Technofutures Film Series: L'Inhumaine

September 17, midnight

Tivoli Theatre (314) 935-4523

Explore the intersection of avant-garde art and early film in the Technofutures: Science Fiction Film and Modernist Design film series, showcasing three landmark sci-fi films produced in the 1920s in France, Germany, and Soviet Russia. These thrilling silent masterpieces feature ambitious art design to match the global (and even interstellar) scope of the stories they tell. Selected by Diane Wei Lewis, assistant professor of Film and Media Studies in Arts & Sciences, the films highlight the influence of modern art—Cubism, Expressionism, and Constructivism—on film and set design. Lewis will introduce each of the films, which will also be accompanied by a musical score.


In L'Inhumaine (dir. Marcel L'Herbier, France, 1924) an opera diva's celebrity reaches new heights with the help of a scientist's imaginative inventions, in a film that resembles an elaborate abstract painting thanks to designs by painter Fernand Léger and architect Robert Mallet-Stevens. Digitally restored by Lobster Films, this rare film can be viewed again on the big screen and admired in all of its intricate detail.


Free and open to the public. Complimentary medium popcorn for Kemper Art Museum members.