Cinema
Don Quixote
Lau Lauritzen · 1926
Synopsis
A poor country gentleman, obsessed with tales of chivalry, decides one day to restore the order of knights errant and sets off on horseback in armour, followed by an unlucky squire. The two companions travel across the Spanish countryside, where the knight charges at “giants” that are only windmills, for the love of the fair Dulcinea he has chosen for himself.
Context
The duo had been making farces for five years when its director took it to Spain in the spring of 1926 to shoot the exteriors of an adaptation of Cervantes. The film, about 3,280 metres long, was then the longest adaptation of the novel. The two actors keep their costumes, their moustaches and their hats from comic films. They were known as Pat and Patachon in Germany, as Doublepatte and Patachon in France, and as Long and Short in England.
Who it is for
A silent film with intertitles, long for its time. Know before watching it that these two figures were then stars throughout Europe.
Prizes and reception
Regarded as one of its director's major achievements, with the first comic duo known outside its country.
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