Losing the Light: Terry Gilliam & The Munchausen Saga

by Andrew Yule

Heaven's Gate , by comparison, was a party in Paradise. Some of cinema's legendary artists – renowned for their work with Fellini, Godard, Fassbinder, and Herzog among others – would unwittingly unite to create the greatest financial disaster in movie The Adventures of Baron Munchausen . Andrew Yule goes behind the scenes of Gilliam's epic and unravels, twist by agonizing twist, the contorted drama which saw the original budget of $23.5 million rocket to an astronomical $46 million – making it one of the most expensive features in history. Hardcover.

Genres: Nonfiction, Biography, Film

288 pages, Hardcover

First published April 1, 2000

Reviews

[Dan O'Neill · Rating 4 out of 5]

Munchausen isn't a great movie, but considering the trainwreck its production was, it's hard to see it as nothing short of a masterpiece. I almost wish there was a book based around every film set because I'm sure there is controversy just about everywhere you look.

[Monty Ashley]

I am very fond of the movie The Adventures of Baron Munchausen, which I acknowledge is not really great. This book about the doomed production goes into literally exhaustive detail on what went wrong at every step.

The way the book tells the story, most of the problems were the fault of producer Thomas Schuhly, who started by grabbing power and followed up by doing nothing. So he was supposed to get sketches made, then models from the sketches, then sets from the models, but instead he did not. That sort of thing. He also comes across as a huge jerk.

I do wish the book had had room for a bit of Sarah Polley’s extremely unpleasant experience making the movie. There’s a description of the explosions she had to run through, but not a lot of thought is given to her being a child. Also, the way the crew talked about 17-year-old Uma Thurman was quite gross but told in sort of a “Ha ha! Film crews, right?” tone that felt off.

[David Sterritt]

Andrew Yule’s book “Losing the Light: Terry Gilliam and the Munchausen Saga” is an engaging account of the making of “The Adventures of Baron Munchausen” in the 1980s, focusing mainly on the production’s near-disastrous financial travails and secondarily on the corporate politics and interpersonal tensions that plagued it from start to finish. Not a riveting book, but recommended for those with an interest in Hollywood history.

[Malcolm Davis · Rating 5 out of 5]

I enjoy reading books about the making of films,particularly when they end up as one sort of disaster or another.
The author managed to interview most of the guil th parties and identified what went wrong.It seems that everyone blamed everyone else for what happened.A memorable book about an unmemorable film

[Riet · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was more of a financial breakdown of the movie and the conversations between directors and other crew. I thought there'd be much more anecdotes from cast or scene information than there was.

[Graziella · Rating 4 out of 5]

What film gods has Terry Gilliam failed to appease? The man goes through absolute hell to get this movie made. This account gives us an engagingly told, in-depth view of this inexplicable train wreck, combinbing bad judgement, bad faith and bad luck. That Gilliam actually managed to get the film completed and distributed defies all odds. That the film itself manages to entertain and leave a lasting impression is testimony to his unique vision and full-bore determination. Good Lord but this man deserves a vacation. And better business partners.

[Megan Tucker · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book breaks my heart. I had no idea about the struggles that The Adventures of Baron Munachausen had during production, and it's an eye opener into the stupid politics of film making. Yay for Terry Gilliam, Boo on the idiots on top.

[Brendan · Rating 3 out of 5]

When it comes down to ' Why didn't Terry Gilliam direct the Harry Potter movies ? ' ~ this is why.

[S. Wilson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Most stories about film production train wrecks usually involve out-of-control directors sabotaging their own films through outrageous attention to detail and a flippant attitude towards budgetary concerns. While Terry Gilliam is not immune to similar criticism (The Man From La Mancha, for example), Losing the Light is an extraordinary account of how The Adventures of Baron Munchhausen was almost completely destroyed by the faulty, incompetent, and borderline criminally negligent production itself, spearheaded by the highly delusional German producer Thomas Schühly. How much of the blame belongs to Gilliam becomes an increasingly moot point as the book takes you from one disaster to another. Never ending troubles with the crew is a constant source of dark entertainment, from overpriced handlers for a dog with five minutes of screen time, to crew relatives renting their personal vehicles out to the production as transportation, to crew members taking bets on who would be the first to 'deflower' the underage Uma Therman. Whatever could go wrong most certainly did, and the biggest surprise is that the film was ever completed at all. If you like behind-the-scenes filmmaking disaster stories, this is one of the best.