#831: WELLES, Orson: The Immortal Story (1968)

WELLES, Orson (France)
The Immortal Story [1968]
Spine #831
Blu-ray

Orson Welles's first color film and final completed fictional feature, The Immortal Story is a moving and wistful adaptation of a tale by Isak Dinesen (the pen name of the Danish writer Karen Blixen). Welles stars as a wealthy merchant in nineteenth-century Macao, who becomes obsessed with bringing to life an oft-told yarn about a rich man who gives a poor sailor a small sum of money to impregnate his wife. Also starring an ethereal Jeanne Moreau, this jewel-like film, dreamily shot by Willy Kurant and suffused with the music of Erik Satie, is a brooding, evocative distillation of Welles's artistic preoccupations — a story about the nature of storytelling and the fine line between illusion and reality, with the specter of death looming over it all.

58 minutes

Color
Monaural
1:66:1 aspect ratio
Criterion Release 2016

Director/Writers

Based on the short story by Isak Dinesen.

Orson Welles was 53 when he wrote and directed The Immortal Story.

Other Welles films in the Collection:

#1104: Citizen Kane (1941)
#952: The Magnificent Ambersons (1942)
#870: Othello (1952)
#322: The Complete Mr. Arkadin (1955)
#1191: The Trial (1962)
#830: Chimes At Midnight (1966)
#288: F For Fake (1975)

The Film

A

Film Rating (0-60):

60

The Extras

The Booklet

Ten-page wraparound featuring an essay by film critic Jonathan Rosenbaum.

Commentary

From 2009 featuring film scholar Adrian Martin.

Portrait: Orson Welles

A 1968 documentary directed by François Reichenbach and Frédéric Rossif.

Interview 1

With actor Eshley.

Interview 2

From 2004 with DP Willy Kurant.

Interview 3

With Welles scholar François Thomas.

Extras Rating (0-40):

39

60 + 39 =

99

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