Don Quijote

[Michael O'Hara]

Don Quixote pre-order up now at Amazon.

http://www.amazon.com/Orson-Welles-Don- ... 804&sr=1-4

[The Night Man]

DVD Beaver has a review/comparison of the Image DQ release up now, and it doesn't sound good. Apparently the Franco travesty is getting a premiere U.S. DVD release commensurate with its own misbegotten quality.

http://www.dvdbeaver.com/film/dvdcompare6/Don-Quixote.htm

It's like a nightmare that never ends!

Please, lord, put Orson's labor of love into the hands of someone who'll do the right thing with it, starting from scratch.

[Glenn Anders]

Fittingly, perhaps, Terry Gilliam is about to restart his THE MAN WHO KILLED DON QUIXOTE project with Johnny Depp:

". . . Gilliam is planning to relaunch the project early next year.

"He says, 'As far as we're concerned, it's on. When Johnny's ready, we're ready. We're just talking about dates to film.'

"'Basically it all depends on his schedule but otherwise we're set. It will be next year some time, before next summer anyway.'" -- wenn.com, 4 August 2008.

Considering Gilliam's expansive artistic ego, he might be happy to incorporate all Welles' footage within his own epic of misadventure.

Glenn

[tonyw]

I've just had an email from a friend in Paris who is extremely disappointed at seeing a theatrical version of this atrocity. So I've been patiently explaining to him what we all know from wellesnet. as to who is actually responsible.

[NoFake]

I've just had an email from a friend in Paris who is extremely disappointed at seeing a theatrical version of this atrocity.

Might be interesting to see nonetheless. Do you know if it's still playing, and if so, at which theatre?

[tonyw]

My mistake. It was not shown theatrically but on the French private satellite channel Cinecinema and will be shown Friday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday at 4.45, 10.5 a.m. 4.15, and 1.15. The rest are pm times.

[RayKelly]

The Los Angeles Times has a piece today on Don Quixote, which warns against viewing the Franco cut arriving on DVD as true to Welles vision

http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/movies/la-ca-second17-2008aug17,0,1790316.story

[Glenn Anders]

Thank you, Ray: Dennis Lim's article seems to express what most of us at Wellesnet have written about the project.

We are faced with the enraging enigma of "the missing footage" again!

Glenn

[RayKelly]

Dennis Lim's article seems to express what most of us at Wellesnet have written about the project.

I don't know Dennis Lim, but he has either visited Wellesnet and read the thread, or ought to be a regular here

[Michael O'Hara]

My Don Quixote DVD came today. It's the first time I've gotten to see it. While I certainly don't mind seeing rare footage shot by Mr. Welles, I see that the general consensus regarding this project was right on the money. It's a baffling and unpleasant juxtaposition of all sorts of sights and sounds that make very little sense all crammed together. A mildly interesting curio, but not something I am likely to return to often, if at all.

[The Night Man]

DVD Savant reviews the Image release of OW's DQ: http://www.dvdtalk.com/dvdsavant/s2659quix.html

Best line: "Franco wrote new connective dialogue and narration to hold the film together, further obfuscating Welles' direct contribution: imagine Citizen Kane edited by the guy who assembles public access shows down at the cable station."

I must confess with some shame that I did purchase this release, not having viewed the film since the ancient days of VHS. Sad to say it's even worse than I remembered it. What a disaster.

I hadn't seen any of In the Land of Don Quixote until recently and it is interesting to discover how ineptly padded out DQ is with footage from that project.

[Harvey Chartrand]

Shame on Orson Welles for being so criminally careless with the Don Quixote footage (no sooner shot than lost), and for leaving his personal affairs in such disarray as time ran out. If we (the great unwashed) must settle for Jess Franco's clumsy DQ patch-job instead of a fully restored Don Quixote directed by the Master himself, the blame for this terrible loss to cinematic history must be laid squarely at the feet of that aging enfant terrible Orson Welles. The fat genius really screwed the pooch! As Charles Higham noted so astutely in his marvellous biography, Welles was the brilliant architect of his own downfall... He turned that volcanic time-bending creative energy inwards, transmuting a colossal spark of life into an orgy of self-defeatism and self-induced humiliation, leading to career suicide and artistic bankruptcy. (His alienation of Jeanne Moreau was the last nail he hammed into his career coffin.) That so much raw talent and cosmic energy could lead to naught is an object lesson to all who discount the importance of discipline and humility in the production of great works of art. Didn't Welles once appear in a short subject entitled "Désordre" (Disorder)? This film must have been a rather prophetic one! Abandon all hope... all those among ye who ever expect to see footage from any of the unfinished films of Orson Welles. You will never have the pleasure of screening the Criterion Don Quixote or The Other Side of the Wind in any form, whether fully assembled in umpteen different director's cuts, or incorporated in a contextual documentary. To quote the dreaded critic Pauline Kael, "there ain't no way" – a title she used for a rather sympathetic overview of Welles's tribulations in the sixties, around the time he was trying to get anyone to notice he'd made Falstaff.

[Tony]

Harvey: Where are you speaking from- Mount Olympus? Or have you just brought the tablets down after speaking with the burning bush?

Really, you should just get down on your knees and thank God for Orson Welles's existence, and that, against incredible odds, he was able to complete as much work as he did.

As I've said before, to quote Rod Steiger, "How many masterpieces have YOU made?" Good God, if you had ever had the fortune to meet Welles, you would have never forgotten your brush with true genius, and you would have talked about it the rest of your life.

Where do you get off judging Welles, indeed anyone, like you do? What gives you the right to make these high-handed judgments- and here, on Wellesnet, where we are supposed to be celebrating his genius, not attacking him.

Shame on YOU, Harvey Chartrand.

[ToddBaesen]

Tony, to back you up here is what John Houseman might say to Harvey:


HARVEY: Shame on Orson Welles for being so criminally careless with Don Quixote...

JOHN HOUSEMAN: Mr. Chartrand, I knew Orson Welles. I worked with Welles. You sir, are no Orson Welles. Welles has a substantial body of brilliant work to his credit. I’m sure there’s more to come. To complain that he hasn’t ground out his annual quota of masterpieces is like complaining that Leonardo only left a few paintings behind him and a bunch of drawings, that some of the paintings haven’t lasted because he used the wrong kind of paint, and what the hell was the man thinking of not to accomplish as much as Titian or Rubens? Orson is a prodigious but capricious worker: he has lived his life exactly as he wanted to.

[Tony]

Imagine just typing a sentence such as "The fat genius really screwed the pooch".

Are you sure you even like Welles, Harvey? Because you sure don't respect him.