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Hearts of Darkness / Lost in la Mancha, and other such films about films

Started by An tSaoi, September 08, 2010, 07:10:12 PM

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An tSaoi

In the Blu-Ray thread it was mentioned that Hearts of Darkness is getting a release as part of a new 3-disc Apocalypse Now set. I haven't seen the documentary because it's unavailable on DVD in Region 2 (as far as I know), but I'm dying to get a look at the notoriously difficult production. Edit: Turns out it's on YouTube.

Anyway... today I watched Lost in la Mancha, the behind-the-scenes film about Terry Gilliam's disastrous attempt to make the Man Who Kiilled Don Quixote. I was wondering if VerbWhores could recommend any other similar documentaries about troubled film shoots, and whether you have to have seen the finished film to appreciate them.


Mustow Green

You may find the documentary on the making of 12 Monkey's interesting?  It's made by the same film-makers as Lost In La Mancha, again follows Gilliam's struggles but this time thorugh to the finished film.  It's an interesting and entertaining piece; one of it's strengths/weaknesses is Gilliam himself, he's such an endearing and likeable figure that any objectiveness get's thrown out the window as you just can't help feeling for, and siding with him.

If you have the Alien quadrilogy DVDs from a few years back there are great 'making of' documentaries too, (they last about 2 hours + each and aren't the usual, throwaway, ad campaign toss that get given as DVD extras.  Well worth a watch).

Claude the Racecar Driving Rockstar Super Sleuth

From Dusk Till Dawn includes Full Tilt Boogie, a 90 minute making of documentary. I can't really remember if it's much good - and it feels like a bit of a swizz them treating it as a full on film, rather than a puff piece - but it takes a vaguely interesting angle with the non-union Mexican crew and there's something about Harvey Keitel being a truculent git about appearing in it.

I've not seen it myself but Overnight, the rags to riches to rags story of Boondock Saints director Troy Duffy, is meant to be good.

Serge

The 'Making Of' on the DVD of 'The Thing' is actually longer than the movie, if I remember rightly. Though it wasn't an especially troubled shoot. But it's worth seeing.

Famous Mortimer

Would "American Movie" qualify in this category? Don't know if anyone would have been interested in "Coven" otherwise, but it's absolutely brilliant.

I suppose very long extra features on DVDs don't get the same cache as "proper" documentaries about films, but the one on 12 Monkeys is indeed excellent. That was a film that sparked hours of debate between me and the guy who I went to the cinema with, which is a good thing, and although the documentary didn't help me, it was still good. Agreed on the Alien one as well, especially the interviews with the original writer Dan O'Bannon.

As an extra on the season 1 boxset of "Kenny vs. Spenny" there's the entirety of their film, which I can't remember the bloody name of but is about them trying to get a film made, and doing the festivals and interviews and so on. I've heard nothing about it that didn't come from the comment section of Kenny's Facebook page, but it looks like it might be good fun.