(La chute de la maison Usher)
Country: FR
Technical: bw (silent) 72m
Director: Jean Epstein
Cast: Jean Debucourt, Marguerite Gance, Charles Lamy, Fournez-Goffard
Synopsis:
The last surviving member of the Usher family invites an old friend to his house to meet his wife Madeline, whose portrait he is painting, and whose life seems to ebb away as the painting gains in likeness.
Review:
Buñuel allegedly walked off Epstein's film because the latter had turned an incestuous relationship (Roderick and Madeline are siblings) into a legitimate one. The distinction appears academic in the circumstances, and the rest of the film is fairly true to Poe's original. Oh, but with what leaden deliberation does the narrative unfold, as if the characters were already dead! The significance of the owl is mysterious, and there are undoubtedly elements of surrealism here, with scenes reminiscent of La coquille et le clergyman, and some startling lighting effects, with the wife's bridal gown resembling swirling mist; however, one yearns for the histrionics of a Vincent Price.
(La chute de la maison Usher)
Country: FR
Technical: bw (silent) 72m
Director: Jean Epstein
Cast: Jean Debucourt, Marguerite Gance, Charles Lamy, Fournez-Goffard
Synopsis:
The last surviving member of the Usher family invites an old friend to his house to meet his wife Madeline, whose portrait he is painting, and whose life seems to ebb away as the painting gains in likeness.
Review:
Buñuel allegedly walked off Epstein's film because the latter had turned an incestuous relationship (Roderick and Madeline are siblings) into a legitimate one. The distinction appears academic in the circumstances, and the rest of the film is fairly true to Poe's original. Oh, but with what leaden deliberation does the narrative unfold, as if the characters were already dead! The significance of the owl is mysterious, and there are undoubtedly elements of surrealism here, with scenes reminiscent of La coquille et le clergyman, and some startling lighting effects, with the wife's bridal gown resembling swirling mist; however, one yearns for the histrionics of a Vincent Price.
