“Everything in this masterpiece contributes to its unity: the absolute mastery of editing and rhythm; slow motion, superimpositions, tracking shots, the mobile camera all play their roles and never gratuitously. The photographic quality, worthy of the most learned German operators, the lighting of the sets which envelops them in mystery, the sets themselves, neither realistic nor stylized, but as if sketched; the acting neither realistic nor expressionist, and yet adapted to the fantastic, to the violence; to the pauses; to the blur.” La chute de la maison Usher [The Fall of the House of Usher] (Jean Epstein, 1928)
Oct
21
A rapid tracking shot along a dark corridor. Dead leaves follow the camera (via). DPs: Georges Lucas & Jean Lucas.
A favourite horror film adapted from a book or short story*
– Henri Langlois, via
A groundbreaking expressionist interpretation of Poe's inner horrors. Many of the tropes so common in later horror films, are fully fledged and present here.
* the Bales 2025 Film Challenge for October is horror-themed as opposed to date-based, and is all about favourites. Expect non-horror and films I believe to be relevant instead.
AbelGance
“Strange things are happening today.” Au secours ! [Help!] (Abel Gance, 1924)
Oct
18
Au secours !
A rather tall ghost struts along a nonplussed Max. DPs: Émile Pierre, André-Wladimir Reybas & Georges Specht.
A [favourite] horror comedy*. This post goes out to Max Linder, who – together with his wife Hélène “Ninette” Peters – took his own life 100 years ago, on October 31, 1925.
Max (Max Linder) bets that he can spend one whole hour in a haunted castle without calling for help. In face of all the (in camera!) terrors, Max faces his fears with ease. Until, just minutes before the clock strikes midnight, the phone rings.
– title card
And there was this other bet. One between Linder and director Abel Gance. Linder bet that Gance would not be able to shoot a movie in only three days. With ghosts, skeletons, and wildlife galore, the result is a delightful Grand Guignol à la Max.
* the Bales 2025 Film Challenge for October is horror-themed as opposed to date-based, and is all about favourites. Expect non-horror and films I believe to be relevant instead.
La folie du Docteur Tube [The Madness of Dr. Tube] (Abel Gance, 1915)
Apr
23
World Laboratory Day
The professor's assistant is a young Black kid, maybe 10 years old. He's wearing a white lab apron over his dark outfit and glances at something off camera (I assume he's waiting for his cue from the director; this is the scene where the hallucinogenic powder is about to reach him and he has to act the part). In the background is Dr. Tube, cracking up under the influence of his own invention. DP: Léonce-Henri Burel.
Dr. Tube (Séverin-Mars) invents a powder that distorts reality and promptly tests it out on some oblivious test subjects, who quickly can no longer recognise the world around them. The brilliance of La folie du Docteur Tube is its use of practical in-camera effects that makes us, the viewer, experience the hallucinogen.
This little folly by the great Abel Gance features Albert Dieudonné in a small part, who later would again work with Gance in his Napoleon (1927), as Napoléon Bonaparte.
This is one of the few (French) comedies from the time that I'm aware of with a Black character who is not a horrible racist stereotype or a white person in blackface. If you have any idea of who the professor's assistant is, please reach out on Mastodon.