Rime of the Ancient Mariner

There are several things taking place in the film. One of them is the filmic popularization of little known illustrative work of Gustave Dore who made an early effort to bring visualization to Rime of the Ancient Mariner in the late 19th Century by created astonishingly laborious illustrations in a period prior to the development of photography as related to its reproduction for periodicals and printing. Another artist who created a visualization of the poem in 1910 is Willy Pogany, greatly celebrated for his work in Art Deco. Pogany, who eventually ended up in early Hollywood was an immigrant whose work was first known in New York City where he was the designer of the famous Art Deco swimming pool at the St. George Hotel in Brooklyn. These artists and others used in the film now have examples of their work on film for all to see.The planning and graphic plotting for the camera movement over pieces of art is time consuming and laborious. This is the major reason why the film took two years to produce. Those who do not know or can grasp the technology of Photoanimation are urged to go to Wikipedia and read up on it. It begins with a soundtrack analysis and goes on through a difficult process.One comment mentions about the film being "a narrated PowerPoint presentation". That kind of presentation is just a basic slide show and it takes no effort other than photographing still art or photography.The secondary objective of this film is to serve as a pilot for The Immortal Poets. This would be an entire series on the visualization of great poetic literature. Such a work is something greatly missing in our society as we are currently into a dark age of letters and poetry. Poetry is literature that points to the highest achievement of humanity in the communication of ideas. It is not currently very popular. As it turns out, we need poetry, perhaps today more than ever.A third objective is to indicate that film presentations can be a multiplicity of things and not narrow in concept or fixed to a bridle path like a rented horse that walks on an old path without guidance. When the filmmakers began to plan this film, they knew that it was not going to be a moneymaker. However, they felt that it would be life affirming...and bring constructive values to society. The poem itself cries out for the sanctity of all life on Earth.That it brings additional comprehension to a very difficult piece of literature is unquestionable. However, students should not be expected to react to it with great enthusiasm. It is up to the teacher...if the teacher can grasp what the production is all about...to indicate and point out the triumph of this film to the students. Five of six educated, totally different, international film festival juries did not select it out of a mass competition and give it a first place prizes by mistake.