Horrorfest 2017: The Fall of the House of Usher

Here's a favorite of one of the greatest directors of all time, Akira Kurosawa: 1928's THE FALL OF THE HOUSE OF USHER. This French version of the Poe tale was directed by Jean Epstein. The screenplay for the silent film was co-written by Luis Bunuel, who apparently left the project because it wasn't faithful enough to the original. It's funny to think of Bunuel being so concerned with something so literal.

I watched the Roger Corman/Vincent Price version of HOUSE OF USHER last year and at that time I made sure to go on at length about the masterpiece my friends and I shot in the 90s also based on THE FALL OF THE HOUSE OF USHER. So, in the interest of full disclosure, I mention it again here: having created my own glorious rendering of the tale, I am biased.

This version of the tale takes some pages from DRACULA and some pages from THE PICTURE OF DORIAN GRAY to spice up the usual tale of USHER. As usual, the tale begins with a man (Charles Lamay) traveling to visit his friend, Usher (Jean Debucort), who has fallen ill. Upon arriving at Usher's crumbling castle-like mansion, which is surrounded by swamps, we learn Usher's wife (Marguerite Gance -- in the original, this character is Usher's sister) has also fallen ill and is fading away.

In this version, Usher is obsessed with painting his wife's portrait, and as he adds life to the portrait, the life seems to drain from his wife until she eventually perishes. That's when one of Poe's favorite subjects comes up -- being buried alive.

As with most silent films that have withstood the test of time and are still rembered today, the visuals are stunning, mostly revolving around the blustery weather that seems to burst in on the massive interiors of Usher's home. Books fall from shelves, papers blow around and leaves blow into the house, blurring the line between outside and in. The filmmakers even effectively use slow motion in a few key moments, and it occurred to me that you don't see slow mo in silent flicks very often.

There's an interesting juxtaposition made between Usher and his unnamed friend in this film -- Usher seems to have heightened senses and perceives everything going on around him intensely and immediately. His friend, on the other hand, is both hard of hearing and needs a magnifying glass to see. Has Usher gained some transcendent second sight as a benefit of his madness, while his friend suffers from the blindness of the mundane? Maybe, but Usher seems to be blind, as well, when it benefits him. For instance, he neglects to notice that his wife is a human who is suffering and not just an object to be painted.