Jean Epstein

Directing·Mar 25, 1897·Warszawa, Russian Empire [now Poland]

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Jean Epstein (French: [ɛp.ʃtajn]; 25 March 1897 – 2 April 1953) was a French filmmaker, film theorist, literary critic, and novelist. Although he is remembered today primarily for his adaptation of Edgar Allan Poe's The Fall of the House of Usher, he directed three dozen films and was an influential critic of literature and film from the early 1920s through the late 1940s. He is often associated with French Impressionist Cinema and the concept of photogénie. Epstein was born in Warsaw, Kingdom of Poland (then a part of Russian Empire) to a French-Jewish father and Polish mother. After his father died in 1908, the family relocated to Switzerland, where Epstein remained until beginning medical school at the University of Lyon in France. While in Lyon, Epstein served as a secretary and translator for Auguste Lumière, considered one of the founders of cinema. Epstein started directing his own films in 1922 with Pasteur, followed by L'Auberge rouge and Coeur fidèle (both 1923). Film director Luis Buñuel worked as an assistant director to Epstein on Mauprat (1926) and La Chute de la maison Usher (1928). Epstein's criticism appeared in the early modernist journal L'Esprit Nouveau. During the making of Coeur fidèle Epstein chose to film a simple story of love and violence "to win the confidence of those, still so numerous, who believe that only the lowest melodrama can interest the public", and also in the hope of creating "a melodrama so stripped of all the conventions ordinarily attached to the genre, so sober, so simple, that it might approach the nobility and excellence of tragedy". He wrote the scenario in a single night. Epstein had been much impressed by Abel Gance's recently completed La Roue, and in Coeur fidèle he sought to apply its techniques of rapid and rhythmic editing as well as the innovative use of close-ups and superimpositions of images. These techniques are most apparent during the first half of the film: the opening sequence establishing Marie's situation in the harbour bar through a series of close-ups of her face, her hands, the table and glasses that she is cleaning; the use of images of the sea and the port, either intercut or superimposed, to convey the yearnings of Jean and Marie; and the film's most celebrated sequence at the fairground in which a highly complex series of rhythmically assembled images charts the tension of the relationship between Marie and Petit Paul. The later scenes of the film are relatively conventional in the techniques employed and depend more upon situation and action than upon photography and processing of the images. In the 1920s, Epstein's works would display influences from German Expressionism. Epstein also made several documentaries about Brittany. Chanson d'Armor is known as the first Breton-speaking film in history. His two novels also take place in Breton isles: L'Or des mers in Ouessant and Les Recteurs et la sirène in Sein. Epstein died in 1953 from a cerebral hemorrhage.

Film	Credit
TThe Fires of the Sea2016 · Director	Director
EEfforts de productivité dans la fonderie1953 · Director	Director
The Storm-Tamer1947 · Director, Writer	Director, Writer
AArtères de France1939 · Director	Director
LLa relève1938 · Director	Director
EEau vive1938 · Director, Writer	Director, Writer
The Woman at the End of the World1938 · Writer, Director	Writer, Director
The Builders1938 · Director	Director
VVive la vie1937 · Director	Director
La Bretagne1936 · Director, Producer	Director, Producer
LLa Bourgogne1936 · Director	Director
Heart of Tramp1936 · Director	Director
Song of Armorica1935 · Director	Director
Marius and Olive in Paris1935 · Director	Director
LLa Vie d'un grand journal1934 · Director	Director
The Lady of Lebanon1934 · Writer, Director	Writer, Director
Gold of the Seas1933 · Director	Director
The Man with the Hispano1933 · Screenplay, Director	Screenplay, Director
TThe Villanelle of Ribbons1932 · Director, Writer	Director, Writer
LLa chanson des peupliers1932 · Director, Writer	Director, Writer
LLe Cor1932 · Director, Writer	Director, Writer
The Cradles1932 · Director	Director
LLe vieux chaland1931 · Director, Writer	Director, Writer
NNotre-Dame de Paris1931 · Director	Director
LLe pas de la mule1930 · Director	Director
The Sea of Ravens1930 · Screenplay, Director	Screenplay, Director
Finis Terræ1929 · Director, Writer	Director, Writer
His Head1929 · Writer, Director	Writer, Director
The Fall of the House of Usher1928 · Producer, Director, Writer	Producer, Director, Writer
The Three-Sided Mirror1927 · Director	Director
Six and a Half by Eleven1927 · Director, Producer	Director, Producer
Mauprat1926 · Director, Producer, Writer	Director, Producer, Writer
IIn the Land of George Sand1926 · Director	Director
The Adventures of Robert Macaire1925 · Director	Director
Double Love1925 · Director, Writer	Director, Writer
The Poster1925 · Director, Writer	Director, Writer
PPhotogenies1925 · Director	Director
The Lion of the Moguls1924 · Writer, Director	Writer, Director
The Drop Of Blood1924 · Director	Director
La Belle Nivernaise1924 · Director, Screenplay	Director, Screenplay
Cœur fidèle1923 · Director, Writer	Director, Writer
The Infidel Mountain1923 · Director	Director
The Red Inn1923 · Director, Screenplay	Director, Screenplay
Les vendanges1922 · Director	Director
Pasteur1922 · Director	Director