Le Vertige

The Living Image

France 1926. Dir Marcel L'Herbier.


With Emmy Lynn, Jaque Catelain. Costumes Jacques Manuel, Sonia Delaunay, Yose.

Introduced by Nick Rees-Roberts, Lecturer in Film and Cultural Studies at University of Bristol and author of French Queer Cinema (2008) and Homo exoticus (2010).

Following L’Inhumaine (1924), Le Vertige provided L’Herbier with another opportunity to hone a fiercely modernist aesthetic and to star his muse Jaque Catelain. Cast in a double role as a murdered officer in revolutionary Petrograd and his ‘living image’ who haunts the French Riviera, Catelain showcases sharp double-breasted jackets, geometric dressing gowns and urbane sportswear designed by Sonia Delaunay and Paris’s high society tailor Yose. The film also features décor by Robert Mallet-Stevens and furnishings by Pierre Chareau and Robert Delaunay.

book tickets


BFI Southbank, NFT3 Monday 13 May 2013, 18:15