Jean Epstein (; 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 Edgar Allan Poe (; January 19, 1809 – October 7, 1849) was an American writer, poet, editor, and literary critic who is best known for his poetry and short stories, particularly his tales involving mystery and the macabre. He is widely re ...

'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 French impressionist cinema (also known as first avant-garde or narrative avant-garde) refers to a group of French films and filmmakers of the 1920s. Film scholars have had much difficulty in defining this movement or for that matter deciding w ...

and the concept of ''photogénie''.

Life and career

Epstein was born in

Warsaw Warsaw, officially the Capital City of Warsaw, is the capital and List of cities and towns in Poland, largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the Vistula, River Vistula in east-central Poland. Its population is officially estimated at ...

, Kingdom of Poland (then a part of the Russian Empire) to a French-Jewish father and Polish mother. After his father died in 1908, the family relocated to

Switzerland Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a landlocked country located in west-central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the south, France to the west, Germany to the north, and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east. Switzerland ...

, where Epstein remained until beginning medical school at the

University of Lyon The University of Lyon ( , or UdL) is a university system ( ''ComUE'') based in Lyon, France. It comprises 12 members and 9 associated institutions. The 3 main constituent universities in this center are: Claude Bernard University Lyon 1, which f ...

in France. While in Lyon, Epstein served as a secretary and translator for

Auguste Lumière Auguste Marie Louis Nicolas Lumière (; 19 October 1862 – 10 April 1954) was a French engineer, industrialist, biologist, and illusionist. In 1894 and 1895, he and his brother Louis Lumière, Louis invented an animated photographic camera a ...

, 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 Luis Buñuel Portolés (; 22 February 1900 – 29 July 1983) was a Spanish and Mexican filmmaker who worked in France, Mexico and Spain. He has been widely considered by many film critics, historians and directors to be one of the greatest and ...

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 made several

documentaries A documentary film (often described simply as a documentary) is a nonfiction motion picture intended to "document reality, primarily for instruction, education or maintaining a historical record". The American author and media analyst Bill ...

about

Brittany Brittany ( ) is a peninsula, historical country and cultural area in the north-west of modern France, covering the western part of what was known as Armorica in Roman Gaul. It became an Kingdom of Brittany, independent kingdom and then a Duch ...

. These include '' Finis Terræ'' filmed in

Ouessant Ushant (; , ; , ) is a French island at the southwestern end of the English Channel which marks the westernmost point of metropolitan France. It belongs to Brittany (administrative region), Brittany and in medieval times, Viscounty of Léon, Léon ...

, ''Mor vran'' (The sea of the crows, in

Breton Breton most often refers to: *anything associated with Brittany, and generally **Breton people **Breton language, a Southwestern Brittonic Celtic language of the Indo-European language family, spoken in Brittany ** Breton (horse), a breed **Gale ...

) filmed in

Sein Sein can refer to: Places * Île-de-Sein, an island and commune in Brittany, France *Raz de Sein, a stretch of water in Brittany, France People ;Given name * Sein Aye, birthname of Sitt Nyein Aye (born 1956), Burmese artist * Sein Hlaing (1918-20 ...

, ''L'Or des mers'' filmed in Hoëdic, '' Le Tempestaire'' filmed in

Belle Île Belle-Île (), Belle-Île-en-Mer (), or Belle Isle (, ; ) is a French island off the coast of Brittany in the ''département in France, département'' of Morbihan, and the largest of Brittany's islands. It is from the Quiberon peninsula. Admini ...

. ''Chanson d'Armor'' is known as the first

-language film in history. His two novels also take place in Breton isles: ''L'Or des mers'' in

and ''Les Recteurs et la sirène'' in Sein. In August 2005, his films '' The Three-Sided Mirror'' (1927) and '' Le Tempestaire'' (1947) were restored and re-released on the DVD collection Avant-Garde: Experimental Cinema of the 1920s and 1930s. Epstein died in 1953 from a

cerebral hemorrhage Intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH), also known as hemorrhagic stroke, is a sudden bleeding into the tissues of the brain (i.e. the parenchyma), into its ventricles, or into both. An ICH is a type of bleeding within the skull and one kind of stro ...

