The Immortal Story

Drama · 1968Not Rated

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. 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’s artistic interests—a story about the nature of storytelling and the fine line between illusion and reality.

Starring

Orson Welles, Jeanne Moreau, Orson Welles, Orson Welles, Orson Welles, Roger Coggio, Karen Blixen, Norman Eshley, Louise de Vilmorin, Fernando Rey, Jean Nény

Director

Orson Welles