A very good movie

I wasn’t really sure what to expect from this flick but since it seemed to have a decent reputation, I thought I might as well check it out. Well, after the already brilliant ‘La chute de la maison Usher’, it turned out to be another mesmerizing movie from Jean Epstein. Basically, before the movies became an actual business involving budgets around 200 million dollars for each projects, there was a time when it was much more experimental and this movie was a perfect example. To be honest, I would be hard-pressed to explain what this movie was exactly about as it turned out to be even murkier than Epstein's weird Edgar Allan Poe adaptation. And, yet, the damned thing turned out to be quite powerful. This movie was also a good example of how a good soundtrack can be a great asset for a silent picture like this one. Indeed, only a few days before, I also watched ‘Hijosen no onna’ by Ozu and even though it was also a solid silent movie, the lack of soundtrack made it really difficult to me to get into the damned thing.  Well, in this case, it was the complete opposite as the soundtrack was just as intriguing as the rest of the movie was and it would be a completely different experience without it. Of course, it wasn’t the only asset as it was also visually really strong as well. I don’t know, it would be rather hard to describe in words but it seems that for most of the shots they really put some thoughts into them. Anyway, the end-result was certainly artistic and really surrealistic. I wonder if this movie might have been an influence on David Lynch’s work. Anyway, to conclude, I can imagine that this review might be too cryptic and not really helpful but I really liked the damned thing and I think it’s definitely worth a look, especially if you are interested in experimental movies.