May 2020 | Sight&Sound | 25- Lady Audley’s Secret
Jack Denton, UK
Cleverly adapted by Eliot Stannard from
Mary Elizabeth Braddon’s novel of 1862,
a forerunner of the detective novel. Lady
Audley’s distaste for poverty drives her to
extremes, which include casually tipping an
inconvenient first husband down a well. - From Morning to Midnight
Karl Heinz Martin, Germany
Robert Neppach’s flat sets for From Morning to
Midnight, adapted from Georg Kaiser’s play by
the expressionist theatre director Karl Heinz
Martin, are highly stylised. This unsettling
avant-garde fever dream takes place over a
single day: a bank clerk encounters a rich
woman, realises how much power money
has, and reacts by robbing his employers and
heading to the big city to spend the loot. - Within Our Gates
Oscar Micheaux, US
The first feature to be released by an African-
American director, Within Our Gates is a black
response to the racist themes of films such
as D.W. Griffith’s Klan-celebrating Birth of a
Nation (1915). Evelyn Preer plays a young black
woman from the rural South who travels
north to raise money to save a school. - La Belle Dame sans merci
Germaine Dulac, France
Abandoned by the man who seduced her, a
woman sets out to become a femme fatale,
determined to cause suffering. Dulac’s female
protagonists always subvert expectation
- as does her impressionist film
style, years ahead of its time.
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