Following a 19th-century play penned by Benjamin Antier, the figure of Robert Macaire, bandit and rogue, enjoyed popularity in several contexts. One of the most detailed treatments may be found in Epstein’s LES AVENTURES DE ROBERT MACAIRE, which he executed in five interrelated episodes.

Because he found a box washed up by the sea holding unknown contents, a poor and despised fisherman and his daughter are suddenly courted by everyone in the village.

Jacques Prémont-Solène is a degenerate gambler and his losses at baccarat have bankrupted his lover, Laure Maresco. When he steals four hundred thousand francs and loses that at the gambling tables, he flees to the United States, and Nathalie takes the blame. Twenty years later, she has a flourishing career as a nightclub singer, but their son is just as inept a gambler as his father had been.

A renowned doctor and his brother live and work together until the brother falls in love with Marie, a singer, and gives up medicine to be with her. After a time however, she misses her old life and goes back on the stage - an act which leads her lover to commit suicide. Later the doctor and Marie also meet, and she becomes his mistress. He finds out about his brother's suicide and goes through his artifacts looking for a clue as to what might have been the cause. He finds a photograph of Marie and realizes the truth, which decimates their relationship.

Two young doctors, surprised by the storm, take refuge in an inn. A diamond broker joins them and, for lack of space, shares their room. At dawn he is found dead. A few years later justice is done.

The almost financially ruined French gentleman Gaston Dewalter spends several days in Biarritz before going off in the Hispano-Suiza, a luxe car which was a present from his friends. George becomes the lover of Lady Stéphane Oswill pretending he is wealthy. Then Stéphane spends the remaining funds with which the now desperate George hoped to rebuild his fortune in Senegal.

Bargeman Louveau finds an abandoned boy, Victor, and with the authorities permission takes him back to his own family where he raises him. 10 years later Victor and Louveau's daughter Clara have fallen in love, and it is then that Louveau is called to Paris, where it has been discovered that Victor is really the son of Maugendré, a charcoal shipper on the Nivernaise canal. Meanwhile, Victor protects Clara when a jealous bargehand attacks her and he manages to save the family barge from crashing into the lock. Returned to his real father, Victor is sent away to be educated but misses Clara and his life on the barges. When Maugendré realizes this he lets him return and when they are married he gives Victor and Clara a barge of their own.

Mor'vran - La mer des corbeaux
de Jean Epstein
France/1930/25'/35 mm
Sur l'île de Sein, en Bretagne, les hommes affrontent l'océan.
Restauré par La Cinémathèque française.

In the latter half of the 20th Century, Raymond Rohauer was one of the nation's foremost proponents of experimental cinema. Programming diverse films at the Coronet Theatre in Los Angeles, and making the films in his personal archive available for commercial distribution, he helped preserve and promote avant-garde cinema.
This two-DVD collection assembles some of the most influential and eclectic short films in the Rohauer Collection, including works by Man Ray, Hans Richter, Marcel Duchamp, Watson & Webber, Fernand Léger, Joris Ivens, Dimitri Kirsanoff, Jean Epstein, and Orson Welles.
Contents:
Disc 1
* Le Retour à la raison
(Man Ray, France, 1923, 2 min.)
* Emak-Bakia
(Man Ray, France, 1926, 16 min.)
* L'Étoile de mer
(Man Ray, France, 1928, 15.5 min.)
* Les Mystères du château du Dé
(Man Ray, France, 1929, 20 min.)
* The Life and Death of 9413, a Hollywood Extra
(Slavko Vorkapich, Robert Florey, U.S., 1928, 13 min.)
* Ménilmontant
(Dimitri Kirsanoff, France, 1926, 37 min.)
* Brumes d'automne
(Dimitri Kirsanoff, France, 1928, 12 min.)
* Lot in Sodom
(James Sibley Watson, Melville Webber, U.S., 1933, 27 min.)
* Rhythmus 21
(Hans Richter, Germany, 1921, 3 min.)
* Vormittagsspuk (Ghosts Before Breakfast)
(Hans Richter, Germany, 1928, 9 min.)
* Anémic cinéma
(Marcel Duchamp, France, 1926, 6.5 min.)
* Ballet mécanique
(Fernand Léger, France, 1924, 11 min.)
* Symphonie diagonale
(Viking Eggeling, France, 1924, 7 min.)
* Le Vampire
(Jean Painlevé, France, 1939, 8.5 min.)
* The Hearts of Age
(Orson Welles, William Vance, U.S., 1934, 8 min.)
Disc 2
* Überfall
(Ernö Metzner, Germany, 1928, 22 min.)
* La glace à trois faces
(Jean Epstein, France, 1927, 33 min.)
* Le Tempestaire
(Jean Epstein, France, 1947, 22.5 min.)
* Romance sentimentale
(Sergei Eisenstein, Grigori V. Alexandrov, France, 1930, 20 min.)
* Autumn Fire
(Herman G. Weinberg, U.S., 1931, 15 min.)
* Manhattan
(Paul Strand, Charles Sheeler, U.S., 1921, 10 min.)
* La Coquille et le clergyman
(Germaine Dulac, France, 1926, 31.5 min.)
* Regen (Rain)
(Joris Ivens, the Netherlands, 1929, 14 min.)
* H2O
(Ralph Steiner, U.S., 1929, 12 min.)
* Even -- As You and I
(Roger Barlow, Harry Hay, LeRoy Robbins, U.S., 1937, 12 min.)

1929 film directed by Jean Epstein

Following a premonition, a young woman tries to persuade her fiancé not to go out to sea in his fishing boat, but the boy ignores her and sets out. Soon, a storm occurs, and the girl frantically tries to find out his fate. Eventually, at the advice of her grandmother, she goes to the "Tempestaire", who has the power to speak to the wind and subdue it.

A wealthy young businessman consecutively falls in love with a classy English woman (Pearl), a Russian sculptress (Athalia), and a naive working-class girl (Lucie).

1923 film by Jean Epstein

1928 French film by Jean Epstein