A film by Orson Welles Based on a story by Out of Africa 's Karen Blixen, and set in the Portuguese colony of Macao in the 19th century, Une Histoire Immortelle or The Immortal Story was Orson Welles' first film in colour. Starring Jeanne Moreau and set solely to the haunting music of Erik Satie, it is, like much of Welles' cinema, an exploration of myth, identity and the degree to which we determine our own fate.
Welles plays Mr Clay, a rich old merchant who insists that his Polish clerk, Levinsky, read to him from the company's account ledger every night before bed. When he can't sleep one evening, Mr Clay begins to recount a story about a sailor who is paid to sleep with the wife of a wealthy older man, a story he insists is true. When Levinsky tells Clay the story is in fact a well-known urban legend, Clay becomes obsessed with re-creating the tale; an endeavour which, inevitably, turns upon him.
DVD Special Features
Both English language and French language cuts of the film
Audio Commentary by Dr Adrian Martin, Associate Professor and Head of Film and Television Studies, Monash University, and Co-editor of ROUGE magazine www.rouge.com.au
The Immortal Story: Like the Sound of the Sea Deep Within a Shell, an essay by Dr Adrian Danks, Head of Cinema Studies in the School of Media and Communication, RMIT University, an editor of Senses of Cinema, and co-curator of The Melbourne Cinémathèque.
