| The Fall of the House of Usher | 
 enlarge | Director: Jean Epstein
Actors: Jean Debucourt, Marguerite Gance, Charles Lamy, Fournez-goffard, Luc Dartagnan
Studio: Image Entertainment
Category: DVD
Buy New: $119.99
New (1) Used (1) from $37.00
Avg. Customer Rating:  13 reviews
Sales Rank: 77964
Format: Black & White, Dvd-video, Full Screen, Ntsc
Language: English (Original Language)
Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Number Of Items: 1
Running Time: 66
Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
Picture Format: Pan & Scan
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.3
Dimensions (in): 7.5 x 5.3 x 0.6
MPN: D0618D
UPC: 014381061826
EAN: 0014381061826
ASIN: B00005ABVH
Theatrical Release Date: 1928
Release Date: May 15, 2001
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Condition: This is the RARE & OUT OF PRINT Dvd of THE FALL OF THE HOUSE OF USHER (OFFICIAL IMAGE DVD). Dvd is BRAND NEW AND FACTORY SEALED. Exactly as pictured. I am a person, not a company, so my items are ALWAYS in stock and are from my personal collection (a smoke-free, pet-free home). Dvd was purchased at a store in Arizona, is Region 1, and most definitely not a bootleg/copy/import. I am also a Dvd Expert and deal primarily in Rare Dvds, so rest assured you will be getting the real thing. I'm an experienced seller and have had perfect feedback online for over 5 years, so please do not hesitate to contact me if you have any questions!
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| Editorial Reviews:
Description
As his beautiful young wife Madeleine dies slowly of some dread ailment, fevered artist Roderick Usher asks his old friend Allan to keep him company in these morbid times. Shortly after Allan arrives, Madeleine dies--or does she? As Roderick himself succumbs to the melancholy, noises from Madeleine's tomb cry out--Death is not the end! Working from several of Edgar Allen Poe's stories, French avant-garde visionary Jean Epstein crafted one of the most highly acclaimed and internationally renowned film adaptations of Poe. Co-directed with surrealist filmmaker Luis Bunuel and starring Abel Gance's wife as the undead Madeleine, this 1928 classic is a true feast for the eyes and proof positive that the German Expressionists did not have a corner on the Gothic horror market. Newly mastered from a 35mm preservation positive, with a soundtrack by acclaimed music historian Rolande de Cande adapted from medieval music.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 8 more reviews...
 The Fall of the House of Usher June 20, 2007
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
Epstein's sterling adaptation of the well-known Poe story today remains one of the most haunting and visually adventurous horror movies of the silent era. Certainly, the film's expressionistic use of slow-motion techniques and eerie settings owes a lot to the presence of surrealist Luis Bunuel, who served as assistant director. Gance (wife of French director Abel) is radiant, too, even as a shrouded specter. With its lurid, foggy air of mystery and demented otherworldliness, "Usher" is a triumph of the gothic sensibility.
Fall of the House of Usher a great film ruined March 23, 2007
4 out of 4 found this review helpful
I looked forward to receiving this film from the moment I ordered it, having a great interest in early European Cinema, particularly French and German Cinema, this was going to be a treat to behold.
I had no worries about the lack of extras, or a glossy booklet, the original French titles were enough, then I heard the voice! All of the titles and inter-titles are spoken in English, aaaahhhhhrrrrggghh! Imperialistic, cultural vandalism. This is a French film, and a silent french film at that. To watch it is like having an idiot sat behind you who talks all the way through the film, I was waiting for him to tell me the ending just before it happened. I cannot imagine the thought process that came up with this.
In summary, a great film, a visual treat, but totally ruined.
The avant-garde masterpiece August 5, 2006
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
This is an amazing visual treat and an excellent adaptation of Poe's classic, at once haunting and captivating although some liberty has been taken with the story replacing the Usher sister with a wife. Special mention should be made of the haunting music score that accompanies the movie.
 Film-buff beware! July 26, 2005
4 out of 14 found this review helpful
I can't believe I'm writing a negative review of a French classic I should revere! But here are the facts. Since my childhood, I have been impressed by a still in Henri Agel's "Histoire populaire du cinema" depicting Madeline's funeral from this film. It shows black-clad gentlemen in stove-pipe hats photographed from a distance carrying a coffin, surrounded by cathedral-like trees with the superimposed image of lighted candles adding to the solemnity. I was impressed by both the technical achievement and the atmospheric result. Unfortunately, if ever there was a film whose stills are superior to its viewing, this is it! Watching this pristine print for the first time, I was disappointed by many elements: the tampering with Poe's story (where his themes boil down to Roderick's poor choice of real estate), the imitation of Murnau's "Nosferatu" (arrival at the inn, reluctance of peasants to drive the newcomer to the estate); the expressionistic acting (it's really very, very bad); the gratuitous quirkiness (books cascading off their bookshelves, windows that stay open at all times even during a full storm, a revived woman we are expected to believe has walked a great distance and even swam a lake after waking up in a family tomb miles away from her castle, a doctor whose character or purpose is never explained, copulating frogs, an owl that may or may not be stuffed); the overwhelming feeling of boredom; the shoddy artistic direction, especially in the use of miniatures to suggest the castle and its demise, the night sky, the bogs, the fog, the storm, etc., all bad. Worst of all, perhaps, is the music on this DVD by Roland de Cande (not "Rolande de Cande" as written up everywhere) which is an unoriginal hodge-podge of borrowings from undistinguished recordings of John Fahey-like mediaeval music and electronic-sounding "madhouse" noises (probably pinched piano wires) that sound atrocious and misguided and rob the film of any gothicness, dignity or solemnity it might have preserved otherwise. "Pelleas et Melisande", this ain't! The only way it could have been made worse, I suppose, would have been commissioning Philip Glass to write a little something (brrrr!). The film is interesting because of its historical value, its photography, editing and superimpositions, which may or may not have been daring for the time - but in 1928, I seriously doubt it. That does not make it a masterpiece and not even a film I'd like to own or watch twice.
Best Classic Poe Tale Ever!!!!!!!!!! February 16, 2005
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
This one is really cool I mean I read alot of Stories by Edgar Allan Poe Because I am a big fan of Poe and even though I would say that The Fall of the House of Usher was one of my Favorite Stories of all time and I really like this movie. And it really has beautiful Music to this and This one is very silent but you may have heard that this is what Movies where like back in the 1920's!
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