It's official! After an exhausting legal tug-of-war between Terry Gilliam and his producer Paulo Branco, The Man Who Killed Don Quixote will be screened this year in Cannes, as the closing film of the Festival.
Seized in summary proceedings by the Portuguese producer Paulo Branco, the French justice had to decide on the dispute about The Man Who Killed Don Quixote. Branco considered that his company Alfama Films had exclusive rights to that work. He therefore wanted to ban its screening in Cannes, much to the chagrin of Terry Gilliam.
But the debate is now closed regarding this legal imbroglio that left Thierry Gilliam and moviegoers in an unbearable wait. The president of Oceans Films (the film's distribution company) Philippe l'Aigle reacted as follows to AFP:
"We won!"
This one does not waste time since it envisages a release for May 19 (yes it is very early), day of broadcast at the Cannes Film Festival. As for Paulo Branco, he does not consider himself defeated, since he said that this decision still proved him right on the merits:
"the film can be screened but the festival must inform everyone that this in no way invalidates the previous court decisions to grant the rights to Alfama […] It is therefore an exceptional authorization."
But beyond these complex legal considerations, it is above all a great victory for Terry Gilliam. Let us recall (for the three who slept at the bottom) that The Man Who Killed Don Quixote was a film with a cursed production, which Gilliam has been trying to put together for twenty years. The film was even cancelled in the middle of filming many years ago because of too many problems (for the curious, you can discover the facts in the documentary Lost in la Mancha released in 2002). In short, seeing your baby presented on the Croisette is a beautiful proof of tenacity and an immense honor for all his work.
However, we do not yet know if Terry Gilliam will be present in Cannes for the screening of his film, because the director is still recovering from his stroke suffered a few days ago. In any case, moviegoers around the world must now wait for this screening and the release of the film with some eagerness!
