Revolutionary cinema from French director Jean Epstein (1897–1953), including his poetic adaptation of The Fall of the House of Usher.
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Live Music: Judith Rosenberg on piano
Epstein collaborated with local Breton fishermen to create this tale of their fear of the very thing that brings them life: the sea. “A masterpiece of silent cinema” (ARTE).
This poetic meditation on Epstein and his work focuses on the time he spent in Brittany.
Judith Rosenberg on piano
A young woman suffers at the hands of her foster family and the town drunk until her true love offers a possible salvation in Epstein’s visually stunning tale of violence, love, and loss.
Archival Prints!
Lecture and booksigning by Sarah Keller. Judith Rosenberg on piano
Two brothers inherit the family fortune; one falls in love with an opera singer who cannot be loved, while the other hopes to rescue him. With short Sa tête.
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Introduced by Sarah Keller
Epstein’s moving yet disturbing portrait of the inhabitants of a remote, windswept island, is an early use of "natural actors" in a "natural set." With short Les berceaux.
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Introduced by Sarah Keller
The story of a young man from a wealthy family and a perfume girl with whom he falls in love. “A beautifully shot film, bathed in every kind of luminescence” (Anthology Film Archives).
Archival Prints!
Introduced by Sarah Keller
Epstein’s innovative films created in the windswept, ocean-lashed region of Brittany: Le tempestaire, Mor'Vran, and Les feux de la mer.
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An ode to transportation, as well as to every possible kind of cinematic movement, Epstein’s film combines a love triangle and the theme of world travel. With short La villanelle des rubans.
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Judith Rosenberg on piano
Based on a Balzac novella, this extraordinary “double narrative” unfolds two stories in parallel—one during an elegant dinner in Paris, the other in an isolated Alsace inn.
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Judith Rosenberg on piano
A young Indian prince (the great Ivan Mosjoukine) flees his kingdom for Paris due to a doomed love affair, only to fall in love again, in Epstein’s almost forgotten treasure.
Epstein’s poetic variation on motifs from Edgar Allan Poe relates the story of a painter whose obsessive desire to give life to his images has sinister consequences. With short La glace à trois faces.
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Judith Rosenberg on piano
A woman whose lover and son are chronic gamblers must overcome the hypocrisy of wealth and the corruptions of money in Epstein’s melodrama, starring the great Russian actress Nathalia Lissenko.
Epstein’s 1930s shorts contain all the lyricism and beauty of his earlier creations, married to an even more refined sense of skill. Presented are Les bâtisseurs, Chanson d’Ar-mor, and La chanson des peupliers.