Le Lion des Mogols
Jean Epstein, FR 1924Screenplay: Jean Epstein after an idea of Ivan Mosjoukine; Cinematography: Joseph-Louis Mundwiller, Fedote Bourgassoff; Cast: Ivan Mosjoukine, François Viguier, Alexiane, Nathalie Lissenko, Camille Bardou. 35mm, w, 99 min. French subtitles with English subtitles
After leaving Pathé before the end of his contract, Epstein started working instead for Albatros, a company that had become a focal point for Russian émigrés in France. His first work there was a magnificent vehicle for major Albatros star Ivan Mosjoukine. The basic idea for the film also came from Mosjoukine: an adventure story in the Far East about a young palace officer who frees a princess kept imprisoned by Khan, and flees with her into the city. In tackling this exotic subject, Epstein emphasises the fundamental pleasures to be had in popular culture as well as those that lie in the artificial and the constructed – including temporal shifts that anticipate central works such as La Glace à trois faces (1927). "A fairy tale for shop girls," was Henri Langlois's view of the film, before he immediately went on to defend it: "If one can criticise it, it's because the film isn't entirely fantastical, doesn't contain the surreal realism of the perfect scenes at the jockey club, the taxi race, the masked ball throughout, where montage effects and rhythm aim for a supernatural tone." (C.H.)
Piano accompaniment by Elaine Brennan
Courtesy Cinémathèque française
Screening dates:
Mo 20.10.2025 11:00
download iCal
No reservations accepted for screenings from October 17 to 28; special ticket regulations apply during the Viennale. Tickets are available exclusively at the Viennale box offices, via telephone at 01/526 594 769 or via www.viennale.at.