Don Quixote

(This review is based on the English language version)

Orson Welles' legendary unfinished epic was just that - unfinished. It should have been left as such, not thrown together in this clumsy, boring compilation of whatever material was available.

While I'm sure it was done with the best of intentions, the filmmakers have not only failed to do justice to Welles' vision, they've also managed to discredit it by inflicting this version upon audiences.

The first thing that strikes the viewer is the amateurish quality of the audio. Not only are the newly dubbed voices rather poor performances, they're also inconsistent - Welles' original recordings (using his own voice, as he often did) have been retained in a handful of scenes, & they don't match at all. There hasn't been the slightest attempt at consistency. Add to that an extremely empty sound mix which has only a bare minimum of sound effects & atmos - a long sequence during a huge festival (including the running of the bulls) sounds like it was recorded in a deserted suburban street with about three people making the sound of a crowd that's meant to be in the thousands.

However, the real problem is the unavoidable fact that 'Don Quixote' was incomplete, & it's glaringly obvious from watching this. The film consists of a handful of scenes strung together & dragged out to ridiculous lengths just to make up the running time. Case in point - the sequence where Sancho searches for Don Quixote in the city goes on forever. It's just Sancho approaching people in the crowd, asking them the same questions over & over again - there is no way that Welles could ever have intended using every single take in its entirety, but that's what appears here. It lasts over twelve minutes, when, in fact, it would most likely have lasted about two minutes absolute maximum in a proper finished version of the film.

While the start of the film is relatively complete & rather well done, the rest has massive holes which simply can't be filled with endless overlay of Spanish countryside & still more shots of Don Quixote & Sancho going back & forth. There's also no ending. No resolution, no conclusion, no punchline, no point.

Although there is material in private collections that was unavailable to the filmmakers, that couldn't possibly account for what would be required to make this into a complete, coherent work. Welles simply didn't complete shooting, largely due to the fact that his lead actor died before they could finish.

However, putting aside the fact that it wasn't complete, & never could be, one would think that just seeing a collection of footage from this masterpiece that might have been would be enough. Unfortunately, by putting it all together in such a slipshod manner, one is left with a very negative impression of the film overall. In particular, what was clearly a terrific performance from Akim Tamiroff as Sancho is utterly ruined with the new voice & with long, drawn out scenes that eventually cause him to be simply irritating.

Orson Welles' vision for this film was something far more ambitious & complex than a simple retelling of the story of Don Quixote, but that's what has been attempted here, & as such, the point is lost. The only person who could have assembled all the material into anything worthwhile would have been Welles himself, & he didn't.

The footage could have been put to far better use in a documentary chronicling the whole saga of Welles trying to make the film. Welles himself even came up with the perfect title for such a doco: "When Are You Going To Finish Don Quixote?"

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 .

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.

With Jesus Franco providing additional dialog, we might expect some gore, and blood and nudity in this version of Don Quixote. No, he just provided needed dialog to complete this film that was 10 years work of Orson Welles, and not completed before he died.

As far as I know there is no English subtitled version of this film, so you either see it in Spanish and French, or suffer through the dubbed version, as this is. No matter, to see any work of Orson Welles is to see real art. Despite the dubbing and the fact that Welles himself was not able to finish this, it is still worth seeing.

Francisco Reiguera acted in well over 100 films before he died, and there is no doubt that he is Don Quixote. He is a joy to watch as a knight seeking his dream in a semi-modern Spain. When he comes upon a Holy Week celebration (not a Klan rally to the uninitiated), the action is nothing short of hilarious.

Akim Tamiroff, who plays Sancho Panzo has two Oscar nominations (The General Died at Dawn, For Whom the Bell Tolls) among his 150 films, and a Golden Globe for For Whom the Bell Tools. He is magnificent in this role.

Needless to say, for Welles addicts, this is a religious experience and should be viewed with the reverence it deserves.

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.