| Nella terra di Don Chisciotte | |
|---|---|
| Directed by | Orson Welles |
| Produced by | Orson Welles |
| Written by | Gian Paolo Callegari |
| Starring | Orson Welles Arnoldo Foà (voice) Paola Mori Beatrice Welles |
| Cinematography | Gary Graver Tim Suhrstedt |
| Release date(s) | 1964 |
| Running time | 30 mins each - 9 episodes |
| Country | Italy |
| Language | Italian |
Nella terra di Don Chisciotte (English-language title In the Land of Don Quixote) is an Italian-language documentary travelogue series about Spain, made by Orson Welles. It began filming in 1961, but did not air until 1964.[1] The series follows Welles' travels around Spain, and was narrated by Arnoldo Foà. The series was made for Radiotelevisione Italiana (RAI-TV).
Welles biographer Clinton Heylin sees the series as a slight effort, writing that the series was "little more than home movies of his trips to Spain."[2] Joseph McBride concurs, stating "the TV episodes never transcend their casual, rambling, touristy approach", likening it to an "indulgent fther's home movie".[3] Co-starring with Welles were his Italian wife Paola Mori, and their young daughter Beatrice Welles. One sequence, dedicated to Beatrice learning the flamenco, was originally cut by RAI-TV on the grounds that it was of limited interest, although it has subsequently been restored by the Munich Film Museum.
At the time, Welles was simultaneously working on his film adaptation of Don Quixote, and the series was primarily made to raise funds for the film. Jonathan Rosenbaum describes the series as "a bread-and-butter travelogue made in order to finance work on the Quixote feature."[4] When Welles's unfinished Don Quixote film was released in a much-derided re-edit by Jesus Franco in 1992, it included footage of Welles in Spain that had been taken from In the Land of Don Quixote - even though Welles had never intended any crossover between the two projects, and Rosenbaum considered the resulting effect "lamentable".[5]