Don Quichotte

Orson Welles legendary project is nigh on impossible to find here, but I did have the good fortune to attend a free screening. Including myself and my wife there must have been all of eight people in the theater.

Welles interpretation of Quixote is peculiarly reminiscent of some of the illustrations of Gustave Doré (and to a lesser extent Salvador Dali) of Cervantes' masterpiece. I thought this an attractive approach, as it indicated a degree of recognition for others who had explored this fascinating work.

Given the wild fluctuations in film stock and equipment, the film is at times somewhat difficult to watch: but these sudden transitions are only a little more extreme than in F for Fake. The travelogue like sequences toward the end of the film are also a little jarring, but do give some indication of Welles fascination with Spain.

As a student of film, or as a student of Welles you should try to see this flawed film. It's great moments far outshine the weaknesses. I am not an Orson Welles fan, but I certainly prefer this to The Lady from Shanghai. If you are not interested in Welles or film history you will probably be disappointed. As with F for Fake, there is little of the slickness we associate with Welles films.

Both Welles and Terry Gilliam have this dream of bringing this film to the screen. Both have had tragic endings in their productions. But at least we have this footage to show what might have been. Unless Terry Gilliam gets another shot, I would recommend to any film maker who will pull it off to research this film as well as "Lost in La Mancha" to see what should be done visually.

Don Quixote (1992)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

After reading about exciting lives involving knights and other creations, a man takes on the name of Don Quixote (Francisco Reiguera) and gets a sidekick in Sancho Panza (Akim Tamiroff) and the two head off to fight the evils but Quixote soon finds out that's not so easy in an ever changing world.

If you know anything about Orson Welles then you know that DON QUIXOTE was one of his dream projects. If you know anything about the history of this film then you already know what a production nightmare it was. If you happen to be reading this without knowing the film's history then it's best that you actually go out and read about it. There are many great, very detailed articles and books out there but the short version is that this began life as a TV project but Welles decided to turn it into a feature but there were countless production problems and what began shooting in 1957 wasn't even complete in 1969 when the lead actor died. After countless legal battle, Jess Franco was able to get the job as editor and put together the current version that is out there now but the debate goes on from this as his version features footage that Welles didn't shoot and there's still a lot of missing footage that couldn't be used due to legal issues.

A lot of the hatred for this "film" went in the direction of Franco, which just wasn't fair. If you read about the production and legal issues with this film then it's really hard to blame anyone except for Welles and especially when you considered that he just kept shooting new stuff for nearly a decade and he kept running into more and more problems. It certainly wasn't Franco's fault that Welles didn't really have a narrative for the film and it's not Franco's fault that there were legal issues that prevented all of Welles' footage from being included. However, with that said, what's here is mildly entertaining in its own surreal way.

I say that because there's all sorts of footage here that more times than not doesn't make sense. The film was shot silent with the plan of adding narration and dialogue at a later time. Some of the narration was done by Welles himself but some of it he didn't record so another person had to pretend to be Welles and add it rather obviously. The two main performances were rather interesting to say the least and throughout the various formats that the film is shot, there's something here that remains entertaining and it's just so surreal that you can't help but be drawn into it. At 115-minutes the film does run on a bit too much but perhaps Franco just wanted to get as much footage in as possible.

Having said that, you could have given this footage to twenty different directors and they probably would have turned in completely different versions. The bottom line is that there's some interesting and weird footage here but it's impossible to know what Welles would have done with it. His brilliant mind might have been able to take ten-years worth of footage and make better sense out of it. We'll just sadly never know because Welles was unable to edit his film and this is all we go. So, do we just let the film remain unreleased or do we try and edit something together to honor the filmmaker? I personally don't have a problem with this edit. If some day we get a new edit I will watch that too but it still won't be Welles' version, which is just never going to happen.

