The Tell-Tale Heart (2009) Dir. Robert Eggers (Short Film)

Early Robert Eggers Short Film
Within the chambers of a desolate house, a solitary servant tends to his invalid master. Tangibly detailed period design and hauntingly lifelike puppetry unearth the dreamworld of Poe.

[@metaslaveforever]

sometimes i wonder if robert eggers has ever experienced positive emotions

[@stevenfunderburg1623]

I sure hope not.

[@user-cw4zj6kc8u]

Happiness!? What ill vapor is this? Shall we not think on nothing but our own deaths? For the grave is what shall consume us all. Shall we not live our lives in mourning!? Alas how can one think of gayest feelings when our lives shall all end in woe?!

[@TRIPP5_Shurikens]

The end of The Witch is wildly joyful.

[@davidjohnson1536]

You MUST be an American.

[@sinsiist]

Comedians are not, in most cases, happy or cheerful people in their daily lives. Art is a way of expressing a side of us that is not necessarily visible, manifested or even conscious.

[@themythicfire7560]

I have to say that this nails the atmosphere that Edgar Allen Poe's story creates better than any other adaptation of tale.. Hats off to an inexperienced Rob Eggers 13 years ago for nailing that. Atmospheric storytelling has always been his sharpest tool, something he's now masterful at.Stuff like this reminds me of looking back at Tim Burton's drawings when he was a young adult. Two brilliant directors with a very unique quality thats been developing for years unlike everyone else in the industry.

[@thataustriantrain7466]

Robert Eggers might be the man that Tim Burton would've never been.

[@dr.strangelove.miguelaleja2825]

Is truth but nou e visto como dibujaba tim burton.

[@VictorLugosi]

It doesn’t.. and you’re a muppet

[@paulreveresluggage3921]

Damn even his early stuff was atmospheric as fuck.

[@clarkesteinman5098]

That puppet or whatever you’d call it was extremely well done. It was a great choice for an uncanny valley character, from the perspective of the narrator, who had a strange horror about the old man.

[@keithdavis8461]

What is a valley character?

[@cecilyerker]

@@keithdavis8461an uncanny valley character is something that looks human but there’s something distorted and inhuman about it, like it looks real and fake at the same time and it freaks your brain out

[@JordanVanRyn]

Robert Eggers has really come so far as a filmmaker after watching this. I've always been a fan of his work since "The Witch". But "The Tell-Tale Heart" freaked me out as a kid and still remains my favorite Poe story. Eggers' version is the closest you could get to the original story, especially to his attention to detail in accuracy. plus the puppet old man looked really freaky. Plus the smiling policemen at the end were creepy as hell. Eggers, you genius!

[@egrace3738]

This is the closest adaptation of Poe's story I have ever seen. Well done.

[@CultureDTCTV]

This is amazing. I aspire to make short films as good as this. In Eggers we trust omg

[@moonballoonsmith8238]

Generally adaptations of Poe’s story are either set in the wrong era or in a “Hammer” film faux historical era. As far as I can tell in this spare adaptation, costumes furniture and accessories are accurate to Poe and the context of a Master - Servant relationship was cranked up to 11. Fascinating and faithful.

[@TimothyJonSarris]

Wasn't sure whether this would see the light of day. So glad it was finally released.

[@hotglassfilms]

can see all the great references he uses , especially in The Lighthouse.

[@acadia5898]

early hints of a master director! so inspiring!

[@luciennegreb]

Robert Eggers seems to be a very interesting Director ...Next step could be an adaptation of the shadow over Innsmouth from HP Lovecraft

[@lichtfilme]

The sound design is pure ASMR

[@themythicfire7560]

Egeers was already fuming that his Hansel and Gretel film was published since he hated it. I'd love to see him react to this seeing the light of day. He'd burst into flames. Love Eggers tho, the Lighthouse is what truly sparked my interest in filmmaking. Edit: Eggers was the one who released it, my bad.

[@alexanderg1297]

Love the “What?” Scene in The Lighthouse. Dafoe is so good in that movie

[@themythicfire7560]

@@alexanderg1297 thats actually an old classic acting practice thing, where you only use one word with the other person and feed off of each other's emotions and perform accordingly up untill theres a climax... That scene in the lighthouse is a perfect version of that displayed by one of the greatest theatre+film actors alive and one of the most talented young actors working...so good.Pattinson was really good too since he had a reactive role in the film, theres a scene where he goes completely nuts after being chased by Dafoe, that reminded me of Daniel Day Lewis, and thats one of the highest praises you can get; theres a lot of other incredible scenes of his in it too but ofc Dafoe takes the win. Dafoe did the role like preparing for a theatre act and Pattinson went the opposite way, he'd barely rehearse to suprprise Dafoe but Dafoe ends up surprising him, he'd gag himself and throw up before scenes, drink mudwater off the ground and the dirty water falling down the chimney shaft....He was properly commited, but didnt make a fuss outta it like Jared Leto does and remained professional to everyone.

