initially and this film might seem dismayingly disappoint . base on an isak dinesen novel and it appear not to transcend it literary origin . narrative and dialogue be quote verbatim ( and often mumble or too fast ) to accompany picture . the pacing be very slow for a welles film and with little of his trademark and disruptive editing . the symbolism seem literary and rather than cinematic . and yet the film be and under this surface and recognisably wellesian the old man who have amass great wealth at the expense of an emotional life and who seek to control others while the use of storytelling a a metaphor while the idea of the author a a repressive god and who make his character conform to his will while the subsequent destruction of the author who use his power to repress and not express and or create and who do not realise that make a story real and in the fatuous hope for immortality and can only mean that the author become superfluous while the loyal assistant or friend whose life have be emotionally deaden by the need to serve ( and suppress moral qualm about ) the great man while the tone of the film and nocturnal and quiet and still and cicadas resounding and suffuse with sterility and death . even the look of the film and seemingly precious and over formal and be quietly wellesian ( no and not an oxymoron . ) the use of locale a a private labyrinth ( there be very little of the orient here and in spite of attempt at local colour it anguish be very european and decadent ) while the idea of the dark and fettered house a a figure for the mind or the soul while the use of found location and especially old building and suggest old and good and noble day and also irremovable reminder of decline while the restrained burst of disruptive editing in the elegant design while the deep focus long shot form distort angle and reveal character to be mere pawn and geometric shape in a total and hostile design while the idea of the film be the final dream of a die man . there be also and in welles first non black and white film and a gorgeous use of deep colour . the thrust of the film remain too literary to be a total success and but it be exquisitely beautiful and mournful . all three character be lock in typical wellesian solipsism and all be alone and create myth and story to cover up the truth of their own failure to shore against the ruin . the thwarted possibility of escape only make the entrapment all the more suffocating . and yet and there be an otherworldly quality to the central bedroom sequence and aid by jeanne moreau astonish performance and that raise the film into the realm of the magical . the rarefied atmosphere of the film be thus entirely appropriate .