10/11/2005

Two emblematic figures from European literature threaten to conquer the national theatres. Don Quijote by Orson Welles and Arsène Lupin will compete against the American productions Elizabethtown and Fightplan.

Based on Cervantes’ mythical novel, Don Quijote was one of Welles' dearest projects. The director worked on it for 14 years but the film was only shown after his death. The 40 minutes version, edited by Costa Gavras with the support of the French Film Archive, was, however, incomplete. In the early 90's the El Silencio team plunged into a long process of research and negotiations to obtain previously unseen sequences from the Italian editor Mauro Bonanni. Starring Francisco Reiguera, Akim Tamiroff and Welles himself, the version Atalanta releases today in two theatres is a 116 minutes film showing Don Quijote and Sancho Panza travelling all over Spain in 1960. It presents Spain, its people and its traditions, such as the bullfights of which Welles was so fond.

The second European title of the week is Jean-Paul Salome's Arsène Lupin. Vitoria Filme is released in three theatres this co production between France, Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom and has already been sold by TF1 International to 15 countries. Romain Duris plays the thief Arsène Lupin, a cross between Robin Hood and Don Juan, who is caught up in a series of robberies and cold blooded murders. The impressive cast for the film includes Kristin Scott Thomas, Pascal Greggory (Gabrielle [+see also:
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interview: Bernardo Bertolucci
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