Jean Epstein

[Gregory]

Given the interest in photos of our man, back on page 1, I thought I'd share this one from the set of The Adventures of Robert Macaire. Bigger version here.

(Tip for archival preservation: if a photo has a tear, don't put Scotch tape over it ](*,) )

[MichaelB]

The Cinema Ritrovato Awards for 2014 have just been announced, including:

BEST DVD BOX SET: JEAN EPSTEIN COFFRET
(Le Cinematheque Francaise, Potemkine Films) (TK, PM)

Produced by Potemkine Film, the Cinémathèque française and agnès b. DVD, for the first time the «Jean Epstein» box set offers an opportunity to follow the cinematographic path of the french director. With the films made under the Film Albatros label (1924-1925) as a starting point, the review continues with Epstein's own productions (1926-1928) and those directed in the period from 1928 to 1948, a series of registrations characterized by the freedom and careless of financial or narrative constraints. Every film included has been restored and musical comments, written specially for the edition, accompany the selection of mute films. A series of supplements and a profusely illustrated 160-page book complete the eight DVDs set.

(Full press release and other winners here)

[Tommaso]

And another little subtitle problem I've just discovered (please tell me if it's caused by my player, but I've never seen anything like this before): on "L'or des mers", the English subs after about 20 min. suddenly all BECOME WRITTEN IN CAPITALS (like this), then after a while switch briefly back to normal, but soon RETURN TO CAPITALS. This not only occasionally leads to three-line subs - with bad, because probably unintentional line breaks -, but is of course also much more intrusive than normal subs. I also noticed that towards the end of the first capitals-passage, the subs are slightly out of sync (delayed). Not a big deal, especially as the film has little dialogue, but I wonder how this slip could have happened with a set so long in preparation and otherwise so lovingly done.

[Arn777]

Saw Usher for the first time, fantastic film. I watched it with the Joakim soundtrack, and thought it was particularly fitting, but I like that type of sound

[warren oates]

So I blind bought the big Potemkine box set based on the excitement in this thread and watched Usher tonight, variously with both soundtracks and then totally silent. And I have to say I was kind of underwhelmed. I couldn't help comparing it unfavorably to other contemporaneous silent horror classics like Nosferatu or Vampyr. And while it seemed to fitfully partake of some of experimentation that reminded me of Dreyer's film, the whole didn't feel very coherent tonally or stylistically. So what am I not getting about this film? And which one should I watch next to change my mind about the relative greatness of this director?

[swo17]

Hmmm...you might try the film again sometime with the All Day Ent. release put out by David Kalat. It's got a nice score and fittingly creepy English narration. I actually haven't seen the version on the Potemkine set but I can imagine it might take some getting used to. Otherwise, I'd most highly recommend:

Le Glace à trois faces
Chanson d'Armor
Finis terrae

[HerrSchreck]

Let me chime in here a moment about this film and the manner of its presentation.

Love the set, even though I owned everything in it already for years in close to the same transfers. Wonderful release for introducing folks who want to go long and deep with the guy.

My first response to watching USHER, which may be my favorite film of all time, was this:

The color tinting almost ruins the film entirely. Swo's advice is sage, above.

I have my doubts that at this late time in the silent era the film was shot with all of this color tinting intended, but I could be wrong. There is a deeply ethereal magic to Epstein's/Lucas' imagery that strums chords in me that very very few films can approach. He turns the "dull dark dreary" music of Poe's USHER prose into a visual music that is simply breathtaking. I watch the film in b&w and I feel distant nostalgias to some medieval past-life's cold rainy days and cloudy afternoons, and I don't even believe in that shit. It brings a dreary world of decay, of pattering rain on dead leaves, of shadowy taverns, of dead trees, of huge vaulted rooms filled with moldy darkness to life in ways the other Impressionists could only dream of. It never fails to take me there--Epstein had a fascination with the bleak otherworldliness on offer via solitary encounters through crumbling seaside walls, bitterly cold ghetto rooms, and all of nature. He was keenly attuned to a sliver portion of the part of our senses that reacts with a chill at certain times of the day and year, and getting this vaguely--but not really--supernatural material on film. It's just the eerie sadness of a certain side of existence, time and nature. It's incredibly unique and amazing to watch.

