Failing to make a picture about Don Quixote — I won’t even start.

Lost in La Mancha is a documentary showing Gilliam’s terrible luck, financing, and temper in making his adaptation of Don Quixote starring Johnny Depp. Things were looking good, difficult but possible, and then the proverbial hit the fan. They death marched for a couple of weeks — take note, EA: “weeks” not “months” — and then gave up in failure.

It’s most fun if you like behind-the-scenes film stuff, which I obviously do. You see the film all the way through from pre-production to the start of principal photography to haggling with the insurance company to leaving it in the hands of the completion bonding firm.

Vanessa Paradis shows up briefly in a couple of stunning screen tests for hair, makeup, and costume. She’s gap-tooth gorgeous, eating-disorder pretty.

The movie was edited to make none of it look like the team’s fault, but who else is there to blame? Gilliam obviously has a crazy artist temper, which is fine, we’ve all been there. But surely planning for nothing to go wrong is also planning to fail? The first assistant director, the schedule guy, has a good bit where he resigns while maintaining what little artistic integrity he had — good show, instructive. Still, I learned in games: If producers ask you to do things way beyond the budget and you finagle the schedule to “make it work”, it won’t and that’s your fault.

Correct response: We can’t make this film for that money in that time. Incorrect, but totally understandable response in reality: Let’s just start and hope for the best.