''Honor of the Knights'' ( ca, Honor de cavalleria; also known as ''Honor of the Knights/Quixotic'') is a 2006 slow film by

Catalan Catalan may refer to: Catalonia From, or related to Catalonia: * Catalan language, a Romance language * Catalans, an ethnic group formed by the people from, or with origins in, Northern or southern Catalonia Places * 13178 Catalan, asteroid #1 ...

auteur

Albert Serra Albert Serra (Catalan pronunciation: �lß'ɛɾ sɛrəborn 9 October 1975) is a Spanish independent filmmaker and manager of the production company Andergraun Films, set up by Montse Triola primarily to produce Serra's films. He is best known fo ...

. The film re-envisions the adventures from the

Miguel de Cervantes Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra (; 29 September 1547 (assumed) – 22 April 1616 Old Style and New Style dates, NS) was an Early Modern Spanish writer widely regarded as the greatest writer in the Spanish language and one of the world's pre-emin ...

novel ''

Don Quixote is a Spanish epic novel by Miguel de Cervantes. Originally published in two parts, in 1605 and 1615, its full title is ''The Ingenious Gentleman Don Quixote of La Mancha'' or, in Spanish, (changing in Part 2 to ). A founding work of Wester ...

'', eschewing the Cervantes narrative in favour of placing Quixote and

Sancho Panza Sancho Panza () is a fictional character in the novel ''Don Quixote'' written by Spanish author Don Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra in 1605. Sancho acts as squire to Don Quixote and provides comments throughout the novel, known as ''sanchismos'', ...

on a contemplative, wandering story. Serra explained that he chose the subject-matter of the film so he could "focus on atmosphere... on things I love better than just showing the plot... With these characters... I don’t care about being more or less faithful to the original source or character that comes from literature or history". The film was screened at the Directors' Fortnight section of the

2006 Cannes Film Festival The 59th Cannes Film Festival was held from 17 to 28 May 2006. Twenty films from eleven countries were in competition for the Palme d'Or. The President of the Official selection Jury was Wong Kar-wai, the first Chinese director to preside over the ...

Reception

Matt Zoller Seitz Matt Zoller Seitz (born December 26, 1968) is an American film and television critic, author and film-maker. Career Matt Zoller Seitz is editor-at-large at RogerEbert.com, and the television critic for '' New York'' magazine and Vulture.com, as ...

, writing for ''The New York Times'', called the film "a virtual definition of the phrase 'acquired taste'", but added that "if you invest yourself in Mr. Serra’s vision, the film’s emotional payoffs are devastating". ''Honor of the Knights'' appeared in a tie for seventh place on ''

Cahiers du Cinéma ''Cahiers du Cinéma'' (, ) is a French film magazine co-founded in 1951 by André Bazin, Jacques Doniol-Valcroze, and Joseph-Marie Lo Duca.Itzkoff, Dave (9 February 2009''Cahiers Du Cinéma Will Continue to Publish''The New York TimesMacnab, Ge ...

''s top ten list of 2007.

References

General references * * *

External links

* 2006 films 2000s Catalan-language films Spanish drama films Films based on Don Quixote Films directed by Albert Serra 2000s Spanish films {{2000s-Spain-film-stub