The Immortal Story / Une histoire immortelle (1968) [Re-UP]

×

The Immortal Story / Une histoire immortelle (1968) [Re-UP]

Close

Initially, this film might seem dismayingly disappointing. Based on an Isak Dinesen novel, it appears not to transcend its literary origins. Narrative and dialogue are quoted verbatim (and often mumbled or too fast) to accompanying pictures. The pacing is very slow for a Welles film, with little of his trademark, disruptive editing. The symbolism seems literary, rather than cinematic.

And yet the film is, under this surface, recognisably Wellesian - the old man who has amassed great wealth at the expense of an emotional life, who seeks to control others; the use of storytelling as a metaphor; the idea of the author as a repressive God, who makes his characters conform to his will; the subsequent destruction of the author who uses his power to repress, not express, or create, who does not realise that making a story 'real', in the fatuous hope for immortality, can only mean that the author becomes superfluous; the loyal assistant/friend whose life has been emotionally deadened by the need to serve (and suppress moral qualms about) the great man; the tone of the film, nocturnal, quiet, still, cicadas resounding, suffused with sterility and death.

×

The Immortal Story / Une histoire immortelle (1968) [Re-UP]

Close

Even the look of the film, seemingly precious and over-formal, is quietly Wellesian (no, not an oxymoron!) - the use of locale as a private labyrinth (there is very little of the Orient here, in spite of attempts at local colour - its anguish is very European and decadent); the idea of the dark, fettered house as a figure for the mind or the soul; the use of found locations, especially old buildings, suggesting older, better, nobler days, also irremovable reminders of decline; the restrained bursts of disruptive editing in the elegant design; the deep-focus long-shots form distorted angles, revealing characters to be mere pawns, geometric shapes in a total, hostile design; the idea of the film being the final dream of a dying man. There is also, in Welles' first non-black-and-white film, a gorgeous use of deep colours.

×

The Immortal Story / Une histoire immortelle (1968) [Re-UP]

Close

The thrust of the film remains too literary to be a total success, but it is exquisitely beautiful and mournful. All three characters are locked in typical Wellesian solipsism, all are alone, creating myths and stories to cover up the truth of their own failure to shore against the ruins. The thwarted possibility of escape only makes the entrapment all the more suffocating. And yet, there is an otherworldly quality to the central bedroom sequence, aided by Jeanne Moreau's astonishing performance, that raises the film into the realm of the magical. The rarefied atmosphere of the film is thus entirely appropriate.

IMDB Reviewer,
27 out of 28 people found review useful

^English version --||||-- French version^


^English version --||||-- French version^

The more I watch this movie, the more I love it. It's a gift of a genius who proves how easily Literature and Cinema can be mixed in a powerful way. Although is short and barely commercial, is a gem, a masterpiece of colour, rythm, music and words. The lasts shots, are simply magic.

IMDB Reviewer

Special Feature:
- Audio commentary by Adrian Martin

Uploadable:

http://www.uploadable.ch/file/jm5Nu9UGagRQ/Imostor.part1.rar
http://www.uploadable.ch/file/MYyb5RXCPV4S/Imostor.part2.rar
http://www.uploadable.ch/file/28GrFEQz5nG6/Imostor.part3.rar
http://www.uploadable.ch/file/FbBWT427q7Dt/Imostor.part4.rar
http://www.uploadable.ch/file/vzjmqZscDsVn/Imostor.part5.rar

DataFile:

http://www.datafile.com/d/TVRBeU1UTTNNamMF9/Imostor.part1.rar
http://www.datafile.com/d/TVRBeU1UTTNORGcF9/Imostor.part2.rar
http://www.datafile.com/d/TVRBeU1UTTNOREEF9/Imostor.part3.rar
http://www.datafile.com/d/TVRBeU1UTTNOVGMF9/Imostor.part4.rar
http://www.datafile.com/d/TVRBeU1UTTNOVEEF9/Imostor.part5.rar

password: www.AvaxHome.ru

Interchangable links.