Orson Welles's Don Quixote (1992)

Orson Welles's Don Quixote (1992) (DVD) (*)

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Screened, competed or awarded at:
Other Film Festival Awards

Language Selections:
English ( Dolby Digital 2.0 )
Italian ( Subtitles )
Spanish ( Dolby Digital 2.0 )

Product Origin/Format:
Italy ( PAL/Region 2 )

Running Time:
114 min

Aspect Ratio:
Fullscreen

Special Features:
Biographies
Commentary
Filmographies
Interactive Menu
Photo Gallery
Scene Access
Black & White

Movie filmed in 1992 and produced in:
Spain ( Spain, Portugal )
United States ( USA, Canada )

Directed By:
Orson Welles

Written By:
Miguel de Cervantes y Saavedra
Jesus Franco

Actors:
Francisco Reiguera ..... Don Quijote (archive footage)
Akim Tamiroff ..... Sancho Panza
Orson Welles ..... Himself (in new version) (archive footage)
José Mediavilla ..... Don Quixote (in new version) (voice)
Juan Carlos Ordóñez ..... Sancho Panza's Voice (in new version) (voice)
Constantino Romero ..... Narrator (in new version) (voice)
Fernando Rey ..... Closing Scene Narrator (in new version) (voice)

Synopsis:

Over the course of his lifetime, the legendary director Orson Welles (1915-1985) was forced to leave many of his grander movie-making projects unfinished, generally for want of sustained financial backing. Each successive unfinished effort generated buzz throughout the worshipful film community that only served to brighten the luster of his legend. Thus it was only a matter of time before one of his many admirers bought the rights to the fairly extensive footage he shot for his film Don Quixote (begun in 1955) and attempted to edit it into some semblance of a finished film, based on research into Welles' stated intentions and notes. A fuzzy, out-of-focus print of the resulting film was shown at the 1992 Cannes Film Festival, and it was immediately deemed as a hashed-up job, a travesty bordering on the sacrilegious, by the assembled deeply interested and knowledgeable viewers. Their criticism focused mainly on issues that ordinary viewers would deem excessively technical, but the gist of it was that this was a very un-Wellesian use of Welles' footage. However, the film does offer viewers a unique opportunity to see some of the master's mature story ideas onscreen. In addition to footage from the film, the movie is also a kind of semi-documentary homage to Welles, showing footage of the famed director at work.

Don Quixote is an unfinished film project produced, written and directed by Orson Welles. Principal photography was between 1957 and 1969; while test footage was filmed as early as 1955, second-unit photography was done as late as 1972, and Welles was working on the film on and off until his death in 1985.

This product was added to our catalog on Saturday 07 January, 2012.