Three months later the cradle is empty: Little Richard is dead. We see the suffering mother kneeling at the cemetery. Several subjective shots show how it is difficult to see the names of the tombstones through her tearful vision. Epstein’s impressionistic art again comes to the surface. A more expressionistic side comes to life when the poor mother is haunted by the posters with an image of her dead boy that seem to cover every wall of the city. They close in on her as they will on another person later in the film. The poster reads “Make your children’s future safe: Place an insurance for themâ€.
reminded me of the scene where Robert Ryan, playing the just about washed-up boxer Stoker (whose age--35-- is a big issue in the film), is knocked to the canvass in Wise's brilliant The Set-Up. He slowly opens his eyes and we see a poster for vitamins in the Paradise bleachers coming into slow hazy focus, and it reads "Over 30? Take Vitamin ____" (the rest is covered by a spectator).
You know you've hit a crisis point in a film you're in when the advertisements start conversing with you.
Any fellow Epstein fans read any of his writings on cinema? Would it be worth grinding through them with my very rusty French? I'm not sure I would really get the nuances of what he was writing. I looked around to see whether any of it had been translated into English and I don't think it has.
Gregory wrote:Any fellow Epstein fans read any of his writings on cinema? Would it be worth grinding through them with my very rusty French? I'm not sure I would really get the nuances of what he was writing. I looked around to see whether any of it had been translated into English and I don't think it has.
There are a handful of translated essays in the 2 volumes of Abel's French Film Theory and Criticism from Princeton but as far as I know nothing comprehensive in translation..
Just saw The Fall of the House of Usher after one of the forum members mentioned as one of their favorites, and I have to agree. Not only is this the best silent film I have ever seen but simply one of the best. That funeral march may be the most breath taking sequence I've ever seen. What really struck me as special is the camera movement and editing which is unlike any silent film I've ever seen.
Good thing you bumped this topic: I had completely forgotten to mention that Epstein's first film, a documentary on Pasteur, is available on this site: http://www.ina.fr/economie-et-societe/v ... 95.fr.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
You can actually watch it for free, but I bought it to have available any time.
Interesting feature, but it sure won't win Jean any new fans among the animal protection activists.
tojoed wrote:For you lucky people in or near Edinburgh, The Fall of the House of Usher is at the Filmhouse on Tues 7th September only.
Well I've got my ticket but don't know how 'lucky' I am as I'm having root canal work two hours before.
Just landed a copy of Mauprat which at first glance looks like a relatively strong TV transfer. May or may not make inroads into the 1920's listing.
I updated the main post with an excellent survery, by the Cineteca di bologna, of Epstein's Brittany sea-poems/documentaries, i e Finis Terrae, Chanson d'amour, Mor'Vran, La Tempestaire, etc.
I only wish that this stuff was more easily available, so that others could share in the glories that are these sublime documentaries. As the cineteca says about the sublime Mor'Vran (Sea of Ravens),
it is one of the most beautiful documentaries in the
history of French film, a true poem about Brittany and the sea. It
was shot four years before Man of Aran, providing inspiration for the
later film’s most beautiful sequences.
HerrSchreck wrote:I updated the main post with an excellent survery, by the Cineteca di bologna, of Epstein's Brittany sea-poems/documentaries, i e Finis Terrae, Chanson d'amour, Mor'Vran, La Tempestaire, etc.
I only wish that this stuff was more easily available, so that others could share in the glories that are these sublime documentaries. As the cineteca says about the sublime Mor'Vran (Sea of Ravens),
it is one of the most beautiful documentaries in the
history of French film, a true poem about Brittany and the sea. It
was shot four years before Man of Aran, providing inspiration for the
later film’s most beautiful sequences.
Thanks mucho mein lieber Herr for this. It is one giant cosmic proctalgia fugax that this stuff is not served up in some de-luxe bumper bundle. Maybe it's down to someone in the estate ( Marie Epstein's Beatrice Wellesian second cousin?? ) who's the party-pooper. If it is something along these lines perhaps Nick will eventually throw some light on any problems once his own Epstein ennuis are sorted.
zedz wrote:And I agree that a MoC release of Finis Terrae plus the other Brittany films would be about as good as it gets.
