56 LISTENER JUNE 1 2019
BOOKS&CULTURE
THE MAN WHO KILLED DON QUIXOTE
directed by Terry GilliamL
egend tells of a saga passed down
through the decades. It is about a
man driven mad, wandering the
Andalusian desert, battling tyrants
and betrayers, and consumed with
a fable written long before his time.
By now, of course, director Terry Gil-
liam’s near-biblical struggle to adapt
Miguel de Cervantes’ 17th-century master-
piece, The Ingenious Gentleman Sir Quixote
of La Mancha, is well known: a 30-year
torrent of setback and failure, including
funding troubles, dead stars, “acts of god”,the Spanish air force and court disputes. It
spawned the 2002 documentary Lost in La
Mancha, on the hell and carnage of trying
to get the movie made.
In the end, the veteran fantasy director
did get it made. And despite an 11th-hour
injunction on the eve of its 2018 Cannes
premiere, here it is, as the title cardsproudly proclaim: The Man Who Killed
Don Quixote, “a Terry Gilliam film”.
What a pleasure to find that Don
Quixote is every bit the hysterical, absurd-
ist, cacophonous carnival it ought to
be: a puzzle box of dreams, flashbacks,
hallucinations, roman à clefs, film sets
and costume parties. It’s an elaborate andKnight for
sore eyes
Terry Gilliam’s
30-year passion
project about Don
Quixote finally rides
into town.
FILM
by James RobinsTHE HUMMINGBIRD PROJECT
directed Kim NguyenA
low-voltage, high-finance thriller,
The Hummingbird Project is about
an American Dream. Its central
characters are cousins, restlessgrifter Vincent (Jesse Eisenberg) and com-
puter nerd Anton (Alexander Skarsgård),
who have an outlandish idea for untold
riches.Their plan: to burrow a fibre-optic
cable a thousand-plus miles from
Kansas to New Jersey – in a straight line,
right through the Appalachians. TheirHedging
their bets
When nerdy cousins
hatch a get-rich-quick
scheme, it seems
amazingly plausible.
Jesse Eisenberg, Alexander Skarsgård
and Salma Hayek in The Hummingbird
Project: not based on a true story.