La Chute de la maison Usher

Edgar Allan Poe, the central figure of Gothic Romanticism, remains one of cinema's most rewarding sources of material to this day. However, he rarely found congenial ‘partners’ there. One of the great exceptions was Jean Epstein, himself a central figure (in French film history). Epstein's most famous work, La Chute de la maison Usher, adapts two Poe stories: a visitor witnesses Roderick Usher obsessively completing a painting of his wife, who is gradually losing her vitality as a result. The film creates an overwhelmingly otherworldly atmosphere using a whole arsenal of technical devices: highly mobile cameras, tricks, multiple exposures, slow motion – at the climax, time itself seems to stand still. (C.H.) Epstein on his cinematic approach to the eerie magic of Poe's sensations: "When Madeleine and Roderick sense impending death in The Fall of the House of Usher, it resembles the feeling we have when death takes hold of us. Roderick listens for noises from the coffin, just as we listen at the door to see if a weary guest might wake in the night."

Live music: drank (Ingrid Schmoliner & Alex Kranabetter) on 17 October 2025
At the piano: Elaine Brennan on 29 October 2025