A Halloween Special : The Fall of the House of Usher (1928) by Jean Epstein

Experience silent cinema as it was meant to be seen; with live music! On the eve of Halloween, step into the haunting, dreamlike world of Jean Epstein’s 1928 silent masterpiece, La Chute de la maison Usher, presented with live piano accompaniment by acclaimed silent-film musician Robert Humphreville. In a crumbling mansion, Roderick Usher obsessively paints a portrait of his ailing wife, Madeleine, whose life seems to fade as the painting takes shape. Inspired by Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Fall of the House of Usher” and “The Oval Portrait,” Epstein transforms Poe’s Gothic universe into a mesmerizing work of French avant-garde cinema. The film also holds a special place in cinema history: in 1935, Henri Langlois and Georges Franju acquired The Fall of the House of Usher as the first film in the collection that would become the Cinémathèque Française. Following the screening, stay for a discussion led by Sophia Kornitsky, followed by a reception where guests can connect and share their thou