Don Quichotte

When he made "Don Quichotte" (1933) Georg Wilhelm Pabst was past his prime, which consists of the films he made with Louise Brooks ("Die Buchse der Pandora" and "Tagebuch einer Verlorener" both from 1929).

It is noteworthy that both Pabst and Orson Welles increasingly turned to adaptations of literature in the second half of their career. Welles mostly choses Shakespeare, Pabst first choses Brecht ("Die 3-Groschen Oper", 1931) and in this film he choses Miguel de Cervantes.

Pabst made three seperate versions of his "Don Quichotte", a French, German and Spanish one. In each version the lead character is played by the operatic bass Feodor Chaliapin. The German version is lost while the Spanish version is lower rated then the French version (which I saw). I don't know the reason why.

The essence of the Don Quichotte story is the combination of an idealistic but somewhat naive and distracted (anti) hero and a more pragmatic sidekick. This duo has become really an evergreen in literature and other art forms, although mostly in a more moderate form than in Don Quichotte. For example in "The seventh seal" (1957, Ingmar Bergman) Antonius Block (Max von Sydow) is the Don Quichotte character and Jöns (Gunnar Björnstrand) is Sancho Panza. In "Tom Puss", a Dutch crossover between a comic and serious literature, Oliver B. Bumble is the Don Quichotte and Tom Puss the Sancho Panza.

Members of the special French Embassy that visited Madrid in 1615 were amazed to learn that Miguel de Cervantes was 'old, a soldier, a gentleman and poor'. There is no doubt that he put a great deal of himself into the character of Don Quixote and it is highly probable that parts of his masterwork were written during one of the spells he spent in prison for the crime of poverty. His own disillusionment with chivalric deeds certainly reflects that of Don Quixote at the end of the novel. Feodor Chaliapin was undoubtedly one of the greatest actor/singers of his or any other generation. One of his signature roles was that of Don Quichotte in Massenet's opera which bears no relation at all to this loose adaptation by Paul Morand, directed by G. W. Pabst. We should be grateful that at the age of sixty the artistry of this mighty Russian bass-baritone has been immortalised on film. Of the three language versions that Pabst made the German is now considered 'lost' and the French version is infinitely preferable to the English. The French cast is generally superior whilst the rather 'twee' voices of the anglicised version are at variance with the characters and the setting. Sancho Panza is far more convincingly played by Dorville than by George Robey whose performance smacks of the music hall. Chaliapin's French is far better than his English. The style of the film is rather jerky and 'stop-start' and has not the seamless editing one comes to expect from Pabst's preferred editor Hans Oser. In this severely truncated version the final scenes are by far the best. The 'tilting at windmills' sequence is magnificent and its trick photography advanced for a film of the early thirties. The final scene of the burning of the books is devastating and has eerie echoes of the Nazi book-burning which took place in May of the year this film was released. This is minor Pabst to be sure but that does not really matter as the consistently high quality of his work guarantees him a place in the Pantheon of truly great directors. Should this bizarre, charming but flawed little film cause one to discover or indeed rediscover Cervantes' masterpiece, then it has served its purpose.

Don Quichotte is quite simply a great film, that has a lot going for it. I saw the film in all three of its versions, and while all three of them are well done on their own terms, the French one I feel is the most effective, but the English lyrics are wonderfully poetic. The only real problem is that some scenes are a little jumpy and perhaps the film is a little too short, but other than that it is fine. Being a fan of the great Russian bass Chaliapin and a lover of the legendary story by Miguel de Cervantes y Saavedra, I wanted to see Don Quichotte after seeing a part of it featured on the outstanding documentary The Art of Singing:Golden Voices of the 20th Century, and after finally seeing the film I was not disappointed.

The visuals here are stunning, with some truly effective framing scenes and the effects of light and shade. The scenery and costumes are also really authentic and don't look fake. The music is absolutely superb, the score is a gem, and the lyrics are simply wonderful. The dialogue is very good, as is the direction and staging. The ending is very effective, beautiful and touching, the story is very coherent and the performances are really good. Chaliapin practically becomes Don Quichotte here, I do agree that his French is marginally better than his English and I do prefer his Boris(where he practically is the Russian tsar), but he has a towering presence and a robust singing voice. Dorville, Rene Donnio, Renee Valliers and Jean de Limur all give great supporting turns, but it is Chaliapin's show all the way.

Overall, this is a great underrated film with many good things about it. 9/10 Bethany Cox