Jean Epstein

A man travels to the remote and decaying mansion of his old friend Roderick Usher, who lives in isolation with his mysterious and gravely ill wife, Madeleine. As the strange atmosphere surrounding the Usher family grows increasingly unsettling, the visitor finds himself drawn into their world of obsession, illness, and supernatural dread.

A mother sells a photo of her daughter to the press for publicity, and a daughter suddenly dies leaving the mother desperate surrounding by portraits of her daughter all around town.

Produced for the National Federation of Building Workers Ciné-Liberté, a Popular Front organization intended to counteract capitalist interests in the film industry, Epstein’s union documentary examines building policy from the perspective of ordinary workers and notable architects. In addition to touring the Cathedral of Chartres and the Paris Exposition of 1937, the film features rare interviews with Le Corbusier (at his drawing board, no less) and Auguste Perret.

Romantic novelist George Sand's Mauprat as adapted by cinema visionary Jean Epstein. As a child, orphan Bernard de Mauprat was adopted by Tristan, a brigand who brought him up with his biological sons to hate, kill and pillage. Hubert de Mauprat, the elder brother of Tristan, the very incarnation of nobility, and his daughter, the beautiful and intrepid Edmée, undertake to tear wild-eyed Bernard away from his uncle. Still uncouth and rough, Bernard endeavors to wrest the love of Edmée away from her betrothed.

In spite of bad omen about the upcoming storm, the fisherman sets out to the sea and doesn’t return. The wife of the fisherman embarks on a journey to find the storm whisperer who could calm down the sea and return the fisherman home.

A renowned doctor and his brother live and work together until the brother falls in love with Marie, a singer, and gives up medicine to be with her. After a time however, she misses her old life and goes back on the stage - an act which leads her lover to commit suicide. Later the doctor and Marie also meet, and she becomes his mistress. He finds out about his brother's suicide and goes through his artifacts looking for a clue as to what might have been the cause. He finds a photograph of Marie and realizes the truth, which decimates their relationship.

In the kingdom of the Moguls, Prince Roudghito-Sing, a young officer of the palace, falls in love with Zemgali, a captive princess held prisoner and coveted by the Grand Khan. Fleeing the country, he takes refuge in Paris and his presentability allows him to be hired as an actor by a French film company. The trouble is that Anna, the star of the movie, is attracted to him. Which displeases banker Morel, the producer and Anna's lover... Written by Guy Bellinger

The French and the English spy on each other, in this adventure set in post World War I colonial Syria.

The film, shot in Nice, was started by Jean Epstein, and the editing finished by Maurice Mariaud, who had just shot The Adventurer

The almost financially ruined French gentleman Gaston Dewalter spends several days in Biarritz before going off in the Hispano-Suiza, a luxe car which was a present from his friends. George becomes the lover of Lady Stéphane Oswill pretending he is wealthy. Then Stéphane spends the remaining funds with which the now desperate George hoped to rebuild his fortune in Senegal.

Jacques Prémont-Solène is a degenerate gambler and his losses at baccarat have bankrupted his lover, Laure Maresco. When he steals four hundred thousand francs and loses that at the gambling tables, he flees to the United States, and Nathalie takes the blame. Twenty years later, she has a flourishing career as a nightclub singer, but their son is just as inept a gambler as his father had been.

A sailor falls in love with an innkeeper on a lost island.

The good guys win out in this sweet tale about a young orphan who is abused for much of her life but who eventually finds happiness when she marries an honest man who extricates her from her situation.

A poetic drama, spoken in the Breton language and set in a Breton fishing community, telling of the impossible love between a waifish fisherman and a highborn lady-of-the-manor.

A wealthy young businessman consecutively falls in love with a classy English woman (Pearl), a Russian sculptress (Athalia), and a naive working-class girl (Lucie).

Parisian adventures of a fearless couple of friends and their return to their home in Marseille after a happy double marriage.

Two young doctors, surprised by the storm, take refuge in an inn. A diamond broker joins them and, for lack of space, shares their room. At dawn he is found dead. A few years later justice is done.

Jean Bonnard, clean-cut industrialist and the only son of a widow, goes to visit his mother in the small village where she lives. However, early in the morning the police arrive to arrest him, accusing the man of having murdered the old banker who'd made advances towards his girlfriend. Jean's mother is eager to aid her son, whom she believes is innocent. Said Epstein of his film: "I shot small landscapes in Livilliers which seemed to me-- in their reality, I mean-- very large".

Because he found a box washed up by the sea holding unknown contents, a poor and despised fisherman and his daughter are suddenly courted by everyone in the village.

Following a 19th-century play penned by Benjamin Antier, the figure of Robert Macaire, bandit and rogue, enjoyed popularity in several contexts. One of the most detailed treatments may be found in Epstein’s LES AVENTURES DE ROBERT MACAIRE, which he executed in five interrelated episodes.

When an innocent young woman finds herself abandoned by the proper young man whose child she's had, she is taken in by a troupe of traveling performers.

Jean Benoît-Lévy & Jean Epstein's inventive documentary about the life of Louis Pasteur, a French chemist and one of the most important figures of medical microbiology, blends biographical drama with scientific recreations of his experiments, using Pasteur's actual instruments.

From the French television series Encyclopédie audiovisuelle du cinéma, the episode uploaded here, Jean Epstein ou le Cinéma pour lui-même, was produced and (I'm pretty certain) directed by Claude-Jean Philippe. There isn't much info out there-- especially not in English-- regarding the series in general (though there is an imdb link for the series as a whole) or the episode devoted to Epstein. Running around 25 minutes, the episode combines lengthy excerpts from Epstein's cinematic canon with the ideas contained in his theoretical texts to uncover the personal and conceptual underpinnings running beneath the work of this most exquisite filmmaker. I treasure this documentary in particular as it contains extensive footage from L'Auberge rouge.

On the islet Bannec, off the coast of Brittany, four fishermen have set up camp for three months to harvest seaweed. If processed correctly, the ash of the seaweed can be sold for high prices. It is therefore burnt in several large piles on the island. Problems arise when one of them gets an infected thumb.