Review of 'The Man Who Killed Don Quixote'

Definitely one of Terry Gilliam's better films - for a man with such a striking visual imagination, he has made some terrible films. But this one is good, about an obnoxious film director and his even more obnoxious minions and backers, who are making a Don Quixote film in Spain...where the director had many years previously made his student project film, also about Don Quixote. Facing a creative block, and on a whim, he returns to the village where he'd done the student project, and finds out that some of the people involved there were permanently transformed by the experience; for example, the old shoemaker that he became the Don himself now actually believes himself to be Don Quixote.

It's visually amazing to look at, but - apart from some slapstick elements that I could have done without, but presumably are related to the 'picaresque' elements of the Cervantes story - also well written, with an interesting if convoluted plot and great character acting. I can watch Adam Driver (the director) do anything, and the same applies to Jonathan Pryce, who plays the Don.

He's managed to capture the unearthliness that Spain sometimes has really well - the near-desertlandscape, the ruined castles on rocky outcrops, the baroque-horror cathedrals. I had a strong memory of the Polish film of 'The Saragossa Manuscript', particularly as there are so many dream/delusion sequences. I presume Gilliam has watched that, and wonder whether anyone else has noticed.

Watched on laptop (not entirely comfortable) having obtained via informal distribution; watched on laptop because Ruth really didn't want to watch it.