I haven't seen anything like this before and yet, in many ways, I have. Experimental short movies of the silent era are hardly my forté and so this could be the very apex of the genre or quite run-of-the-mill. Hell, for all I know it could be the only one, though I doubt it. On the other hand, this could be a video for anything off REM's 'Document' with the sound turned down- though without the Soviet iconography, obviously.
As I understand it (from films, which is where I have learned everything I know) Edgar Alan Poe is taught in US High Schools in the same way that our schools rightly insist that everyone knows at least one Shakespeare text before leaving. You don't know how lucky you are, I had to find Poe for myself while my teachers oppressed me with the turgid Thomas Hardy. Anyway- to return to the point- that would give viewers of this film a basic knowledge of the text which is vital if it is to be anything more than a series of interesting visuals to you. What you see on screen doesn't tell you the story, the narrative is almost totally scrapped in favour of expressionist art.
Not having a great knowledge of the history of cinematic techniques, I don't know if what I'm seeing here was revolutionary or derivative. But it certainly features some fascinating superimpositions and juxtapositions, camera angles which add interest and are still in use today, lighting and reverse-motion trickery. It looks fantastic.
It tells the story of The Fall of the House of Usher about as well as it tells the story of The Three Little Pigs, which is to say not at all but that hardly matters. It is a visually arresting expression of the story. 4/10
