why do film directors find DON QUIXOTE so fascinating, yet are unable to justice to it on film?

Answer 1

It's a huge, episodic story spread out over two parts - a real problem for cinema. How can you pack all that into 90 minutes?

Also, much of the plot depends on whatever delusion is filling Don Quixote's head at the time - difficult to convey on screen.

Cinema can only lose Cervantes' sly, ironic commentary and the character's musings about themselves. In the second part of the novel, for example, the characters discuss the first section of the book, which they've read! Is Don Quixote actually mad? The book is too varied, subtle, ambiguous and downright literary to be crammed into a screenplay.

Answer 2

Good Q! You've formed a question that's been unspoken in me for some time. When they make another one I probably won't see it because DonQ has a very bad track record and it doesn't appear anybody else here knows either!
What do YOU think?
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Answer 3

He represents the delusional reality our learned ego inhabits which is not an easy subject.