The Fall of the House of Usher (1928)
- General info
- Available formats
- Synopsis:
Possessed by the irresistible urge to complete the portrait of his beloved, gravely ill wife Madeline (Marguerite Gance), tortured aristocrat Roderick Usher (Jean Debucourt) begs his best and only friend Allan (Charles Lamy) to come and visit him in his decrepit, rumour-ridden ruin of a mansion. But everything about the cold, empty manor screams despair and crushing melancholy, and as Roderick finds himself consumed with agonising fear that the love of his life will soon meet her fate, blind obsession takes over. However, Roderick's brush is like a magic wand, and at each bold stroke, the painted image becomes more and more alive while poor Madeline fades away. What cruel destiny awaits the doomed couple? Is death the final frontier? What can stop the fall of the House of Usher? - Actors:
- Jean Debucourt, Marguerite Gance, Charles Lamy, Fournez-Goffard, Luc Dartagnan, Abel Gance, Halma, Pierre Hot, Pierre Kefer
- Directors:
- Jean Epstein
- Producers:
- Jean Epstein
- Writers:
- Edgar Allan Poe, Luis Buñuel, Jean Epstein
- Aka:
- La chute de la maison Usher
- Genres:
- Classics, Drama, Horror, Sci-Fi & Fantasy
- Countries:
- France
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Reviews (1) of The Fall of the House of Usher
When Walls Breathe and Candles Panic - The Fall of the House of Usher review by griggs
Few silent films feel as hypnotic or as flat-out strange as The Fall of the House of Usher. The French director Jean Epstein takes Poe’s old haunted-house story and turns it into something closer to a dream — slow, eerie, and gorgeous in that “is this real or am I dying?” sort of way. The walls seem to breathe, the candles flicker like nervous eyes, and time itself goes soft around the edges.
The story’s simple: an artist paints his ailing wife; she dies (or doesn’t); and the house takes it personally. What matters is the mood — part love story, part nervous breakdown. You can feel Luis Buñuel’s surreal touch, but Epstein keeps it swoony rather than shocking.
It’s the kind of film that seeps under your skin rather than jumps out at you — a ghost story told in sighs and candlelight, still quietly unsettling a century on.