The Immortal Story
The Immortal Story • 57m
Directed by Orson Welles • 1968 • France
Starring Jeanne Moreau, Orson Welles, Roger Coggio
Orson Welles' first color film and final completed fictional feature, THE IMMORTAL STORY is a moving and wistful adaptation of a tale by Isak Dinesen. Welles stars as a wealthy merchant in nineteenth-century Macao, who becomes obsessed with bringing to life an oft-related anecdote 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' artistic interests, a story about the nature of storytelling and the fine line between illusion and reality.
Up Next in The Immortal Story
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THE IMMORTAL STORY Commentary
Recorded in 2009, this commentary features film scholar Adrian Martin.
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Une histoire immortelle
French-language version of THE IMMORTAL STORY
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Portrait: Orson Welles
This oblique and fascinating documentary on director Orson Welles, by François Reichenbach and Frédéric Rossif, was originally scheduled to be broadcast on French television alongside THE IMMORTAL STORY in May 1968. Due to the political upheaval in France that month, the premieres of both films w...
