“THE FALL OF THE HOUSE OF USHER”: Just watched this. (The French one, not the American.) It’s terrific. Yes, it has some of the same over-the-top hyperventilating as most silent movies (the mystic power of magnetism…slow-motion fainting…rutting toads), but mostly it’s intense, menacing, and feverishly beautiful. I was spellbound. Small humans lost in big sets reminiscent of Giacometti’s “The Palace at 4 a.m.”; a banister made of branches and chains; a corpse (possibly) in a wedding dress; great shots of leaves rushing along the floor; startling portrait’s-eye view of the deranged painter Roderick Usher; clutching hands and living paintings.

The best thing, though, was the music. I don’t know whether it’s unique to the version I saw (via Netflix), with the title cards read in heavily French-accented English. Anyway, it’s amazing: tense, sometimes febrile, always making a slow and dreamlike movie feel propulsive and suspenseful.