Only when one hear Welles narration on the soundtrack of this dog's dinner of a film, does one get a tiny glimpse of what Welles might have been able to achieve in bringing "Don Quixote" to the screen. From what I saw last night on DVD (purchased by a friend recently in Spain!), my guess is that "Don Quixote" is unfilmable, even by a genius like Welles. The 'director', Jess Franco', is no Welles, to be sure. Where and how Franco got his hands on this footage, is as mysterious as Welles himself. Apparently shot over a number of years, the assembled footage, is a mish mash of stills, unrelated footage, an out-of-sync sound track (scenes of Welles in a car shooting footage like an enthusiastic tourist), and ludicrously dubbed American voices, makes this just a slice of arcane interest. In summary, it was 'interesting' to see, but at the end of the day, it manages to tarnish Welle's reputation, rather than enhance it. Still, with 'Citizen Kane', the truncated "Magnificent Ambersons", & "Chimes At Midnight", to his credit, Welles really doesn't need this kind of 'tribute'.

Based on the classic novel , considered to be the best literary work ever written that stands in an unique position between the modern novel and medieval chivalric romance . And deemed to be one of the most influencial works of literature from the Golden Age . This work was made by Orson Welles just over fifteen years for lack of finances , though it turns out to be a combination of fictitious and documentary scenes . In fact , Welles began shooting in 1955 and worked on it off and on over the years . This is a blending of the unfinished film Don Quijote by Orson Welles , adding documentary scenes from Italian TV series shot by Welles , some scenes filmed by Jesus Franco himself and images of Spanish documentary NODO , all of them under supervision of Oja Kodar , Welles' wife . It was produced by Patxi Irigoyen and mounted , reshaped , cut and finished by Jesus Franco, including Daniel White score , Franco's regular , being premiered in Sevilla Exposición 1992 . Here Don Quijote is well played by Francisco Reíguera and AkimTamiroff gives a fabulous Sancho Panza . There also appears Paola Mori while is attacked by Don Quijote , as woman on motorscooter, she was Orson Welles wife who died early , and Fernando Rey as a narrator in the closing scene . In addition , the picture lacks footage from original Don Quijote , being held in other private collections in Europe .

It follows the classy plot , but introducing modern elements and a lot of anachronisms. As Don Quijote is a brave hidalgo , fanatic for chivalry novels , he decides to undertake imaginary adventures along with his friend , the simple farmer Sancho Panza , along the way he battles windmills , countrymen , warriors and he is finally locked . This enduring romantic adventure deals the enthusiast , passionate knight Don Quixote and it is paced in enjoyable as well as deliberate rhythm . There are several documentary scenes including Holy Week and Pamplona parties : San Fermin . However , the film tires , being paced in fits and starts and feels overlong . And relying heavily on the documentary , and certain confusion and mayhem . Furthermore , the images are faded and tarnished. being really necessary a perfect remastering .

There are a lot of versions abut this classic novel , such as : ¨Don Quijote¨ 1933 by G.W. Pabst . ¨Don Quijote de la Mancha¨ 1945 by Rafael Gil with Rafael Rivelles , Juan Calvo , Sara Montiel , Fernando Rey . ¨Don Kikhot¨1957 by the Russian Grigori Kozintev . ¨Don Quijote cabalga de nuevo¨ by Roberto Gabaldon with Cantinflas , Fernando Fernández Gómez , Maria Fernando D'ocon. And a musical version 1972 by Arthur Hiller titled ¨Man of La Mancha¨ with Peter O'Toole , James Coco , Sofia Loren , John Castle , Brian Blessed . ¨Don Quijote¨ by Peter Yates with John Lightow , Bob Hoskins. Besides , Spanish series , 1991/1992 titled ¨El Quijote de Miguel de Cervantes¨ with Fernando Rey , Alfredo Landa , Manuel Alexandre , Aitana Sánchez Gijon , Francisco Merino , Esperanza Roy . ¨Don Quijote¨ by Manuel Gutierrez Aragon with Juan Luis Galiardo and Carlos Iglesias . Don QuiXote 2015 with Carmen Argentino, Horatio Sanz , ¨Don Quixote: The Ingenious Gentleman of La Mancha¨ (2015) by Dave Dorsey . Finally , ¨The Man Who Killed Don Quixote¨(2018) by Terry Gillian with Jonathan Price , Adam Driver , Stellan Skarsgård , Olga Kurylenko , Paloma Bloyd , Óscar Jaenada . And in cartoon movies as Don Quijote de la Mancha by Cruz Delgado and Donkey Xote 2007 by José Pozo .