Synopsis
Orson Welles reads the poem especially for this film by Larry Jordan, which is dedicated to the late Wallace Berman, and is made possible by a grant from The National Endowment Of The Arts.
The Rime of the Ancient Mariner
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Theatrical
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USA
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USA
01 Jan 1977
- Theatrical
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This film is way better than it had any right to be!
This film provides animation that well simple uses colors brilliantly to compliment the mood and the artwork is pleasant to look at! Helping is the sea ambiance and Orson Welles' awesome narration. This films shows that sometimes simplicity is the best!
Feel free to check it out it's available for free on YouTube!
www.youtube.com/watch?v=ODXT3kjZBss -
"...Forthwith this frame of mine was wrenched
With a woeful agony,
Which forced me to begin my tale;
And then it left me free."Since then, at an uncertain hour,
That agony returns;
And till my ghastly tale is told,
This heart within me burns."I pass, like night, from land to land;
I have strange power of speech;
That moment that his face I see,
I know the man that must hear me:
To him my tale I teach."What loud uproar bursts from that door!
The wedding-guests are there:
But in the garden-bower the bride
And bride-maids singing are:
And hark the little vesper bell,
Which biddeth me to prayer!"O Wedding-Guest! this soul hath been
Alone on… -
Poem by Coleridge, illustrations by Gustave Doré, read by the mellifluent voice of Orson Welles. Not a bad line up for movie credits.
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Damn, this was good. Another hidden gem from Orson Welles. The thing is, he probably wasn't even trying super hard on all these random narration gigs, yet he still managed to create stuff like this, effortlessly it seems. A genius indeed. Oh yeah, the animation is really cool as well, so is the poem itself of course (in fact it might have just become my new favorite poem).
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In case Fandor dies tomorrow, I want to preserve this quote from Jordan: "I wanted to depict the complete [Samuel Taylor Coleridge] poem via [Gustave] Doré illustrations, yet infuse with dream-irrelevancies that would carry the film at least one step out of the realm of the merely filmic illustrations of a poem. I tried to infiltrate the world of Doré and Coleridge through the agency of Orson Welles' deep, rumbling voice."
Doré and Welles have been with me for as long as I can remember. I'm starting to think, after seeing one of his films on the Flicker Alley avant-garde set and now seeing this, that Jordan might be another lifelong compatriot. In much the way a recitation of a…
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My first exposure to this beautiful poem and I couldn't have asked for a better rendition. Orson Welles does a great job narrating and the music that accompanies the Gustave Dore's engravings, fits wonderfully. Larry Jordan's animation was sparse and unobtrusive, which is a pity because I enjoy his style and would have liked to have seen more animation than just colour changes, resulting in a very pretty slideshow.
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Look at me, studying for school! 🍎 📚 ✏️
5 stars for the imaginative accompaniment to a fantastic reading.(I wish Orson was recorded reading every text on planet earth.)
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Loved Orson Welles performance of the poem and the old woodcuts. The animation reminded me of Terry Gilliam's work for Monty Python. Sometimes it's a bit distracting or oddly jaunty to the point of comedy while others it adds a touch of spectral life. Hard to complain much about a classic poem simply presented.
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kind of fun to watch, felt like storytime. wish my first-grade librarian was as good to listen to as orson welles. felt like a class project with the visuals but there were just so many, i don't know where they all came from.
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Pardon me for stating the obvious, but Orson Welles has one of the greatest voices in the history of humanity.
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