L'Argent

("money") is a French silent film directed in 1928 by Marcel L'Herbier. The film was adapted from the 1891 novel by Émile Zola, and it portrays the world of banking and the stock market in Paris in the 1920s. Background Marcel L'Herbier had become one of the most prominent French film-makers during the 1920s, but even after he had sought greater creative independence by establishing his own production company, Cinégraphic, he experienced continual frustration over the financial arrangements under which he had to work. He said that after ten years of making films, he became "obsessed by a single idea: to film at any cost, even (what a paradox) at great cost, a fierce denunciation of money". He chose as the basis of his story Zola's novel about the corrupting power of money throughout society, but he insisted that it should be updated from the 1860s to present-day Paris. He envisaged a film on a large scale (having been impressed by Abel Gance's Napoléon) and set about arranging a budget of 3 million francs (the eventual cost was nearly 5 million.). To achieve this he had to put his own company in partnership with the Société des Cinéromans of Jean Sapène, and also agreed a distribution deal with the German company UFA which resulted in the engagement of two German stars among the cast. Synopsis Saccard and Gunderman are rival Paris bankers. Saccard sees an opportunity to rescue his failing bank, Banque Universelle, by financing the solo transatlantic flight of Jacques Hamelin, a pioneering aviator. Saccard intends to capitalise on his popularity to set up a colonial business project in Guyane and to seduce Hamelin's wife Line in his absence. When a rumour circulates that Hamelin has crashed, Saccard exploits the false reports to manipulate shares at the Bourse. Gunderman disapproves of Saccard and his methods and has secretly bought shares in his bank to use as a weapon. Baroness Sandorf, a former lover of Saccard, acts as a spy to assist Gunderman's interests and advance her own.