If you never saw the BEHIND THE SCENES FILM of the first try at 'THE MAN WHO KILLED DON QUIXOTE' entitled 'LOST IN LA MANCHA' ... you should. Excellent. D.A.
I was shocked at it when I saw in theaters as a child. First time exposed to art cinema for me. And that ending, so unusual. I'll carry it on my heart until my last day.
I had scenes that came to mind but I couldn’t remember what they were from. It was like a acid flashback from my youth. I finally figured out it was Time Bandits
Peter Cellier - the first merchant - was a very popular actor on British TV and I recall played the Permanent Secretary to the Treasury in Yes Prime Minister.
The idea of the camera following the hand all over the place until it finally finds the nose and then starts digging in there is hilarious, and perfectly inline with the rest of Jabberwocky and Terry Gilliam's humor in general. It's too bad Peter *didn't actually read the freaking script before he got there!*
That Jabberwocky anecdote... A surprising number of so-called "actors" aren't really interested in _acting_ at all; they just want to "look good" on-screen. Well, I hope Terry learned from that experience and made "pick your nose" part of his audition process in subsequent films, to separate the actors from the poseurs.
@@LordOfLight He wasn't prepared to stick his finger up his nose when the role called for it, though, and that hardly demonstrates commitment to the actor's craft. Heck, it was the mid-1970s so it's not as if stills of him with his finger up his nose were going to become internet memes.
@@blatherskite3009 I agree, but all that doesn't make him a poseur. Give him the right role and he was very good. I recall he played the Permanent Secretary to the Treasury in Yes Prime Minister. He wasn't a poseur.
@@LordOfLight Yes, he was superb in Yes Prime Minister :) "Poseur" doesn't really apply to him, as such; I just used it as a general catch-all descriptor for actors who "won't go there" with certain aspects of their roles that they think make them not look good, i.e. valuing their personal appearance over the "realism" of the character they're playing. What was going through my head when I opted for word "poseur" was a similar problem that Terry Gilliam encountered with an actor in a later film; specifically: Matt Damon's refusal to have his teeth darkened in makeup for "The Brothers Grimm"... ...the result of which was a supposed lowly conman in muddy rural Germany in the early 1800s walking around with conspicuously fluorescent Hollywood gnashers that the character absolutely would not have had in that time and place. I think Terry mentioned the incident on the audio commentary to that film. Damon clearly valued "looking good" on-screen over the grimy period authenticity that Gilliam wanted - and, same as Peter Cellier, Damon clearly won the argument :)
@@blatherskite3009 "The Brothers Grimm" was such an unpleasant experience for Gilliam that I'm sure Damon not wanting his teeth to look bad is far from his biggest complaint for that film. That is weird that Damon didn't want to do that, though. I know he fancies himself a Hollywood pretty boy, but one of his dreams was to work with Gilliam since he saw "Time Bandits" as a boy and loved it, and he even defended Gilliam against the Weinstein brothers in the press. You'd think that if he had that much respect for Gilliam that he'd trust his judgment on the look of his teeth serving the purposes of the film.
Although I don't like his politics (he's basically an old hippy) Gilliam is one of only a handful of true artiste directors. Using that word in the most positive of ways.
I don't think I've ever seen all of Time Bandits. From what I recall, our family had a copy of it on VHS, but I think maybe the first entire third of so had been accidentally overwritten by something else. Still would have watched it more than a few times.
He was the seventh dwarf, but Randall seems to think he's dead. However, the credited actor shows up as one of the minions in Evil's lair. Is that how Evil knew about the map?
The actor is not only the emotional embodiment of their character, but also the physical manifestation, and as such can see the reality of problems that the director might miss.
Yrs but whose to say it really happened or was just a dream or stream of consciousness from the central character He and the movie are both brilliant in their own way
