a film whose $32 million budget was quickly overwhelmed by Mr. Gilliam's elaborate plans. "We're on the edge, that's for sure," says José Luis Escolar, the film's line producer and a veteran of Gilliam projects. Later everybody admits that the film is a goner. Films frequently fail in the making, Mr. Fulton said, and documentaries financed by studios or producers go down with them. In this case he and Mr. Pepe had independent financial support. They also came away with 120 hours of material, more than enough for a full and first-rate documentary, because they had the backing of Mr. Gilliam, who let them stay on the set and keep putting their camera in everyone's face even when he and the others knew full well that the film was headed for disaster. "Terry said, 'There's only one film coming out of this, and it won't be mine,' " Mr. Pepe says on the disc.