Don Quixote

An old country gentleman has read so many books of chivalry that he genuinely believes he is a knight. He names himself Don Quixote, mounts his skinny horse, takes the peasant Sancho Panza along and sets out on the road. He charges windmills he takes for giants, sets prisoners free, and becomes entertainment at a duke's palace. Grigori Kozintsev's Soviet adaptation comes not directly from Cervantes but from Yevgeny Schwartz's stage version. Nikolay Cherkasov plays Don Quixote and Yuri Tolubeyev plays Sancho. This was the first time the novel was filmed in colour and widescreen; the film screened at Cannes in 1957. The telling does not find its hero ridiculous, it looks at him as the only person who believes.