Watching Usher tinted sucked all of that grey magic out of the film for me. Couldn't even finish it, to be honest. The electronic laying over of the process, and the removing so much subtlety in the chiaroscuro threw that shadowy wizardy down the drain and made it look like something like Murnaus Phantom--nice images, but relatively inert.

And yeah, the score on the Image disc can't be bettered. I can't imagine the film without it.

[Tommaso]

Well, the introductory titles explain that the film was restored on the basis of a black and white negative and a positive print which was also in black and white. They then established the tintings from another print from a collection in Montevideo, which was tinted. So it seems that the film was indeed shown with those tintings, but the provenance of that tinted print from an archive in Uruguay (nothing against the South American archives, after all they gave us the almost complete "Metropolis"...) might indicate that these tintings were something used for export prints only.

That is pure speculation on my part, of course, but I think we have here something similar to the highly controversial orange tinted version of Lang's "Nibelungen", a film about whose latest restoration I have a reaction similar to yours to this Epstein film. Much as I tried, I always ended up switching my TV to black and white after a few minutes, and I don't care whether Miss Wilkening of Murnau-Stiftung has good or not so good arguments for the film being in orange or not. I must admit that I actually had no problems at all with the tintings on "Usher", but that's probably just a how a certain film burned its images into your mind when you first saw it ("Nibelungen" is almost such a holy grail for me as "Usher" is for you). But at least the colour problem can quite easily be solved if you press the respective button on your remote control. The speeding up from 20fps to 22fps for the second part of "Nibelungen" in the new resto is a far more serious problem which can't be overcome easily unless you're watching on the computer and slow it down in VLC.

But I totally agree about the music: the new "Usher" comes with two soundtracks, a more traditional, classical one and an 'experimental' one. The first is far too conventional and harmless for the film, and the second is one of the sort of 'modernist' tracks which are all too often used these days for silent films and which go totally against the feeling of the film itself (even though, compared to some others of the 'modern' soundtracks in the Epstein set, it still fares relatively well).

But for someone who first comes to "Usher", I'd say neither of the two is a good choice, and you'd indeed best encounter the film with that amazing score on the old disc, which - although it is rather unconventional, too - is probably the greatest score for a silent film I've ever heard, alongside the ITN score for "Man with a Movie Camera". Indispensable, and that's why I kept my copy of the old version and probably will play that one instead of the new version next time I watch the film.

But anyone who wants to see that older version and doesn't need subs should try to get the Italian disc: it has the same score, but without the annoying voice-over narration for the intertitles.

[Telstar]

Could anyone give me an idea of how much the Epstein box set weighs? I'm considering ordering ordering it from a site that charges per kg

[swo17]

Just under 2 pounds, or about 0.9 kg.

[Telstar]

Thanks for the info. The only thing holding me back from ordering this, besides the funds, is the possibility of someone in the US or UK releasing a similar edition with an English-friendly book and extras. Am I pipe-dreaming?

[Drucker]

Yes.

[bearcuborg]

Yes.

No. You don't know that... I can't say I ever expected a US release of Chantal Akerman.

[hearthesilence]

Review from Film Comment. Hoping I can rent this from some place, I definitely want to explore it, but I'd like to see which ones I'd return to on a regular basis.

[zedz]

Yes.

No. You don't know that... I can't say I ever expected a US release of Chantal Akerman.

That's only one example (plus MoC valiantly ported most, but not all, of the Pialat box sets to the UK) out of an ocean of definitive box sets that nobody has ever bothered to licence to the US: Pere Portabella, Alexander Kluge, Yoshishige Yoshida, Joris Ivens, Otar Ioselliani, Manoel De Oliveira, Jean-Luc Godard (Politique), Andre Delvaux, Jacques Rozier, Henri Storck, Raul Ruiz x 2, Koji Wakamatsu x 3, Joaquim Pedro de Andrade (how many years ago did Criterion mention Macunaima?), Joao Cesar de Monteiro, Lisandro Alonso, Straub & Huillet.

The smart money is definitely against fantastic box sets of non-A-list auteurs getting a US release. And that's without factoring in cases where the US box sets are woefully incomplete compared to their European counterparts (e.g. Varda, Demy, Rohmer).

[Drucker]

I'll gladly wager you $10 this set does not get a US release by the end of this year.

