Really Surprised!

Load of rubbish!!

A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.

An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

The Fall of the House of Usher is about... well, I suppose it's about someone, Allan, visiting the house of Usher, run by Roderick, who lives with his sick wife Madeline and spends most of his time painting and trying to find a cure for whatever her supernatural-esquire disease is. The rest of what happens I cannot really say. Maybe because I'm still not totally sure myself. While I've yet to read the original Poe story, or see the later, more well known Roger Corman production with Vincent Price, I would probably advise on what little I know in comparing both films for the 1960 version if you're most concerned about sticking straight to the story.Apparently, by the way, Luis Bunuel, who was director Jean Epstein's chief collaborator, quit after creative clashes over this issue. For whatever reason it was, I'd be hard-pressed to figure on how much influence he did or didn't leave on the picture. As it stands, and probably sticking to a certain aesthetic that was familiar for those in love with Poe, the silent version of Fall of the House of Usher is chock full of atmosphere in every kind of delicious, creepy, wonderful kind of connotation. The production design is sometimes full of a smoke, or a smoke-filled tint from the camera, and the outside of the mansion is covered in dirty fields and dead trees. The inside of the house, the interiors of the walls, the mirrors, the paints of Roderick's, and the placement of the camera in some strange angles (i.e. guitar) all build up to something unexpected.Would I call it surrealism just because of Bunuel's involvement? Yes and no. Yes in that, of course, there are some striking moments that could only come out of a dream &/or a desire to just completely tool around with the audience's head just for the hell of it. And no because it's really Epstein's movie through it all, and he crafts this mostly as a somber, quietly intense picture where he experiments not in as a surrealist but as a director of contemplative Gothic horror. I can't even totally understand what absorbed me, but everything in the 'plastic', technical sense of the word did, not to mention the performances by Debucourt, Lamy, and especially Gance who all seem to be drifting in and out of the fantastical consciousness that seems to be living in this place, where life and death merge or go un-hinged, and (as another reviewer noted) is like a slow-poisoning prison.Just, as I said, don't watch it to be wrapped up in 'what happens next in the "plot"', as it's more about what may happen in the next twist with a setting or a mood, or if a character should suddenly have a look that changes everything. It's not the greatest of the near-end silent period, but it's close.

A stranger called Allan (Charles Lamy) goes to an inn and requests transportation to the House of Usher. The locals remain reluctant, but he gets a coach to transport him to the place. He is the sole friend of Roderick Usher (Jean Debucourt), who leaves in the eerie house with his sick wife Madeleine Usher (Marguerite Gance) and her doctor (Fournez-Goffard). Madeleine is the beloved muse and model and is being painted by Roderick. When she dies, Roderick does not accept her death, and in a dark night, Madeleine returns.For those like me that have not read the story of Edgar Allan Poe, the conclusion of "La Chute de la Maison Usher" is quite confused. However, the Gothic cinematography is very impressive, recalling the German Expressionism. It is amazing how Jean Epstein was able to produce such atmosphere, considering the primitive technology of 1928, with difficulties in lighting, sensibility of films, edition table and portability of cameras. However, the shadows and lights are really amazing in this black and white film. This movie was the first work of Luis Buñuel in the cinema industry, working as assistant of Jean Epstein. Just as a curiosity, the resemblance of Charles Lamy with Carlos Alberto Parreira, the coach of the Brazilian soccer team, is incredible. My vote is nine.Title (Brazil): "A Queda da Casa de Usher" ("The Fall of the House of Usher")

Predictably morbid and grim, this early cinematic tribute to Poe offers some interesting images and beautifully haunting music. I liked the sequence showing the lace-draped coffin, as it was carried out of that cavernous room.More stylistic than substantive, the overall effect of the film is to engender a sense of suffocating gloom, rather than to tell an interesting story. It's very much like what one would expect in a nightmare. Space seems strung-out. People are not quite real. Pacing is so slow as to render time suspended between two swings of the clock pendulum.I don't recall a film that conveyed such an overwhelming sense of introverted bleakness, oppression, and ubiquitous death. Even the trees were dead.A lot of viewers will find this film lifeless ... so to speak. But for those interested in the antiquity of the occult, or Poe in particular, this film will excite like no other.

**minor spoilers**In my room right now is a paperback collection of Poe's stories, which contains the Fall of the House of Usher. From that, and the summaries I've read, the text is more darker and more sinister than this movie, which says a lot.The movie does a good job of capturing the mood of the text with scant words, translating an entire short story into little more than twenty or so inter-title screens. Surprisingly eerie shots of Roderick's face, billowing curtains, a haunting soundtrack and Madeline's degenerating form create a sense of dread and macabre. Certain scenes involving cats and toads highlight the dread and unnatural nature of the Usher state in a comical way. And what can only be described as a weird cross between a getting' crunk hip hop video and a Satanic ritual works surprisingly well to highlight the plodding nature of time and arduous task at hand, as well as being unique for the sake of being unique. However, besides the Usher's creepiness and the amicability of the narrator/Allan (a true friend till the end), I didn't know what to think or make of the characters until the end.The slightly more optimistic twist of the original story brings everything together and creates sympathy for the weird characters by demonizing the house even more. It's a prison driving them mad, not the Usher's parasitic relationship. See this if you want a relatively happy variation of Poe's stories that works well. I think this film is incredibly accessible, a lot more than the text anyway.Goods: the dread and spookiness, close up shots of the objects in the house, a positive spin on things, "hip-hop" coffin Bads: the first third... and the general direction less aim of the characters may put you off a bit at first, but the movie is only an hour long