Coeur fidèle

Jean Epstein's Coeur fidèle (True Heart) established the great French filmmaker as one of the most inventive directors of the (then still silent) art form. A pared-down tale of a barmaid oppressed by an exploitative foster family who attempt to push her into the arms of an unscrupulous regular-about-town, Marie's heart (exuberantly vivified by Gina Manès) belongs, as far as she's concerned, to the tenderly blank Jean (Léon Mathot). Coeur fidèle drives its simple story (which, with its infamous and exhilarating 'carousel sequence', helped pave the way for the narrative tradition of such Murnau masterworks as Sunrise and City Girl) on into the realm of what might be considered an early incarnation of French poetic realism all while still anticipating Epstein's magical, post-surrealist, later works. (Eureka Entertainment)