close-up images of her face, hands, and the table and glasses she is cleaning. Later, images of the sea and the port are intercut and overlaid to convey her relationship with Jean. The film's most celebrated sequence, set at a fairground, employs rhythmic editing to chart the escalating tension of the love triangle. In the film's second half, Epstein employs dramatic lighting effects and lens distortion effects to convey the melodrama of the situation, as well as subjective states, such as Petit Paul's drinking. The film's technical experiments are balanced throughout by the realism of the setting. The characters are unglamorous and belong to a working-class milieu, living in cheap lodgings, frequenting rough bar-rooms. Cœur fidèle is one of several early films to use the location of the Marseille dockside (in the wake of Louis Delluc's Fièvre, and looking forward to Alberto Cavalcanti's En rade), and the evocative images of looming ships and deserted wharfs contribute to a style which would be characterized over the next decade and a half as "poetic realism" (cf. L'Atalante, Quai des brumes (Port of Shadows)). Reception The film was not a success with the public. Its initial run in Paris in 1923 was terminated after three days (because of disputes among the audience). A re-release in the following year saw a steady decline in the size of its audience. Among critics and other film-makers however Cœur fidèle attracted considerable attention and has continued to do so. Georges Sadoul said that the film "was a sensation, and was to remain [Epstein's] best film"; "it touches us still by its fidelity to everyday life". René Clair wrote enthusiastically about it: " Cœur fidèle must be seen if you want to understand the resources of the cinema today. ...For a film to be worthy of the cinema, that's already a very welcome miracle! Cœur fidèle is worthy of it on more than one account." References External links Cœur fidèle at DVDtoile.com 1923 drama films 1923 films French black-and-white films Films directed by Jean Epstein French drama films French silent feature films Silent drama films 1920s French films 1920s French-language films