Film Theory

Paradoxically, Jean Epstein's significance as a stylist, poet, and theoretician has grown despite the absence of his films. Many of his masterpieces, including "Mor’Vran" (1931), "L’Or des mers" (1933), and "Les Berceaux" (1934), have never undergone restoration. Nevertheless, his early writings brought significant inspiration within European

continental philosophy Continental philosophy is a group of philosophies prominent in 20th-century continental Europe that derive from a broadly Kantianism, Kantian tradition.Continental philosophers usually identify such conditions with the transcendental subject or ...

, specifically those currents dealing with realism and materialism.

''Lyrosophie''

His theory of film began with ''La Lyrosophie'' (1922), a companion piece to his ''La Poésie d’aujourd’hui, un nouvel état d’intelligence'' (1921). Although ''La Lyrosophie'' only skirts the question of the cinema, this book posits that the general intellectual fatigue arising from the fast-paced nature of modern life, alongside an accelerated thought process, leads to a form of subjectivity termed lyrosophie. In this mode, the weakening of reason's control over the subconscious results in projecting subconscious sentiments onto the conscious intellectual plane. The theory developed emphasizes that aesthetic pleasure is intricately tied to the stimulation of ineffable subconscious emotional associations. It proposes a view of poetic language wherein the sign, regardless of the reader's subjective imposition of beauty, remains aesthetically inexpressive.

''The Figurative Perspective''

Epstein posits the notion that cinema possesses a magical quality due to its ability to transcend certain limitations of representation, surpassing "the resemblance of things" and achieving an "efficiency superior to forms," which he regards as the pinnacle of cinematography. However, he is keen to emphasize that these transgressions and achievements are not exclusive to a particular avant-garde cinema. In fact, Epstein was often skeptical of films primarily formal in their format. Epstein, in an interview: “‘In your opinion, do films fashioned according to the cubist or expressionist taste represent the quintessence of cinema?’ This time, my answer was even more categorical: ‘No, it is but an accessory of cinema and almost an ill-state for this accessory.’”

''Descriptive Experimentation''

In numerous instances and through various expressions, Epstein contrasts narration with an alternative system of representation more closely aligned with cinematic brilliance – what we might term a descriptive framework. Here, experimentation supplants narrative conventions with the potency of scientific inquiry, transposing it into the realm of aesthetics and aligning cinematography with three primary objectives: * Asserting the figurative precision of analysis * Achieving a reinterpretation of phenomena through figurative synthesis * Affirming its own ingenuity through the selection of a fertile yet clearly delineated field of inquiry – that of movement

Filmography

Publications

Literary and film theory

* ''Bonjour, cinéma''. Paris: La Sirène, 1921. * ''La Poésie d'aujourd'hui, un nouvel état d'intelligence''. Paris: La Sirène, 1921. * ''La Lyrosophie''. Paris: La Sirène, 1922. * ''Le Cinématographe vu de l'Etna''. Paris: Les Écrivains réunis, 1926. * ''La Photogénie de l'impondérable''. Paris: Corymbe, 1935. * ''L'Intelligence d'une machine''. Paris: J. Melot, 1946. * ''Le Cinéma du diable''. Paris: J. Melot, 1947. * ''Esprit de cinéma''. Genève: Jeheber, 1955. * ''Écrits sur le cinéma, 1921-1953: édition chronologique en deux volumes''. Paris: Seghers, 1974–1975.

Fiction

* ''Les Recteurs et la sirène''. Paris: Fernand Aubier/Éd. Montaigne, 1934. * ''L'Or des mers''. Paris: Librairie Valois, 1932.

Film scenarios

* "''La chute de la maison Usher''," ''L'Avant scène du cinéma'', nos. 313-314 (October 1983).

References

External links

*
Jean Epstein
at

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''Le Cinéma du diable''
{{DEFAULTSORT:Epstein, Jean 1897 births 1953 deaths Film theorists French experimental filmmakers French film directors French people of Polish-Jewish descent