Don Quixote (1973 film)

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Don Quixote
Directed by
Written byRudolf Nureyev
Based onthe ballet Don Quixote by Marius Petipa
Produced byJohn L. Hargreaves
Starring
  • Robert Helpman
  • Rudolf Nureyev
Cinematography Geoffrey Unsworth
Edited by Anthony Buckley
Music by Ludwig Minkus
Production
companies
Distributed by The Walter Reade Organisation
Release date
  • 19 July 1973 (1973-07-19)
Running time
111 minutes [1]
CountryAustralia
LanguageEnglish
Budget$750,000 [2]

Don Quixote is a 1973 Australian ballet film directed by and starring Rudolf Nureyev and Robert Helpmann. [3] The film is adapted from Marius Petipa's ballet of the same name, itself based on Miguel de Cervantes' novel El ingenioso hidalgo don Quijote de la Mancha .

Contents

Cast

Production

The ballet had been added to the repertoire of the Australian Ballet in a 1970 production designed and costumed by Barry Kay, and was one of Nureyev's most popular parts. [4] Finance to film it was raised mostly in the US with most of the crew coming from Australia but a British cinematographer was used. It was shot over four weeks starting 13 November 1972 in a converted airport hangar in Essendon near Melbourne. They used a music soundtrack arranged and conducted by John Lanchbery, which had been pre-recorded by The Elizabethan Trust Melbourne Orchestra a month earlier at Armstrong Studios. [2]

Release

The film was screened around the world and was well received. [2] However it dropped out of circulation for 25 years and has only recently been revived. [5]

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References

  1. "Don Quixote (U)". British Board of Film Classification . 20 December 1973. Retrieved 1 August 2023.
  2. 1 2 3 Andrew Pike and Ross Cooper, Australian Film 1900–1977: A Guide to Feature Film Production, Melbourne: Oxford University Press, 1998 p271
  3. Vagg, Stephen (23 December 2019). "Australian Film Musicals You Probably Didn't Realise Existed". Filmink.
  4. 'Don Quoxote' at Nureyev Foundation Archived 9 September 2012 at the Wayback Machine accessed 27 Sept 2012
  5. 'Don Quixote' at ABC