L'argent (money) is based on Zola's novel and uncovers the speculations happening at the Paris stock exchange in the world of high finance. The film feels still extremely contemporary: speculation is still very much happening worldwide! Banker Saccard (Pierre Alcover) has virtually lost his fortune after an unfortunate speculation with his arch-rival Gunderman. He lost in the process his calculating and vain mistress, Baroness Sandorf (Brigitte Helm, fresh from F. Lang's Metropolis). He meets a young aviator who has made a new airplane prototype, Jacques Hamelin and his wife (Mary Glory). He realises it's his chance to recoup his loss. He helps finance the man's project while coveting his young pretty wife.....
This big production for the time -its cost was 5 millions francs- is one of the most amazing silent I have ever seen. The camera movements are just mind boggling, so are the performances of all the actors. The film lasts 164 min, but, it flows extremely quickly. The film is featured in Brownlow's Cinema Europe and rightly so. It's certainly one of the greatest achievements of silent film. Marcel L'Herbier was already an established director when he made this film. He was given the cream of technicians of the time. Lazare Meerson for the sets and Jules Kruger at the camera. The sets were absolutely gigantic filling an entire studio. But, he never drowns in them; he keeps in mind the evolution of the characters and extract some very tense performances from his actors. Pierre Alcover as Saccard is obsessed with money and power. He thinks he can buy anyone's soul with it. His mistress, B. Helm, is equally calculating and vicious. Henry Victor and Mary Glory play the young couple trapped in the speculation organised by Saccard. The sets and costumes are just incredibly beautiful; not overdone, just tasteful elegance. In this glamorous atmosphere, the most sordid greed is raging. Money destroys everything...
The accompanying disc offers some very substantial supplements. The main one being a documentary, Autour de l'argent, by director Jean Dréville (then only 20) who was allowed to film the film's shooting. It's fascinating. It shows how the various tracking and travelling shots were achieved. They were not equiped with any dolly, so they had to invent daily a new way to move the camera with moving platforms, little cart on weels pushed by technicians, even hand-held camera, some kind of ancester of the Steadycam. We can see L'Herbier directing his actors in the most minute details. He can manage as well with two actors or a huge crowd of extra at the Paris stock-exchange (where they filmed during the three days closure at Easter time).
We also get the screen tests of various young actresses where I could recognised some famous French actresses, then extremely young. There is also a 1h documentary about L'Herbier with an interview of his daughter. The two-discs are accompanied by a nice booklet of film stills on glossy paper. Just beautiful!
Another major French silent on DVD!!!!
. Marcel L'Herbier isn't someone I've heard of, I have seen Brigitte Helm in The Love of Jeanne Ney and Metropolis, she's a fascinating actress.
Anyway, now it's sorted. Have a look! 
