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Gold of the Seas
(L'Or des mers)

Screening on Film
Directed by Jean Epstein.
France, 1932, 35mm, black & white, 70 min.
French with English subtitles.
Print source: Cinémathèque Française

A semi-documentary that compares favorably with Robert Flaherty’s work from the same period, Gold of the Seas renders its fairy-tale plot with a strident realism borne of weather-wracked cinematography and non-actors. An abusive tramp uncovers a box taken for treasure, unleashing paroxysms of conflict and greed amongst Hoëdic’s fishermen. Experimenting with a collaged soundtrack, Epstein undercuts dramatic realism to hew closer to the island’s essential hardships—not only its meager resources and vulnerability to the elements, but also its long-simmering animosities and rampant alcoholism. The finale reworks Griffith’s classic “race-to-the-rescue” formula to marvelous effect, with close-ups of a young girl sinking in quicksand evoking a landscape by turns beautiful and merciless.

PRECEDED BY

  • Villanelle of the Ribbons (La Villanelle des rubans)

    Directed by Jean Epstein.
    France, 1932, 35mm, black & white, 6 min.
    In French.
    Print source: Cinémathèque Française
  • The Cradles (Les berceaux)

    Directed by Jean Epstein.
    France, 1932, 35mm, black & white, 6 min.
    No dialogue.
    Print source: Cinémathèque Française

A delicate “filmed song” set to Gabriel Fauré’s popular tune, The Cradles finds a lyrical equivalent for the sailor’s homesickness in the gaps and rhymes of montage.

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