This lyrical, fleet-footed melodrama tells a deceptively simple story of star-crossed lovers in sun-soaked Marseilles. Gina Manès plays Marie, a foundling raised to adulthood by the unloving married owners of a dockside café. Marie is in love with Jean (Léon Mathot), but has instead been promised to Petit Paul (Edmond van Daële), a hot-headed young drunk. The Faithful Heart (Coeur fidèle) is stylistically rooted in the tradition of French impressionist cinema, and narratively anticipates the full-fledged poetic realism of the 1930s. The Film Society is delighted to welcome back the Alloy Orchestra, performing an original score that brings Jean Epstein’s beautifully restored silent masterwork to life with the help of found objects, synthesizers, and handcrafted instruments.

About the Alloy Orchestra
The Alloy Orchestra is a three-man musical ensemble (Terry Donahue, Ken Winokur, and Roger C. Miller) who write and perform live accompaniment to classic silent films. Working with an outrageous assemblage of peculiar objects, they thrash and grind soulful music from unlikely sources and have performed at prestigious film festivals and cultural centers around the world (including the Telluride Film Festival, the Louvre, and the National Gallery of Art). An unusual combination of found percussion and state-of-the-art electronics gives the Orchestra the ability to create any sound imaginable.

Special thanks to Ira Resnick for his generous support of The Faithful Heart (Coeur fidèle).