Great images in Jess Franco cut of Don Quixote - still found good things in it

[Sir Bygber Brown]

how on earth did this mysterious member in europe get their hands on the moviescreen scene?

[colwood]

If I remember correctly, he said late one night, he was watching Italian TV and recording something on one of Europe's great directors when in between shows, they aired this one minute scene and he accidentally recorded it.

[Phil Rosenthal]

This is my first message on this board - I've enjoyed following the news and discussions here. On the topic of The Stranger - I think it's underrated. It's got a focused, gripping plot, good performances, some colorful characters, memorable scenes - the irony of the evil central character hiding out in an upright, peaceful New England town is wonderful - and I think Welles' performance is one of his best ever - charismatic, seductive, evil, all at the same time. Of course, it's not the film might have been had Welles had his way, but it's still a great little movie.

[blunted by community]

phil, i feel the same way about the film. it deserves a better place in the ouvre than it's gotten. it has many points of interest, and for those that search, there is ample artistry.

there just aren't any instances where welles had command of the camera and the craft didn't emerge at the very least interesting, or soared to the hieghts of genius. Don Q if you watch it with your favorite classical piece playing instead of the movie audio, becomes more prodigous, and beautiful to look at.

in don q, look at the opening shots of the windmill. there is one shot in there that blew me away. certainly by the time welles filmed that windmill every possible way to film a windmill had been exhausted, till welles comes along and figures out a new way to do it. what a guy.

[fantomas]

one of the mysteries regarding the don quixote material is that welles had in his workprint no windmill at all. gary graver tells the story that orson welles asked him in the 70s to film windmills - on color film stock. this material never surfaced. jess franco used windmill shots from the TV series IN THE LAND OF DON QUIXOTE, and obviously he even added new windmill shots and did some digital trickery to combine windmill shots with don quixote and sancho panza. be careful in finding typical the welles touch in these windmill scenes!

[Sir Bygber Brown]

Didn't Welles also direct "In the Land of Don Quixote"? Isn't that still Wellesian, then?

And photographic trickery is one of the reasons Welles is so clever. Like throughout Kane, where it is often unnoticeable, like cameras moving through furniture to secure the shot.

Also, can i ask: does anyone know why some shots in Don Quixote go into relief? (not sure of right word - but when the image looks like a photo negative). Are these the shots from "In the Land"?

[dkovacev]

Regarding the movie theatre scene from Don Quixote, mentioned by Colwood...
It was broadcasted last year on Italian TV (Rai Tre), during the late night show called Fuori Orario ("After Hours"). This program regularly shows rare classic or arthouse films and documentaries every weekend, and they often sneak some unannounced stuff between the main attractions.
Anyway, I programmed VCR to record a documentary about Werner Herzog and accidentaly taped the movie theatre scene from Don Quixote. It wasn't announced, and it was put between some other totally unrelated excerpts during the pause. This scene and lot of other unreleased footage from Don Quixote is still in possession of editor Mauro Bonanni, so I wonder how they happen to show it on TV? Was it ever included in some documentary on Welles (Rosabella perhaps)?
The only other Welles rarities I saw broadcasted in "Fuori Orario" during last three years were "It's all True" and original German version of "One Man Band".

[blunted by community]

sorry, i don't beleive any one but welles did the windmill shot that caught my eye.

that shot was done with a crane. by the time graver came on the scene, early 70s, welles couldn't afford to send graver and a crane to holland to get shots of a windmill. it just doesn't jive.

maybe i'm appreciating the craft of the great franco!

[colwood]

To Sir Bygber Brown and others who may be interested,

Talking about the moviescreen scene that Dragan sent me got me thinking about uploading a file. Thing is, I am a complete novice regarding anything computer related. I probably know as much about computers as the average person would have 8 years ago. But anyway, downloaded a trial program that coverts dvd's into mpeg and avi files. Used it to covert the moviescreen scene to avi and uploaded it to the net for anyone interested in it.