[@TimothyJonSarris]

@@themythicfire7560 Your insights behind the making of The Lighthouse, in particular Defoe's work ethic, are very interesting.

[@wakegary]

boy do you have Egg on your face. jk... it's H&G really that awful?

[@wakegary]

@The Mythic Fire that's wild about the method acting. Willem was also divine in Northman

[@gerritkuge499]

If you enjoyed this movie I really, really, really highly recommend the movie that clearly inspired it: "Institute Benjamenta" from 1996 by the Quay Brothers. The camera, light, framing, the music, the graphic design, the sound design, the time-period and setdesign are all like the Quay Brothers do it. Honestly, if it hadn’t said “by Robert Eggers” I would have thought it must have been by the Quays. It's great to see where Eggers comes from, where he started. And it’s worthy to note that also Christopher Nolan regards the Quay Brothers as one of his influences - he even shot a short documentary about them and organized 35mm screenings of some of their short films with him moderating it. Also Tool (Adam Jones) took great inspiration from their short films for their early music videos. The Quays are struggling since 10 years to get their new film financed, as their two feature films have done very poorly in theaters. Maybe a bit of attention to their work would help that. It’s sad how few people outside of the art-bubble know the Quays. So I thought I write this here. Watch their movies and shortfilms! Institute Benjamenta (1996), the Comb (1991) and Street of Crocodiles (1986) to begin with. Institute Benjamenta is perhaps my favorite film of all time.

[@TimothyJonSarris]

Yes , Mark Rylance, who was just starting his film career, has a part in that 1996 film

[@MusicalMine]

thanks for the recs!

[@milesware7430]

I've never hated youtube shitty compression more than I do right now

[@msg3030]

Fantastic! What a great adaption of a Poe classic!!

[@devil_pls]

Woah thank you so much for Uploading this!! Amazing to see one of Robert Eggers first real Projects

[@The90slim90]

Great to finally see this, thanks.

[@bobdigital21]

The amount of improvement between this and Hansel and Gretel is fantastic. Not that his Hansel and Gretel was bad considering the budget issues the first clearly had. But the first shows more so the promise he has, and this delivers on it. Frankly I don't know why someone didn't give him a shot to make something earlier. By this point he was ready. Yet kept doing costume designs for years before the VVitch

[@connorbullock1669]

He didn’t direct Hansel and Gretel broski

[@bobdigital21]

@@connorbullock1669 kzbin.info/www/bejne/hXmplmekhb2DptU I think it was a student film but i'm not sure.

[@koiixo1216]

Saw this in class today, to say the least it managed to get my attention the whole way through

[@adventureswiththekurks8602]

Him wheeling the old man thru the doorway....fascinatingly beautiful

[@FilmSureelist97]

This is so beautiful….

[@themythicfire7560]

7:35 is what inspired the scene from the beginning of 'The Lighthouse'..its as clear as day, that. And the opening reminded me of Nosferatu, which ik inspired Eggers a lot. Every scene seems methodically cut, like the ticks of the clock, rounded to multiples of 5 or something, though I'm not completeply sure. This has many elements of what would later develop in the Lighthouse and even quite a bit in the Witch. I could tell Jarin Blascke did the cinematography but it was much more rough here given the equipment and tools they had. The ending room shaking part could've been done much better and ik Robert could redo that 1000X better since it evokes the same feelings as that felt in his later work. Very much inspired from 1920-50s films especially its very much German expressionist. I'd love to do a version of a E.A. Poe tale set in my region (Kerala,India)(ig a Pondicherry setting would be cool because its practically a Portugese-Indian town which would make the costumes and sets unique and I think that can convey more of the feel of this).

[@themythicfire7560]

great puppet too.... distraught and horrifying yet just plain sad.. Aging is a true disease it seems.

[@themythicfire7560]

btw I'm just writing some of the stuff I wanna remember if I revisit this and just note down some stuff incase anyone missed a unique thing in this, so that if they come across this they can appreciate this more. Every filmmaker can be great and noticing stuff from a great one's previous work helps us identify that director's signature style. So even if this isn't incredible or something, it doesnt need to be, lets appreciate the uniqueness in every small film and take what we can from the art that's been shared with us.

