Terry Gilliam about "The man who killed don Quixote" and Umbria
Channel: the Mag
Date: 2019-02-04

It should be a truly incredible experience to take a trip to the head of Terry Gilliam. The director of Minneapolis, in forty years of career, has accustomed us to films of enormous visual impact where imagination is linked to reality, creating fascinating worlds.

"I thought I was more like Don Quixote, but Tony Grisoni, who wrote the screenplay with me, is convinced that I look more like Sancho Panza. In all probability they are both. Because the point is that in the character of Don Chischotte two people live together: the crazy man and the farmer with his feet on the ground. Here, I am both ".

In his films there is always this close relationship between fantasy and reality, we both find them at the same time.

"Because I think we can not have one without the other. I have always loved being a dreamer. I like to fantasize about things, but I do not want to fly away from reality. I think it's the tension between these two things that creates an interesting storytelling ".

The film has had a very long gestation, moved to Spain, injuries, stops and restarts, how many times has it changed over the years?

"It has changed in many small ways going forward in processing. Because, you see, you have a script, you have a project and then the wind changes: someone comes out with a new idea that I like and I insert it. But in the end we always get the same result that I was trying to reach. Let's say that instead of following a straight line I followed a wavy line ".