Orson Welles' Don Quixote was an exercise in futility (the Tilting at Windmills pun irresistible) to bring Cervantes' novel to the screen. Many have tried, some failures have even been documented, like Terry Gilliam in Lost in La Mancha. Welles' story is of great interest, but for readers of the book, the chronicler issue is perhaps most interesting.
Yes, there is a chronicler issue in Don Quixote. Cervantes chooses to act the role of historian in the book, rather than novelist. The representation of authorship in the novel is intriguing, since Cervantes intercedes early in the book (1st Part, Book 2, Chap 1) explains how the history of the famed knight has been cut off at this point. In the first 8 chapters, mention is made of an anonymous chronicler: "Who doubts, in the ensuing ages, when the true history of my famous acts shall come to light, but that the wise man who shall write it....And, thou wise enchanter, whosoever thou beest, whom it shall concern to be the chronicler of this strange history..." (1st, 1, 2).
In his Moorish travels the author has discovered in Toledo an old manuscript written in Arabic by an historian named Cid Hamet Benengeli. Cervantes uses this as a device to ensure the objectivity of the storyteller, the author is a Moor, for an infidel would try very hard to understate the achievements of a Spaniard. This assures the reader that the history of Don Quixote is true and unexaggerated. "And if any objection be made against the truth of this, it can be none other that the author was a Moor; and it is a known property of that nation to be lying: yet, in respect that they hate us mortally, it is to be conjectured that in this history there is rather want and concealment of our knight's worthy acts than any superfluity; which I imagine the rather, because I find in the progress thereof, many times, that when he might and ought to have advanced his pen in our knight's praises, he doth, as it were of purpose, pass over them in silence; which was very ill done." In effect, the balance of Part I is based on the pretended discovery of a pretended translation of a pretended Arabian account.
When Orson Welles embarked in Mexico City in 1958 on his never ending project of filming Don Quixote, he would add a new dimension to the chronicler question, as film maker becomes chronicler explicitly. Welles was able to complete the scenes involving Francisco Reiguera (DQ) prior to the actor’s death in 1969 and Akin Tamiroff (SP). Welles also brought in child actress Patty McCormack (photo, note Bad Seed braids) to play an American girl visiting Mexico City. During her visit, she would encounter Welles (playing himself) and then meet Don Quixote and Sancho Panza. Delays forced her to drop out as she outgrew her role. Footage was shown at the Cannes Film Festival in 1986, one year after Welles died. In 1990, Spanish producer Patxi Irigoyen and director Jesús Franco acquired the rights to the extant footage of the Don Quixote project. Franco included footage of Welles filming in Spain, taken from a documentary he had made in the 1960s. Welles had not intended to appear in the film himself, other than as its narrator. The Irigoyen and Franco work premiered at the 1992 Cannes Film Festival as Don Quixote de Orson Welles.
The movie takes place in the contemporary era, the knight-errant and his squire befuddled by the modern contrivances of televisions, motor scooters, missiles, and movie cameras. Further, director Welles is featured in the film, albeit, posthumous. This recalls Cervantes' reference to his own book Galatea. In one scene Sancho earns some pocket money working for the film crew. In many ways, this is a postmodern version of the 400-year old relation between author and characters. Was Orson Welles conscious of this chronicler issue vis a vis Cid Hamet Benengeli et al.? We'll never know.
In 2002, documentary film makers Keith Fulton and Louis Pepe have a field day portraying director Terry Gilliam as a real life Don Quixote in his effort to make a modern version of the Cervantes epic, starring Johnny Depp. Benjamin Fernandez (Production Designer) notes how Gilliam can "see things we can't see," like windmills maybe ? The industry has a perception of Gilliam as a director out of control, especially after the financially ruinous movie The Adventures of Baron Munchausen (1988). Like Quixote who aims to change the world at age 50, Gilliam (61) sees this film as his own last hurrah, but reality wins over The Man Who Killed Don Quixote in the end. Plagued by flash floods, military fighter jet noise, and a herniated disc for actor Jean Rochefort (DQ), the film was ultimately abandoned, although Gilliam later bought it back from the insurance company.
