Fluidity in Stillness: Jean Epstein’s Uncanny Photogénie and the Found Footage Film

This essay connects the concept of the uncanny with French filmmaker and theorist Jean Epstein’s description of “photogénie,” using two filmic examples 80 years apart to demonstrate that Epstein’s characterization of cinema as “the medium most capable of realizing the unreal” is as true in contemporary media as it was during the French expressionist era. Using the concept of an “uncanny photogénie,” I analyse both a classically gothic adaptation—Epstein’s own version of The Fall of the House of Usher (1928)—and the postmodern gothic captured in the Paranormal Activity series.