Review of The Immortal Story

Incommend Welles for finishing a film in this era. Unfortunately, this is not inspired work. It is short. Fhe make-up is poor. The film type is the cheap european late 60s/early 80s one that gives it an ugly gloss. It is inconsitently edited. The intro is awkwardly narrated and uses many rushed jump cuts for simple action. The rest of the film often has static shots for long lengths of time. Jeanne Mureau has the same ecpression the entire film, through several emotions. An obvious mediterranean town poorly pases for Macau, but is interesting to look at. There is unitentional humor with homosexual overtones and a cheesy sex scene, making me feel that I was watching an Andy Warhol horror comedy. Welles tries to make up for it by trying to make each shot be for some interesting angle, but is often repetitive, cliched (mirrors!), or pointless. And often the lengthy dialogue exchanges and performances felt like a play, rather than a film.

But: the central concept is an interesting one, and a theme that Welles was exploring in other films at the time: the nature of storytelling, especially the stories we are inclined to believe. The need for rich powerful men to have a story to tell, preferring to force some tales rather than hear the more interesting ones by those around them.

And despite my criticism of the forced nature of many shots and the odd editing, and Welles'discomfort of working with color, Welles does create some interesting images every so often. At times it even felt like he might pull it off and deliver a memorable movie or scene.

In sum: a curiosity for cinemaphiles.