Reviews

I have read a comment about this movie, and the author confess that he doesn't know who was Don Quixote (or Don Quijote in modern Spanish). I suppose that this gentleman is British, because he lives in the UK. In order to illustrate his knowledge, Don Quijote was the very first novel or romance in the whole world, and was written by Miguel de Cervantes Zaavedra. This book was published for the first time in Madrid, in 1605. The first British version of Don Quijote was made by Thomas Shelton. This translation was written in 1612 and also was the first translation to other language. I may suggest the reading of the English version. It Is not easy to read because it is a very extended book. I have several editions of Don Quijote in Spanish, and every one has more than one thousand pages. The character of Don Quijote de la Mancha is very complicated, but I could say that he represents that kind of people who believes everything that is written in the chivalry books. He believes in characters like those of the round table, or the Spanish character Amadis de Gaula, and he try to be one of those knights-errand. In fact, the first English translation of Don Quijote is: "The History of the Valorovs and Wittie Knight-Errant Don Quixote of the Mancha". The writer, Miguel de Cervantes Zaavedra, is to the Spanish speaking people the same as William Shakespeare is for the English speaking people. And that's all

New York is a very special city, is another world inside the US. But the visitors only can see the life in the street, visit the museums, walk through Central Park and even attend to the concerts in the summer time (once, some years ago, I have the pleasure to attend a concert conducted by Zubin Metha, and the whole context was amazing: very elegant people mixed with Hippies, wine in fine glasses and beer in cans, etc.), but we never have the opportunity to see what's happened on the roofs of so many buildings, and this short movie show us the life on those roofs. If I am not wrong, the musical background was provided by the Modern Jazz Quartet. I really enjoy the movie when I watched it in Santiago, Chile in 1962 or 63.

I saw this movie when I was living in San Antonio, Texas, between 1985-89, and it really is better than the big, expensive movie "Il Postino". I have read the book "Ardiente Paciencia", and the movie follows the book very closely. When I was living in Santiago, Chile from 1962 to 1972, I had the opportunity of meeting Pablo Neruda and also the actor Roberto Parada, who looked much like the Chilean Nobel Prize winner. In "Il Postino" the events take place somewhere in Italy, but in the movie "Ardiente Paciencia" Neruda and the mailman are living in the real place, Isla Negra, a beautiful little town on the Pacific coast of Chile (christened by the poet himself), where he built one of his homes. This house is now a museum. It is a pity that this excellent movie is little known.