The Fall of the House of Usher

Called “the cinematic equivalent of Debussy” by Henri Langlois, this eerie and disquieting adaptation of several Poe stories deploys a visionary combination of camera techniques and set design.

With assistance from Luis Buñuel, Jean Epstein creates an ethereal, hybrid movie full of discombobulating spaces and startling images. Called the “ultimate expression” of and “justification” for French Impressionist cinema by Langlois, it was the first film collected for what was to become La Cinémathèque Française.

– Adrian Danks, Melbourne Cinémathèque co-curator