He Dreams of Giants

In 2002's Lost in La Mancha, Keith Fulton and Lou Pepe documented the catastrophes that stalled Terry Gilliam's attempt to make his long-cherished riff on the Cervantes classic Don Quixote. Shot in 2017, the duo's affecting follow-up finds real drama in Gilliam's compulsion to create, as the veteran film-maker finally makes The Man Who Killed Don Quixote. As Gilliam chases his "one last chance", the pressure he loads upon himself leaves him fraught and ill. Much swearing ensues. Fulton and Pepe watch closely, teasing out insights into the creative drive that Gilliam variably compares to an addiction, both a curse and a high. Scenes of Gilliam with his grandchild and reflecting on former glories add warming, wistful notes to a portrait of the artist as an old man, dreaming against the dimming of the light. It all ends abruptly, but not before leaving one marvelling anew at the outsized vision, ambition and determination of this unruly fantasist.