La Chute de la maison Usher
Jean Epstein, FR 1928Screenplay: Jean Epstein based on the short stories The Oval Portrait and The Fall of the House of Usher by Edgar Allan Poe; Cinematography: Georges & Jean Lucas; Cast: Jean Debucourt, Marguerite Gance, Charles Lamy, Luc Dartagnan, Fournez-Goffard. DCP (from 35mm), color, 66 min. French intertitles with English subtitles
Luminary of dark romanticism, Edgar Allan Poe has been one of the most obliging providers of material for cinema. Yet he only seldom found suitably congenial partners in the process. One of the major exceptions here was Jean Epstein, a luminary himself of French film history. Epstein's most famous work, La Chute de la maison Usher adapts two Poe short stories: a visitor sees how Roderick Usher obsessively paints a picture of his wife, who grows fainter and fainter in the process. The film creates an overwhelmingly otherworldly atmosphere by mobilizing an entire technical arsenal of ideas: constant motion, camera tricks, multiple exposures, slow motion – at its highpoint, it seems as if time itself has come to a halt. (C.H.) Epstein described his cinematic approach to filming the uncanny emotional magic of Poe's work: "When Madeleine and Roderick feel death approaching in the The Fall of the House of Usher, it's similar to the feeling that we have when death takes possession of us. So Roderick listens for sounds from the coffin like we listen at the door of the room to hear if a tired nocturnal ghost will perhaps awaken."
Live music: drank (Ingrid Schmoliner & Alex Kranabetter) on October 17, 2025
Piano accompaniment by Elaine Brennan on October 29, 2025
With the kind support of SKE
Courtesy Cinémathèque française
Free admission for supporting members on October 17, 2025
Screening dates:
Fr 17.10.2025 18:30
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No reservations accepted for screenings from October 17 to 28; special ticket regulations apply during the Viennale. Tickets are available exclusively at the Viennale box offices, via telephone at 01/526 594 769 or via www.viennale.at.