Celebrating Marcel L’Herbier

L’Epervier – The Sparrowhawk. Image courtesy of BIFI, Cinémathèque Française

Opening this Friday is the fourth edition of the Fashion in Film Festival, which is dedicated to one of France’s most innovative yet overlooked directors, Marcel L’Herbier. Entitled ‘Marcel L’Herbier: Fabricating Dreams’, the festival includes film introductions, screenings, discussions, talks, and symposiums exploring the avant-garde director’s innovative ambition of ‘Cinéma totale’ – a concept that fuses together fashion and costume design, architecture, art and set designs in the ‘seventh art’ that is film. Included in the programme are screenings of epics, such as L’Argent (1928), L’Inhumaine (1923) and L’Epervier (1933), which shows the flawless manner in which lavish fashion, modernist architecture and design melt into one singular entity in his silent and sound films.

Le Vertige – The Living Image. Image courtesy of BIFI, Cinémathèque Française

‘We want to celebrate this unique figure who successfully straddled experimental and mainstream filmmaking and bring his work to a broader audience,’ states Marketa Uhlirova, Fashion in Film Festival founder and director. ‘Known for his remarkable use of costume to champion a fresh cinematic poetic, L’Herbier is the perfect director to spotlight in our Festival.’

‘Marcel L’Herbier: Fabricating Dreams’ opens Friday, 10 May till Sunday, 19 May 2013. Visit fashioninfilm.com for more info.