DON QUIXOTE Movie Review

Don Kikhot

This is an intelligent and generally enchanting Soviet adaptation of Cervantes, directed with flair and color (and a big budget) by Grigori Kozintsev. The picture's comedy rarely gets in the way of its gracious poignancy, and Kozintsev deserves credit for maintaining a high-wire act that never collapses into the maudlin. But what's really priceless about this version is the elegant, transfixing performance of Nikolai Cherkassov as the would-be gallant knight. Best remembered as the title characters in Sergei Eisenstein's historical epics Alexander Nevsky and Ivan the Terrible, Cherkassov here reveals a sweet vulnerability under his proud hero's surface; his deep, amazingly versatile voice provides Quixote with a real but very human elegance. Filmed in the Crimea, the picture is as physically exquisite as it is sincere. A gem.

NEXT STOP … Alexander Nevsky, Ivan the Terrible, Peter the First

1957 110m/B SP RU Nikolai Cherkassov, Yuri Tobubeyev; D: Grigori Kozintsev; W: Yevgeni Schwarz; C: Appolinari Dudko, Andrei Moskvin; M: Kara Karayev. VHS FCT