Epstein’s innovative tone poem, Le tempestaire, looks at superstition as one way Breton villagers cope with the constant fear that the sea will claim its young men. Epstein sets up a dichotomy between pragmatism (in a confident fisherman) and superstition (his worried girlfriend). The sea will decide, and Epstein controls that too, through brilliant editing. Mor’Vran, the best known of Epstein’s Breton films, is also his most anthropological. By simply enacting their daily lives the people of Isle de Sein help him tell a slight story of loss and survival. As always, the poetry is in Epstein’s vision, but here he lets his craft take a backseat to the craft of living. JUDY BLOCH