Although a portrait plays a prominent part in Leonce PERRET's short , this is not really based on Edgar Poe's eponymous short story .
Pierre,a marquis ,is madly in love with his dear wife Jeanne whose picture he is painting; one day ,when they go hunting in the woods, the husband accidentally kills his wife .He's desperate and wants to finish the portrait ;he uses other models ,but none of them can touch the late woman's beauty.Six months later ,he meets Madeleine who resembles his dear departed ;she understands her rival is a picture and she tries more and more to look like Jeanne .
For 1910 ,it was a modern short: it was often filmed on location,,a technique the director often used,in beautiful forest landscapes ; Perret's interest in supernatural (which would emerge again in his biggest effort " Le Mystère Des Roches De Kador ) is already present : Piarre has visions and sees in the models he hires for the unfinished work his late love's features .Madeleine ,trying to recreate Jeanne by changi,ng her hairdo,it's some kind of "vertigo" in miniature ;remember that Hitchcock's heroine 's name was Madeleine too.
2 out of 2 found this helpful