Samuel Taylor Coleridge

A two-part program that examines the life of Samuel Coleridge from his orphaned childhood to how his friendship with William and Dorothy Wordsworth inspired him to write The Rime of the Ancient Mariner. Part 2 consists of a visualization of Coleridge’s epic poem.

A new look at the poem, "Christabel" (1816), by the British S. T. Coleridge. The only daughter of a rural worker, Christabel meets Geraldine, a mysterious woman who claims to have been attacked by men and needs help. In her innocence and purity, Christabel welcomes Geraldine into her father's house. From then on, the two protagonists relate in a way that Geraldine has a great influence on Christabel, destabilizing her convictions and promoting rupture of the traditions, but that bring a feeling of passion and freedom never experienced by her. In this adaptation, instead of England, the history takes place in the rural zone, in the middle of the closed Goian; The character Geraldine is a mysterious, free and independent woman who appears to swing the established structure and pre-framed relationships, which weigh on Christabel and her father.

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.

A young woman struggles to keep a hold on reality, as her sanity begins to fragment.

Doris Matthews, a beautiful, innocent young girl, forsakes her sweetheart, Joel Barlowe, in favor of Victor Brant, a wealthy roué. On the night before they are to elope, an old sailor gives Brant a strange potion to drink and then unfolds before his eyes "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner." Deeply touched by this story about the consequences of the wanton destruction of innocent beauty, Brant leaves without Doris. After some time, he returns and finds to his pained satisfaction that Doris, having overcome her infatuation for him, has again turned her tender attentions toward Joel.