Jean Epstein: La Chute de la maison Usher (1928)

The Fall of the House of Usher

"Would you have a car to
drive me to Usher's home tonight?"

In this derelict manor, Sir Roderick held his
wife Madeline in a strange prison, dominating

by his tyrannical nervousness.

"Oh, no! For all the gold of your Lordship I
will not make a step closer to my horse!"

The overwhelming melancholy surrounding
Usher seemed supernatural.

"The medicine"

The disease of Lady Madeline, wife of Roderick Usher,
had long baffled the skill of her physicians.

A curious heredity urged each Usher to
passionately devote himself to painting

a portrait of his wife.

"This is where she is alive!"

"Dear Roderick, you burn with fever!"

"His Grace is feeling tired and prays that
you excuse his absence from the table."

"This is where she is alive!"

The strange passion to paint
seizes Roderick again.

He thought only of being alone with
Madeline, his unique model.

How to dismiss the now unwelcome visitor?

Twisted as if by a storm, the family tree of
Usher threatened the last survivor of

the race, Roderick, with the most fatal genes.

"Your concern touches me, my only friend.
But take care of yourself as well.

A short walk will do you good before rest."

Roderick's brush was like a magic wand.
With each stroke the portrait became

more lively, but Madeline grew more pale.

The young woman seemed to give the painted
image the forces she had lost.

"In truth, it is life itself!"

Haunted by all the mysteries, Roderick had
long meditated the theories of Magnetism.

"I tell you, Doctor! She can't be dead!"

"She will not leave me!
We bury her right here!"

"I forbid..... Do you hear, I
forbid you to nail it shut.."

Since the burial of Madeline, hours, days
passed in a frightening monotony,

in an overwhelming silence.

Every nerve tensed, Roderick seems
to watch some unknown sign.

The slightest noise exasperates him..........

Roderick dare not repeat this mad
force that suffocates him....

.....Madeline...

The night promised to be stormy
and charged with electricity.

"There is a two-fold Silence; one is
the corporate Silence; dread him not.

But should some urgent fate bring thee to
meet his shadow, nameless elf that haunteth

the lone regions where hath trod no foot
of man... commend thyself to God!"

"Do you hear him now?!"

"Roderick, you should not see this! Come
distract yourself instead with some reading."

"And Ethelred uplifted his mace outright,
and, with blows, made quickly room in the

plankings of the door for his gauntleted
hand; and now pulling therewith sturdily,

he so cracked, and ripped...

"And Ethelred threw his mace, and struck
upon the head of the dragon, which

fell before him, and gave up his pesty
breath, with a shriek so horrid and harsh,

and withal so piercing..."

"And the brave champion now approached
valorously over the silver pavement of

the castle to where the shield was upon the
wall, which in sooth, tarried not for his

full coming, but fell down at his feet with
a mighty great and terrible..."

"We've buried her alive in the tomb!"

THE END