Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #23657 in DVD
• Released on: 2008-11-24
• Rating: Parental Guidance
• Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
• Formats: Black & White, PAL
• Subtitled in: English
• Number of discs: 2
• Running time: 164 minutes

Special Features
A pristine transfer from a fine grain print struck from the original negative, featuring the director's cut fought for by L'Herbier over many years, the film speed as projected in the late 1920s, and the entirety of each frame fully displayed

New and improved English subtitles

Newly improvised musical accompaniment by French composer and pianist Jean-François Zygel, who also provides a video introduction to the film and a documentary about accompanying silent cinema

ABOUT L'ARGENT [AUTOUR DE L'ARGENT ] (1928) Jean Dréville's 40 minute making of documentary **Archival footage of star Brigitte Helm (fresh from Fritz Lang's Metropolis) arriving in Paris for the shooting of L'Herbier's film

Archival screen-tests of the L'Argent actors

MARCEL L'HERBIER: POET OF THE SILENT ART [MARCEL L'HERBIER: POÈTE DE L'ART SILENCIEUX] (2007) a 54 minute documentary profiling the director

A demonstration of L'Herbier's innovative sound techniques, which used 78rpm records during key scenes of L'Argent

A lavish 80-page perfectly-bound booklet with archival publicity stills, a long essay by noted professor of French film Richard Abel (French Cinema: The First Wave, 1915 1929; French Film Theory and Criticism: A History/Anthology, 1907 1939; The Ciné Goes to Town: French Cinema, 1896 1914), newly translated interviews with L'Herbier, and newly translated extracts from the director's biography

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.

Customer Reviews

A Masterpiece of the French Silent Era


First of all, the 5-star rating applies to both the film itself as well as the 2-disc set by Eureka! which has quite an impressive, thick booklet with many photographs from the film with extensive notes, and many surprising bonus features on the supplement disc. And "L'Argent" certainly deserves this first-class treatment because it stands out as one of the world's finest films from the late silent era (being the late 1920s) and would even surpass most modern films in many aspects of cinematography. "L'Argent" equals silent classics like "Metropolis", "Sunrise" and other French classics such as "La Roue" and "Napoleon", but just as each of these films has its own style and characteristics, so does "L'Argent" under the direction of French director, Marcel L'Herbier.

L'Herbier utilized what was at that time new and innovative camera techniques and angles which still impress viewers today because they are part of a visual art form, namely that of the silent film telling a story with images; and a few subtitles when necessary. The story is easily understood because it could be taken right out of today's headlines, and the concept of greed and power are universal and even timeless in this modern age. Based on Emile Zola's novel set several decades earlier, L'Herbier decided to place the story in contemporary times, showing the hustle and bustle at the Paris Stock Exchange with striking and breathtaking angles, camera movements and editing, along with many other exciting scenes from the year 1928. For me, "L'Argent" is both an historic visual document, showing the life and mentality of people in the late 1920s, and a powerful human story conveying the message of how money has power: power to corrupt, enslave, manipulate, control and destroy.

The actors were well chosen and suit their roles perfectly. German actors from "Metropolis" fame, Alfred Abel and Brigitte Helm, play unforgettable characters alongside prominent French stars who portray business tycoons riding the highs and lows of the share market to their own advantage, while others become pawns and victims of the lust for wealth and power. It is a good story made even more brilliant with lavish and unusual sets, artistic imagery and a very high standard of `glossy style'. The effort and cost involved in such a grand production are revealed in an extraordinary 40-minute "making of..." documentary on the supplement disc, "About L'Argent" - which was one of the first of its kind, and is surely a most valuable item for film historians especially, but also fascinating for the general viewer and admirer of early cinema. Another lengthy documentary is about L'Herbier and his work, and other varied and shorter film footage related to "L'Argent" make up the bonus disc features and help to appreciate the high artistic qualities of the film. Anyone looking for artistic style in films should see "L'Argent", and those who value the high quality of late 1920s silent films will not be disappointed either.

One of the great silent classics
L'Argent is one of the little known silent masterpieces that have been rediscovered in recent years. The film is distinguished for many reasons. The acting is magnificent led by Pierre Alcover and Birgitte Helm (of Metropolis fame). The costuming and staging are fantastic, in fact the film makers made use of the Paris Bourse for several scenes. Most wonderful is the camera work, which although adanced for the day, even experimental, is completely natural to the story. L'Argent was at the time the most expensive French film to date, designed to compete with both Hollywood and UFA of Germany. David Shepard has written enthusiatically of the French edition of the DVD. A must buy for film buffs and silent film buffs of all kinds.

Superb
I can but echo the opinion of the previous reviewer and say this is a stunning film. The acting is generally very naturalistic and, like many silent films (despite a common perception to the opposite) not bogged down by histrionic overacting. This is a sophisticated and elegant film made on a grand scale and should be of interest to film fans, particularly those of the silent era. Highly recommended.