Agreed but unfortunately from the horse's mouth....
peerpee wrote:There's only one Epstein, and it's currently locked up in a very tasty package with other titles, due to an unusual rights issue that's nothing to do with us, so we've just got to sit tight and hope it will unravel soon.
Having always been curious about text translating and seeing Epstein work is only in French (and being a french Canadian), I tried to translate the beginning of Le cinéma du diable (cinema of the devil). I stopped after one page but you may have a first impression of what the text is about and the tone of it if I did my "job" well...
Accusation (first chapter)
In the years 1910 to 1915, going to the movies was an act to be a little ashamed of, almost degrading, the accomplishment which a noble person could do only after having found forged pretexts and excuses. Since then, film showings, probably won a few titles of nobility or snobbery. However, until now, there are still cantonal regions where the passage of a fairground cinema raises concerns and disapproval among honourable people. There are even small towns, where cinemas, few and poor, are disreputable places, where a notary blush to be seen.
In fact, in the mid-twentieth century, few people, even believers dare to pronounce the name of the Devil, as this skillful has taken advantage of the clumsiness of his enemies and his followers, to be surrounded by a thick ridiculousness like ink in which you have to wade, to reach a cuttlefish. But how many moralists, even unbelievers, argue vociferously that cinema is a school of stupidity, of vice and crime! However, in Christian terms, what is there to say except that the phantasmagoria of the screen are inspired by the devil to the degradation of the human race?
No wonder, moreover, that the Devil could be held for the inspiration of the moving image, as he has so often been blamed on success of human ingenuity? Diabolical invention of the telescope, which, approached by Roger Bacon, had him thrown in jail for twenty years, the old man who exhibited Galilee to the rigors of the ecclesiastical court and the prison that shook up the cautious Copernicus until his death. Evil, the invention of printing, which religious authority and secular hastened immediately for long centuries that have not yet been of age, to control the use perniciously. Evil, the study of the human body and medicine, condemned by St. Ambrose, the anatomy and dissection, forbidden under penalty of excommunication by Pope Boniface VIII. Evil, the secret plans of Vinci, dreaming of a machine to rise into the sky. Artifices of the devil, the automatons, be they the work of a saint, that another saint broke with sticks, the first Papin’s steamboat that could not escape the furious terror of the fanatic people; the first car, the burden of Cugnot, who suffered a similar fate; the first balloon that pious peasants tore with their forks; the first railroads, that distinguished scholars accused of spreading plague and madness, and finally - to limit a list that could be endless - the cinema.
Big dvd box announced by Potemkine for Autumn 2012:
Coffret Jean Epstein avec 11 films surréalistes et avant-gardistes d’exception dont :
La trilogie des amours :
La Chute de la maison Usher (1928)
Six et demi, onze (1927)
La Glace à trois faces (1927)
La trilogie bretonne :
Mor'Vran (1931)
L’Or des Mers (1932)
Chanson d’Ar-Mor (1934)
Ainsi que Finis Terrae (1929) et Le Tempestaire (1947) (à confirmer)
Retrouvez aussi :
Le Lion des Mogols (1924)
Les Aventures de Robert Macaire (1925)
Le Double Amour (1925)
Mauprat (1926)
Chaque film sera accompagné d’une nouvelle bande-originale composée spécialement pour l’occasion. Les styles seront variés, tout comme les artistes renommés qui participent au projet : Erik Truffaz, M, Yann Tiersen, Joakim…
Eureka indeed.(Potential pun intended)
Already hung up the stocking for next Xmas. Will be very interesting to see how the specs develop over the months ahead and what possible restorations are in store. The Brittany films especially are in pretty poor shape and make the Turin Shroud look like HD resolution.
I would imagine that the 'Brittany trilogy' will probably be given over to native Breton Tiersen to score and after hearing Truffaz' collaborations, with amongst others Murcof, that could prove to be interesting too. Double whammy what with Carax's new one being landed by Potemkine too,wonder if he'll contribute something to the Epstein set?
