Prelude

A man hallucinates being buried alive after reading an Edgar Alan Poe story.

Rachmaninoff's wonderfully disturbing Prelude in C Sharp Minor sets the tone for Castleton Knight's silent, nightmarish reverie on Poe's 'The Premature Burial'. A man listening to the famous Prelude is transported to a hellish avant-garde setting, replete with funny angles, skulls and a corpse-eye view.

We are grateful to La Cinémathèque française for use of their restoration.