TRAILER
CONCEPT
1928 marks the release of the silent fantasy film The Fall of the House of Usher, adapted from Edgar Allan Poe's novel. This work remains the most famous of Jean Epstein, a great innovator and precursor to 1920s surrealism.
​
The same year saw the birth of a revolutionary electronic instrument: the "ondes Martenot". Its ethereal sounds would make it a cult instrument. Made individually by its creator, the Frenchman Maurice Martenot, only a handful of examples still exist today.
​
For the first time, a film concert brings together this cinematic masterpiece and this legendary instrument for an extraordinary immersive experience.
The musician Augustin Viard composed the original music, which is performed live on authentic ondes Martenot.
​
This performance, produced with the support of the Cinémathèque Française, ensures the continuity of the French heritage, both cinematographic (restored film) and musical (original ondes Martenot).
​
Premiered at the Arvor cinema in Rennes at the end of 2021, the event sparked interest from an intergenerational audience and gained significant attention from mainstream media.
​
The project aims to tour across France and internationally until 2028, marking the 100th anniversary of both the invention of the ondes Martenot and the release of the film.
​
The universal appeal of this film concert allows for a wide variety of potential venues and programming opportunities: art-house cinemas, movie theaters, concert halls, theaters, festivals, historical sites, private clubs, etc.
THE MOVIE
SYNOPSIS
​
On a dark November night in 1840, a traveler struggles to find a carriage to take him to the home of his friend, Roderick Usher. The old building is reputed to be haunted. The visitor meets Roderick's wife, the delicate Madeline, who is exhausted by the long portrait sessions her husband forces her to endure as he paints her likeness. Allan eventually realizes that it is the painting itself that is draining Madeline's life force, and she grows weaker with every brushstroke...
"An important work in Jean Epstein's career, The Fall of the House of Usher was made in 1928 and marks an aesthetic turning point that reshuffles the cards of cinematic avant-garde. Rightly, it is one of the most famous films of its director: because it adapts Edgar Allan Poe, because it lays the foundation for a visual representation of the fantastic dear to the writer, and because it concentrates, in fifty-eight minutes, the boldest experiments that the still-emerging seventh art had yet to explore.
The Fall of the House of Usher is both a cinematic manifesto and a graphically poetic film of wild elegance, transcending its stunning formal creativity by maintaining a raw emotion throughout.
Eighty-six years later, The Fall of the House of Usher, with its lyricism and inventiveness, remains both a visual shock and a moving romantic tale."
— Fabien Reyre, Critikat.com
Original Title: La Chute de la maison Usher
Genre: Fantasy
Release Year: 1928
Director: Jean Epstein
Assistant Director: Luis Buñuel
Cast:
Marguerite Gance (Lady Madeline Usher), Jean Debucourt (Sir Roderick Usher), Charles Lamy (the friend), Fournez-Goffard (the doctor)
Duration: 62 minutes