[bearcuborg]

I don't think that's the only example. You could say the same for Hollis Frampton, Brakhage, Ken Anger, Mekas, or other experimental filmmakers - far less known than many of the above filmmakers you cite as examples. With all of that said, I own the Epstein set - and even if I didn't have a fair - poor understanding of French, I would still appreciate the set. However, while price wasn't a set back for me - but it's an expensive set for someone who wants to make this a blind buy.

I'm not interested in your wager Drucker, I just don't think it's impossible to imagine Criterion releasing this in the coming years. With all that said, I paid $75 for mine weeks ago, and even with a pretty basic understanding of French, I find it to be a spectacular set.

[swo17]

None of those are examples of European sets that have been duplicated or bettered in the U.S.

[Drucker]

Exactly. There is no doubt that another company weighing the thought of putting this set out would be considering the fact that it's already out and many of the people who want it already bought it.

I almost made one of these lists when I made my original sarcastic comment. Borzage blu rays from Carlotta. Mizoguchi from MOC. I could go on.

[NABOB OF NOWHERE]

Other than the forlorn hope that the set may turn up as a blu somewhere on the planet this set looks glorious, is largely english friendly (all films and major doc),the book is principally pictorial and more info on the guy is readily available for download as a 440 page pdf - http://dare.uva.nl/cgi/arno/show.cgi?fid=357783" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
Don't delay buy one today.

[zedz]

Exactly. There is no doubt that another company weighing the thought of putting this set out would be considering the fact that it's already out and many of the people who want it already bought it.

I almost made one of these lists when I made my original sarcastic comment. Borzage blu rays from Carlotta. Mizoguchi from MOC. I could go on.

Lucian Pintilie! Andy Warhol! Lech Majewski! Jose Val del Omar! All those amazing Polish documentarists! I was really only scratching the surface (and aren't Mekas and Anger both filmmakers who are much better represented on home video in Europe than in the US? With Mekas it's like a dozen DVDs vs. one, which is long OOP and will set you back $500 if you're lucky enough to find it!)

[bearcuborg]

Yes, apart from Guitry and Akerman, I can't think of any other Euro box sets getting such lavish treatment in the US - and even those 2 examples lack some films/features available in their European sets. My only point was that it's still possible, however, given your examples it's likely it could be a long wait, and not as good.

With all of that said, it's only going for $80 - and given what one gets, it's a pretty good deal.

[Tommaso]

Well, just because it has been mentioned above: I simply can't believe that no other European label (with MoC and the BFI being the prime candidates, of course) has bothered to release an English-subtitled version of at least some of the more important of the French Yoshida releases yet. The picture quality is outstanding all around, and so they could simply use the existing transfers and put English subs on them. It's really a shame that non-French-speaking folks have to use the backchannels to see those outstanding releases, with fan subs added.

[swo17]

I almost made one of these lists when I made my original sarcastic comment. Borzage blu rays from Carlotta. Mizoguchi from MOC. I could go on.

Lucian Pintilie! Andy Warhol! Lech Majewski! Jose Val del Omar! All those amazing Polish documentarists! I was really only scratching the surface

To say nothing of things like the marvelous Yuri Ilyenko set, which won't even be released by the people who made it! The point being: When a good opportunity presents itself to get a set like this, it's usually a good idea to jump on it. In some cases, you may not get another (or as good of a) chance again.

[bearcuborg]

I almost made one of these lists when I made my original sarcastic comment. Borzage blu rays from Carlotta. Mizoguchi from MOC. I could go on.

Lucian Pintilie! Andy Warhol! Lech Majewski! Jose Val del Omar! All those amazing Polish documentarists! I was really only scratching the surface

To say nothing of things like the marvelous Yuri Ilyenko set, which won't even be released by the people who made it! The point being: When a good opportunity presents itself to get a set like this, it's usually a good idea to jump on it. In some cases, you may not get another (or as good of a) chance again.

I suppose that's a good point, but my point was that it isn't impossible despite what Ducker said. However, given that it's only going for $80, and you get a nice set - it's a good bargain at this moment.

Back to Epstein though, I never thought I'd see these films after I read about them in high school. There was this great 2 volume set covering filmmakers - the name escapes me. I remember reading how surrealistic Epstein was supposed to be, but I haven't really seen that in the work I've seen in the set. The one film set in the ski lodge is quite nice though.