the importance of being quixotic

it's been a while since i posted, i know...and i apologize for that--i've been glued to cnn for the past few days...but this morning, I snapped out of my obsessive search for new information on the tragedy in the delta...and allowed my tivo to record something for the first time in four days.

lucky for me...trusty tivo turned to one of my favorite channels--ifc--and recorded Lost in La Mancha, a documentary I've been told to see countless times but just never got around to renting. For the past two hours I've lazed on the couch and watched tragedy unfold for Terry Gilliam and his team as he attempted to put one of the greatest pieces of literature on celluloid. I couldn't tear myself away from the heartbreaking story of Gilliam's dreams being shattered by a string of terrible luck.

Quoth Variety:

There's no shortage of disaster stories in the history of film production, but none have been recorded with such frankness, immediacy and aching sense of disappointment as in Lost in La Mancha… entertaining and instructive... a tantalizing memorial.

Perhaps the best part of the documentary (which views like the best season of Project Greenlight yet), is when one of Gilliam's art directors points out that Gilliam embodies the heart and soul of Don Quixote himself--a man who's fantasy project seems more real and within reach than any project he's ever worked on...and who must come to accept a harsh reality that his fantasies will never come to fruition. About an hour into the film, I resolved to go see Gilliam's latest picture today--in the hopes that my $10.75 will help him finance a second shot at making his film. (Click Here for your TiVo to record Lost in La Mancha for your own viewing pleasure.)

Of course...what Lost in La Mancha really did for me was make me want to go back and read Don Quixote again--the last (and only) time I did that was in high school...but I remember loving the vivid imagery, Cervantes' scathing narrative, and the charming hero--who embodied everything good and chivalrous and gorgeously idealistic I'd ever imagined. It's no wonder so many artists over so long a time have been inspired by this brilliant character.

Considering it was published in 1605, in Spain, one wouldn't think that a teenager would have found such joy in the pages of Don Quixote, but I did...

The plot covers the journeys and adventures of Don Quixote and his squire, Sancho Panza. Alonso Quijano is an ordinary Spaniard (an hidalgo, the lowest rank of the Spanish nobility) who is obsessed with stories of knights errant (libros de caballerías), especially those written by Feliciano de Silva. His friends and family think he is crazy when he decides to take the name of Don Quijote de la Mancha and become a knight errant himself (a don being a title of a higher nobility, and a quixote in Spanish was a piece of armor). Then he sorties to wander Spain on his thin horse Rocinante, righting wrongs and protecting the oppressed.

Don Quixote was crazy for sure...but there was something about this man who tilted at windmills, saw an old nag as a trusty steed, and a low-born prostitute as a fair maiden, that connected with me...and I remember debating heatedly in my English class in support of his reality being the only one that truly mattered. I think I'll leave it at this...and take myself off to buy another copy of that book.

An Aside: Not too long after reading the book, I can remember buying the soundtrack to my favorite television show--Northern Exposure--on which there was a song by a band I'd never heard of, "Magazine 60," called Don Quichotte. Strange song, for sure...but fun nonetheless. Here's a clip...and the whole thing...enjoy.

"One man, scorned and covered with scars, still strove with his last ounce of courage to reach the unreachable stars; and the world was better for this."

Fix your jones for don quixote @ the unabridged online don quixote, don quixote at wikipedia, lost in la mancha, and amazon.com

Posted by sarah t. at 2:03 PM