Don Quixote

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General		Extras
Category	Ballet	Theatrical Trailer(s)	None
Rating		Other Trailer(s)	None
Year Released	1972,1999	Commentary Tracks	None
Running Time	102:02 minutes	Other Extras	Scene Synopsis Cast & Crew Biographies Featurette-Making Of (A Little of Don Quixote) 17 mins Featurette (Don Quixote Restoration Process) 3 mins
RSDL/Flipper	No/No	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region	4	Director	Rudolph Nureyev Robert Helpmann
Distributor	Roadshow Home Entertainment	Starring	Rudolph Nureyev Robert Helpmann Lucette Aldous Ray Powell Francis Croese
RRP	$34.95	Music	Ludwig Minkus

    The film version of this ballet is basically a filmed stage production, with some elements that could have only been created in a movie.

Video

    The video transfer of this movie is generally excellent, with some problematic sections.

    The transfer is presented at an aspect ratio of 1.78:1, 16x9 enhanced.

    The transfer was mostly very clear and very sharp, with no evidence of overenhancement. The overall picture is very bright, usually without detriment, though a few of the peak white colours are overbright, resulting in a slight loss of picture detail at these times. Some of the close-up shots are slightly fuzzy and out-of-focus. Often these slightly blurred shots are intercut with perfectly restored footage, so it is possible that these were sourced from a more degraded film element. Shadow detail is limited, with dark scenes having little detail in them. There is no low level noise.

    There are a number of skips in the video image which appear to be the result of missing frames. Examples are at 6:09, 22:34 and 33:01-33:30. There are approximately a dozen or so of these skips, none of which are severe.

    The colours were, in a word, vibrant. The film is basically awash with strong colours which look sensational. There is just a slight hint of colour bleeding at times with some of the reds.

    Sadly, MPEG artefacts were seen more often than they should have been. This is the one area where the transfer is somewhat of a disappointment - a significant number of scenes in the middle part of the movie show significant MPEG artefacting in the background during camera pans. This is manifest as an increase in the granularity of the background image. This particularly occurs during the windmill sequences and the inn sequences. Perhaps this transfer should have been mastered onto an RSDL disc to allow better MPEG encoding.

    Film-to-video artefacts consisted of some scenes with significant judder, particularly during the inn sequence, and some minor aliasing during the end credits.

    Film artefacts were generally very rare, which is a remarkable surprise given the age of this movie, and the source elements that had to be utilized. There is only one moderately bad sequence, from 52:29-52:30.

    The running time of this movie is 102 minutes. The packaging states that the total running time of the movie and the supplemental features is 127 minutes, which is a slight overstatement.

Audio

    The music for this movie was originally recorded in stereo, but the movie was printed in mono. The audio has been restored, and recorded as both a stereo soundtrack and as a minimally altered 5.1 mix.

    The music was usually perfectly clear, though the levels were somewhat uneven at times, with many crescendos ending somewhat softer than expected, as if the original recording had been limited in some way. Nonetheless, it remains a superb score to listen to. There are a number of scenes where there is significant hiss left when the music ends, which is then rapidly faded away, presumably by the use of a noise gate or similar device. Whilst this is far less distracting than having the hiss present all of the time, it is slightly distracting to perceive the hiss and then for it to abruptly stop.

    There were no audio sync problems with the movie.

    The musical score was by Ludwig Minkus and is, in a word, marvellous.

    The surround channels did very little. I listened to sections of the movie with both the 5.1 and the 2.0 mix to compare, and found that the 5.1 mix was slightly better integrated spatially, and was my preferred listening experience.

    The only problem with the Dolby Digital 5.1 track was the fact that the .1 track has been encoded at an inappropriately loud level, 10 dB too loud, in fact. You cannot listen to this soundtrack without adjusting the output level of the .1 channel down appropriately, after which time it becomes a nicely integrated mix, with nearly continuous use of the .1 channel for the low end of the music.
[Addendum 10th June 1999: I have been informed by Roadshow Home Entertainment that the director wanted the .1 channel to be at this level and personally approved this DVD transfer.]

Menu

Featurette - A Little of Don Quixote

    The content of the documentary is excellent, and provides a great insight into the making of this movie. Unfortunately, it is dreadfully MPEG compressed, with pixelization artefacts galore.

Featurette - Don Quixote Restoration Process

Scene Synopsis

Cast & Crew Biographies

    The video quality is basically very good, but could have been even better with more attention to MPEG encoding. Perhaps this disc should have been mastered as an RSDL disc.

    The audio quality is basically good, despite the level error in the .1 channel.

    The extras are superb.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall

© Michael Demtschyna
8th June 1999
Amended 10th June 1999