The moment where a character in a movie reveals that they've known all along that they’re in a fictional world has been around long before the word "meta" entered the urban dictionary. And the man who invented this cute technique: the author of Don Quixote, Miguel Cervantes. That's according to director Terry Gilliam, who's finally releasing his Cervantes-inspired film The Man Who Killed Don Quixote, over 30 years after production began. He spoke to Seán Rocks on Arena about his new movie, his views on social media, the #metoo movement, and added one fascinating anecdote from the making of the 1975 film, Monty Python and The Holy Grail.
It's probably no surprise that one of Monty Python's film directors and the group's animator-in-chief Gilliam should be so comfortable with a tale where fiction and reality intrude on each other as part of the story. But the making of The Man Who Killed Don Quixote was anything but comfortable. The film was over three decades in the making, and it evolved into a very different movie from the adaptation of Cervantes’ novel planned back in 1989. Terry Gilliam told Seán that changing the time frame helped to get it finished:
"It takes place now. It's a contemporary story. That was the big leap, script-wise, when we decided to do it that way. And that leap was probably triggered by the fact that it would probably be cheaper to make the movie now than re-create the 17th Century."
The film stars actor of the moment Adam Driver as a jaded film maker who once made a short movie about Don Quixote, and Jonathan Pryce as an actor who is convinced he IS Don Quixote after starring in the director’s film. Gilliam told Seán that it was worth the 30-year wait to get his dream team:
“I've always had this belief that the film is making itself – I'm merely the hand that writes. The film is doing it and the film in this instance is very patient. It waited for thirty years until the right stars fell in the right alignment and Bingo! We've got this fantastic film."
The blending of fiction and reality seem to be something of a trend in Gilliam's career. More than once Seán pointed out the "quixotic" nature of Gilliam's work. The director offered up an anecdote about the making of the 1975 film Monty Python and The Holy Grail, in which some of the inhabitants of the Scottish village of Doune, where the film was shot, seemed permanently altered by the shoot, not dissimilar to the way in which Jonathan Pryce's character confuses fiction and reality in The Man Who Killed Don Quixote:
"We all came up from London, with our crew and all these elegant Londoners. This little village was suddenly invaded. And the number of relationships that developed, marriages that collapsed, as a result of this, the number of people that trailed us down to London afterwards. I always felt a sense of responsibility for what happened to them."
When asked about what he is up to now, Terry Gilliam says that for once in his life, he has nothing on the slate. With his usual self-deprecating humour he suggests why that might be:
"Maybe the muse has escaped me and run off with somebody more interesting."
Find out more about Terry Gilliam's views on social media, trolling, the #metoo movement and more in the full Arena interview with Seán Rocks here.
The Man Who Killed Don Quixote is released on January 31st; there will be a nationwide event screening followed by a Q&A with Terry Gilliam on January 23rd.
Ruth Kennedy