An elegant epic of amorous intrigue set against lavish moderne interiors that are themselves worth the price of admission, L'Argent was Marcel L'Herbier's "attack on what he hated most, the power of money." (Roy Armes) Rediscovered and restored in the mid-1960s, it was quickly recognized as a masterpiece of the French avant-garde cinema of the twenties. "Based on the Zola novel (but updated), it assembles a dream cast: Brigitte Helm as the evil Countess Sandorff who uses her bed the way others use Merrill Lynch; Alfred Abel (star of Metropolis) as the scheming speculator; and, in smaller roles, Yvette Guilbert and Antonin Artaud. Like Gance's Napoléon, this is one of the crowning moments of the silent film." (N.Y. Film Festival, 1968) L'Herbier made L'Argent just after the introduction of the portable camera facilitated the "subjective camera" of the impressionist school. To say that L'Argent "revolves around" money and sex is to speak quite literally; its complex multicamera technique affected subjectivity to achieve objectivity.