L'Argent: The Masters of Cinema Series
A Film by Marcel L'Herbier
Certificate: PG
Running Time: 164
Retail Price: £22.99
Release Date: 24/11/2008
Content Type: Movie
Synopsis:
Adapted from Émile Zola's novel of the same name, Marcel L'Herbier's L'Argent [Money] is an opulent classic of late-silent era cinema. Filmed in part on location at the Paris stock exchange, it reveals a world of intrigue, greed, decadence, and ultimately corruption and scandal when business dealings and amorous deceit combine.
Business tycoons Saccard and Gunderman lock horns when the former attempts to raise capital for his faltering bank. To inflate the price of his stock, Saccard concocts a duplicitous publicity stunt involving the unwitting aviator Hamelin and a flight across the Atlantic to drill for oil, much to the dismay of his wife Line. While Hamelin is away, the lascivious Saccard attempts to seduce Line, whose own temptation by the allure of money puts herself and her husband in danger - pawns in a high-stakes chess game played out by unscrupulous speculators.
With an all-star cast (Brigitte Helm and Alfred Abel, fresh from Fritz Lang's Metropolis, alongside Pierre Alcover, Yvette Guilbert, and luminary of the French avant-garde Antonin Artaud) and a mammoth budget, L'Argent is comparable in period and scale with other celebrated epics of the silent era, such as Abel Gance's Napoléon. With its use of portable cameras that literally descend into the Bourse and revolve around its lavish contours, L'Argent represents a type of cinematic Impressionism distinctive to the "silent art" - a poetry that would change forever with the coming of sound. The Masters of Cinema Series is proud to present - for the very first time on home video in the UK - this crowning moment of silent cinema.
Special Features:
• About L'Argent (1928)
• Marcel L'Herbier: Poet of the Silent Art (2007)
• Brigitte Helm's arrival in Paris (1928)
• L'Argent screen-tests (1928)
• Accompanying Silent Cinema (2008)
• Sound Demonstration: Stock Exchange Scene (2008)
• 80-page booklet
Video Tracks:
Standard 1.33:1
Audio Tracks:
Dolby Digital 5.1 Music Only
Dolby Digital 2.0 Music Only
Subtitle Tracks:
English
Directed By:
Marcel L'Herbier
Written By:
Arthur Bernède
Marcel L'Herbier
Émile Zola
Starring:
Brigitte Helm
Marie Glory
Yvette Guilbert
Pierre Alcover
Alfred Abel
Henry Victor
Pierre Juvenet
Antonin Artaud
Jules Berry
Raymond Rouleau
Roger Karl
Soundtrack By:
Jean-François Zygel
Director of Photography:
Louis Berte
Jules Kruger
Jean Letort
Costume Designer:
Jacques Manuel
Producer:
Jean Sapene
Distributor:
Eureka!
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