Here's the things you should know. First, to get it you'll need the program hjsplit

http://www.freebyte.com/hjsplit/

and you'll also need access to yahoo groups. Go to

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/tributetoorsonwelles/files/

The last two files on that files page are the movie, Welles...001 and Welles...002. Download both and rejoin them using hjsplit. I played the file using three programs. With Windows Media Player and RealPlayer, the files play fine but appear with a green hue. Using DivX, the files play fine but the screen is quite large.

I know the transfer is not perfect, but its something and better than nothing. I hope it comes out ok. Any problems, message me and I'll try it again.

[Le Chiffre]

Mucho Kudos, Colwood, for putting this legendary scene online for us. Unfortunately, I was unable to make any of the software packages work, but I'd love to see the scene somehow. I'll contact your email about the possibility of some kind of trade package.

[colwood]

mteal, sorry to hear it didn't work for you.

Try this, I took the whole file, zipped it with WinZip, and uploaded it to the same group. Download and unzip, it's in avi file format. Hopefully it should work. If not, you can email me at mrskins13@yahoo.com

[Cole]

The film clip works fine on my Windows Media Player. Thanks, Colwood. Mteal: if you’re having problems playing the clip, make sure you have the latest Divx codec installed on your computer. If you run a Google search on “Divx,” you should get to the right place where you can download the codec for free.

After reading Jeff’s review of the Don Quixote DVD, and Rosenbaum’s comments about the Franco version of the film, I’ve had no serious thoughts of ordering the DVD, but after reading some of the comments above, I’m wondering if I should maybe pick up the DVD. I’m thinking that it’s either see the Franco version now while I’m alive, or bank on the very slim chance that after I die I’ll have a post-life existence when I’ll finally get to see all these things I long to see but can’t during this lifetime: a complete Welles version of Don Quixote, the uncut version of The Magnificent Ambersons, passenger pigeons, ivory-billed woodpeckers, etc. So if anyone would like to add more comments regarding the Don Quixote DVD, or the Franco version generally, I’ll be very interested in reading them.

[colwood]

Cole, glad to hear it worked.

I just traded for copy of DQ. I wasn't sure I wanted to buy the DVD either. So when a trade was presented, I jumped. I've tried watching it 3x now. As Sir mentioned in the initial post, there are some good scenes here and there. But overall, I just haven't been able to get into it (unlike It's All True which I also didn't like initially but now quite enjoy). Just my opinion....

[Le Chiffre]

Well, I'm getting closer anyway. Now I can get numerous still images and brief flashes of movement (thanks for the divx recommendation, Cole). Enough to get some of the scene's essence. Some casual observations:

The scene features Patty McCormick, so this scene must have been part of Welles' original conception of the film. If he had made a later essay film from the footage - as he said was his intention - this scene would probably have not been part of it.

If memory serves me correctly, previous accounts of this scene indicated that Quixote was attacking the movie in order to save a damsel in distress that he saw on the screen. That's contradicted by this footage which shows some kind of Roman battle going on, with a figure on a cross (presumably Christ) in the middle of it. So Quixote seems to be attacking one of those tacky religious movies that Welles parodied in his play THE UNTHINKING LOBSTER, and which Pasolini would later parody in RoGoPaG, with Welles playing a film director.

The boys cheering from the balcony appear to throw their hats towards Quixote, as if he is a bullfighter slaying a bull. All part of Welles' surreal mix of references.

I probably shouldn't comment anymore untill I see the scene played properly, but even from the still images I've been able to pull up it looks like a fascinating and funny scene, and probably explains why Sancho finds Quixote in a cage later on.

What a shame Welles didn't bother to finish this film. Or did he? According to Audrey Stainton's article on the film, Mauro Bonnani said DON QUIXOTE was finished by Welles. What happened to that complete version? Also, according to at least one recent Welles book, DON QUIXOTE was financed by Frank Sinatra. I've always wondered what Sinatra thought of Welles' unsuccessful (?) struggle to complete the film...with his money.

[colwood]

To anyone who has viewed the clip, my apologies for forgetting to mention the opening second on the clip shows the final page of end credits from another, unrelated Welles program (MF restoration of London).

These credits, mentioning the Munich Filmmuseum and Oja Kodar, have nothing to do with the DQ clip. Sorry....