Film Forum

France, 1924
Directed by Marcel L’Herbier
Starring Georgette Leblanc, Jaque Catelain, Léonid Walter de Malte
Art Direction by Claude Autant-Lara, Alberto Cavalcanti
Approx. 135 min. DCP. 

“A group of pasty middle-aged men try to woo an equally vain socialite and singer named Claire, whose close-ups are with angelic lighting and soft focus, her head always tilted back. One of the suitors shows up late to the party, but steals her away to tell her that if she doesn’t love him that he’ll kill himself. She is not impressed or worried about this in the slightest, so he goes and does just that. His death creates a scandal across the city that lingers over her concert performance the next night, but the turn of events are even more surprising, when Einar shows up back from the dead, and becomes a mad scientist.” – RogerEbert.com

Reviews

“Following THE CABINET OF DR. CALIGARI (1920), a cult movie in Paris throughout the 1920s, L’INHUMAINE presented itself as total concept. Every element, from the intertitles to the costumes to the makeup, was highly designed—and, as CALIGARI served to market German Expressionism (and German cinema) as a brand, so L’INHUMAINE might have been made to promote the term Art Deco, which was popularized in 1925 by the mammoth International Exposition of Modern Industrial and Décorative Arts in Paris... a super-stylized amalgam of mad science, stodgy acting and elaborate sets.”
– J. Hoberman, The New York Times

“A monsterpiece of production design.”
– Paul Schrader

“L’Herbier’s most audacious experiment.. A cruel, fantastic love story... A brilliant showcase of contemporary French design and a sumptuous and satisfying thriller.”
– Screen Deco