The Immortal Story

Based on a short story by Isak Dinesen and adapted to the screen faithfully by Orson Welles with only minor changes, The Immortal Story aired on French TV in 1968. Running just under an hour, the film stars Welles as Mr. Clay, a rich, misanthropic merchant in Macao who becomes obsessed with turning an old seaman's legend—about a rich man who hires a sailor to impregnate his young wife—into a dramatic reality. Clay tasks his clerk (French actor Roger Coggio) with finding a woman (Jeanne Moreau) to play his wife and then hires a sailor (Norman Eshley) off the streets to be the young man, and he takes the role of the rich old codger himself. Like many of Welles's films, this one is about a powerful figure who uses his money and influence to attempt to control those around him, and it is equally about stories and storytelling, with Clay himself taking the role of director. Welles's stylistic approach, however, is very different. It's his first color film, the camera rarely moves, the sets are austere, and the compositions appear more flattened on a shallow plane. The result is a film—Welles's final completed fictional feature—that is dreamlike, ephemeral, and introspective. Making its U.S. home video debut in a special Criterion edition from a new 4K master taken from the original 35mm camera negative, extras include the shorter 50-minute French version of the film, audio commentary by film scholar Adrian Martin, a 1968 documentary on Welles, new and archival interviews, and an essay by film critic Jonathan Rosenbaum. Recommended. (S. Axmaker)