[@priscillad8]

Aeee da mesma língua

[@jasonthompson2059]

Thanks for sharing your thoughts.. Maybe he'll check and see if it's on KZbin one day and see some of the inspiration he's generated here in the comments

[@themythicfire7560]

@@jasonthompson2059 hopefully but ik he never gets the time to do such things. He'd love that he's like the new Lynch or smthing, to many young people like 17 year old me. He's opened so many doors for me in terms of discovering Tarkovsky, G.Exprresnst films, New Wave, Lynch, Bertolucci, etc as he was the firestarter that really set my timber ablaze and I'd always have that respect to him for that

[@ieattofu68]

Delightfully dark, enjoyed immensely.

[@allexramsey9015]

EXCELLENT 👌!!!

[@lowrispooner2279]

Wonderful ...🖤

[@LittleWeevil]

7:35 This looks almost identical to one shot in The Lighthouse

[@themythicfire7560]

yep. I wrote a similar comment too. Theres a few other stuff too, look at my comment .

[@thomasalexanian927]

Mr. Krabs: It's here, under the floorboards!

[@user-ds4kx2fj3b]

Brilliant story!!!

[@cyborganisation]

Truly Brilliant.

[@gleikasantos8919]

it seems that his swagless looks have captivated me

[@kandorstevenson]

Brilliant🤗⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

[@scoobywizards]

eggers killed it with this wtf

[@oliviahjembo6680]

this is terrifying

[@rosemarykourouni772]

I can smell the whole thing thru my screen

[@shadowseer07]

omg this is so cute. Robert’s such a goth at heart.🖤 Could really tell it was his costume design, and that puppet was excellent!!!!

[@rzbk]

Wow!

[@stevenfunderburg1623]

Well I guess the obvious question is what would Eggers do with the Cthulhu mythos?

[@jakedurazo712]

i fuckin love this this is so awesome

[@Milesstar]

The crazy man is so attractive

[@a.KniteOwl]

7:35 The Lighthouse: "Hey can I copy your homework?" The Tell-Tale Heart: "Yeah just change it a little bit so it doesn't look obvious."

[@peterpeters1662]

You can tell Eggers was highly influenced by the films of the Quay Brothers.

[@stevenfunderburg1623]

And Raimi, Lynch and Argento.

[@africoa2366]

2009, Eggers adapts Poe with puppet. 2024, Eggers adapts gothic vampire story (Nosferatu) 2023, Adrien Beau adapts gothic vampire story (Le Vourdalak) with puppet.

[@hulchuyou]

Omg the Junji Ito reference at 3:30

[@itsaashish]

Why does the Butler look so much like an older Harry Styles?

[@Windsxrs]

We watched this in class and everyone was shouting out that he looked like harry styles😂😂

[@supermariofan03]

I want to see Eggers do an actual film of this with Leonardo DiCaprio as Edgar Allen Poe and Willem Dafoe as the old man.

[@thedancinghamsterqueen]

how on earth did u find this

[@juliansfilmmaker]

🐐

[@wakegary]

thanks for this. I was looking for my Poe-ched Eggers for... nm

[@cecilyerker]

It was a good pun Gary

[@wakegary]

@@cecilyerker Happy Halloween 🎃 🥰

[@Dakota_kody]

No way

[@Mlk-Al-Halabi]

This is a reference for the dinner scene in Kubrick's barry Lyndon 17:51

[@nerdy8644]

I learned about this story from English class

[@SK-fy8dl]

This is so good. But how do shorts get funded?

[@convolution223]

why is the lantern illuminating like a flashlight?

[@themythicfire7560]

its covered up except for a hole

[@misslarissa6046]

Brandy?

[@marciavaleria856]

Legenda por favor

[@FilmSureelist97]

I hope we get a feature one day with Harry Styles as the lead. The main actor looks just like him.

[@kasanerozup]

what is the name of that cello piece it was fire 🔥

[@thomasalexanian927]

Tomas Ulrich is the cellist

[@user-hk1yc5gp1j]

من فضلك ترجمه ❤❤❤ ‏‪5:57‬‏

[@emilytatseos4641]

🫀Love this! Thanks for posting!🩸

[@Johnycabal]

Include Spanish subtitles please.

[@XanderShiller]

Man could've repented by becoming an organ donar. Autonomously. He could save a life instead of having Taxpayers fund his cruel prison stint.

[@alexanderg1297]

The puppet was quite distracting but everything else was solid.

[@kyleplatz3751]

I love the puppet, it was so fucking creepy

[@rollintrollope156]

ᎮᏒᎧᎷᎧᏕᎷ 👇

[@convolution223]

Worst Muppets movie ever.