C%C5%93ur fid%C3%A8le
Cur fidle is a 1923 French drama film directed by Jean Epstein. It has the alternative English title Faithful Heart. The film tells a melodramatic story of thwarted romance, set against a background of the Marseille docks, and experiments with many techniques of camerawork and editing.
Jean Epstein had already established himself as a film theorist with the publication of several books, and he had begun to explore his ideas in practice with his first two films, Pasteur 1922 and LAuberge rouge 1923. Epstein now 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 wrote the scenario in a single night.Epstein had been much impressed by Abel Gances recently completed La Roue, and in Cur fidle he similarly applied rhythmic editing, overlays, closeups, and pointofview shots. The opening sequence establishes Maries situation in the harbour bar through montage we see closeup images of her face, hands, and the table and glasses she is cleaning. Later, images of the sea and the port are intercut and overlaid to convey her relationship with Jean. The films most celebrated sequence, set at a fairground, employs rhythmic editing to chart the escalating tension of the love triangle. In the films second half, Epstein employs dramatic lighting effects and lens distortion effects to convey the melodrama of the situation, as well as subjective states, such as Petit Pauls drinking. ........
Source: Wikipedia
