The Death of Don Quixote
Synopsis
London, 1968. Alphonse, a young and ambitious filmmaker, attempts to complete his greatest cinematic work yet, "The Death of Don Quixote". But with his ageing star, Patrick Quincey, falling ill, it's unclear what will die first: his vision, Patrick or Don Quixote.
Film details
- Year
- 2018
- Runtime
- 00:13:10
- Genre
- Drama, Comedy
- Country
- United Kingdom
- Language
- English, Spanish
- Subtitles
- English, Español, Português, Français, العربية, 中文（简体）
Filmmaker's Note
"The Death of Don Quixote” explores the curse that cinematic adaptations of Don Quixote have suffered over the years, by telling the story of a Quixotic director who has embarked in the Quixotic quest of filming Don Quixote with a terminally ill, and similarly Quixotic, lead actor.
In the novel, Don Quixote becomes sane before dying, and asks Sancho to forgive him for his years of madness. And one wonders: who dies on that bed? Is it Alonso Quijano, the man who went crazy and took on the role of Don Quixote? Or is it the character, Don Quixote? Or is it both? Or rather... given that death is a necessary requirement for all heroes to become heroes, isn’t Alonso Quijano’s death precisely what makes Don Quixote immortal?
All of these questions were the starting point of my film, which doesn’t try to answer them but rather explore them in a new light, adding the fact that it’s not Don Quixote who is dying, but an actor who’s trying to perform... Don Quixote’s death.
This is a film about two Don Quixotes (the director and the actor) trying to make a film about Don Quixote, and realizing at different points that the dream they are chasing might be more of a windmill than a giant.
Credits
Director
- Miguel Faus
Writers
- Miguel Faus
Producers
- Nathalie Lamprecht
About the filmmaker
By Miguel Faus
I'm a 25-year-old filmmaker from Barcelona. I studied Business Administration and Humanities in college, and after that I worked as a copywriter in Miami, New York, and then Madrid for the Spanish advertising agency SCPF, for clients like BMW, IKEA and San Miguel. Then my passion for cinema came knocking. I had directed a few short films in my early teens, and had kept very much in touch with cinema, but through a more theoretical and critical approach: I was a collaborating author for Jot Down Magazine, and through that I was able to conduct very lengthy interviews with several acclaimed directors: Pawel Pawlikowski, Olivier Assayas, Albert Serra, Terence Davies, Whit Stillman, Pedro Costa, Alberto Rodríguez, Isaki Lacuesta… ( . This was great, of course, but I wanted to continue my path towards making my own films. I left the agency, moved back to Barcelona and started working in the industry: I was a Directing Trainee at "The Bookshop" (Isabel Coixet, 2017 – winner of Best Picture at the Goya awards) and was hired by the producers to develop a documentary series based around conversations between established filmmakers, a bit in the spirit of Hitchcock/Truffaut. In January 2017, I moved to London to start a Filmmaking MA at the London Film School. “The Death of Don Quixote” is my project for the final year, as I start preparing my Graduation Film.
