Finis Terrae

Beautifully made and beautifully restored, Jean Epstein’s 1929 drama about kelp gatherers on a remote Breton island is also quite simply a beautiful film, picturesque enough to charm even the most unwavering hater of silent movies. Having discovered some islands off the coast of Brittany, Epstein decided to shoot a film there using local people as his actors. His two “stars” are Ambroise Rouzic and Jean-Marie Laot, the former playing Ambroise, a young kelp gatherer working on the remote island of Bannec who cuts his thumb on a piece of broken glass. Laot, meanwhile, plays Jean-Marie, Ambroise’s colleague in kelp who realises after a few days that Ambroise is properly sick and sets … Read more