Abel Gance Night on TCM

[moira finnie]

As most of our members know, tonight, April 27th the lineup on TCM consists of several films by and about Abel Gance, the French director. Here's the rundown below. I hope that this thread will give us each a spot to come to with our observations on this special event. All times listed are EDT. FYI: If you are recording these films, please do yourself a favor and add at least 15 minutes before and after the starting and ending time of these films to avoid missing something, since timings may be a bit off.

Thanks TCM & here's hoping someone with deep pockets sees the Kevin Brownlow work & bankrolls his longed for documentary on Douglas Fairbanks!

7:00 PM
Abel Gance: The Charm of Dynamite (1968)
This documentary explores the career of the famous French director Abel Gance. Dir: Kevin Brownlow. BW-50 mins, TV-PG

8:00 PM & 3:30 AM
J'Accuse (1919)
In this silent film, a soldier meets his wife's lover in the trenches during World War I. Cast: Romulad Joubi, Siverin-Mars, Maryse Dauvray. Dir: Abel Gance. BW-166 mins, TV-G

11:00 PM
La Roue (1922)
In this silent film, a railway worker and his son fall in love with the same beautiful woman. Cast: Severin-Mars, Ivy Close, Pierre Magnier. Dir: Abel Gance. BW-263 mins,

[charliechaplinfan]

You're so lucky in the US I wish TCM would be so kind to us here .

[moira finnie]

Hi CCfan,
I wish that I had some recording equipment, though relative lack of funds (what we like to call good, old fashioned "genteel poverty" around chez Finnie) prevents me from investing in anything at the moment. Maybe some nice member could help you out, though. In any case, have you had a chance to see any of the movies on tonight's lineup?

[srowley75]

I've been counting the days til tonight. La Roue was listed in 1001 Films You Must See Before You Die, and I'm especially eager to get that one on DVD.

I believe both films are also being released commercially to DVD as well.

-Stephen

[Gagman 66]

I love Silent movies as most everyone here knows. However, many foreign Silent's are Just Not My Cup of Tea. Sad to say, that was pretty much the case here. These films are just a bit to deep, and artsy for my taste. Amazing artistically, but I just do not find them especially entertaining I am sorry to have to admiit.

LA ROUE reminds me a great deal of Von Stroheim's GREED, and I do not find that picture to be all that entertaining either. It has never been among my favorites. Of course, many people feel very differently.

As for myself? Well, give me THE BIG PARADE, WHAT PRICE GLORY?, FLESH AND THE DEVIL, SEVENTH HEAVEN, BARBED WIRE, STREET ANGEL, FOUR SONS THE CROWD, Etc. Any of those over these two Abel Gance films any day! Those I can watch for hours and hours straight though, and love every minute of it.

By contrast, sadly many, not all, but many foreign Silent's just leave me cold. I've seen some like Victor Seastrom's THE PHANTOM CHARIOT (1921), and F. W. Murna's FAUST that are truly extraordinary, and leave a lasting impression. Among the great films ever.

Likewise, Abel Gance justly acclaimmed NAPOLEON is without question one of the finest films ever made, but the Gance earlier features airing tonight just depressed the Hell out of me! Better titles to both films would have been "BOUNDLESS MISERY!"

I ordered LA ROUE on DVD, and it will be nice to have, but I doubt if I will ever watch it much? I certainly appreciate Gance Genius as an innovator and visionary film-maker, and in their own way these two movies are unquestionably masterpieces. They just are not My Kind of Masterpieces!

The last time TCM ran this many debuting Silent's in a row was in 2004 with the Hughes restorations, and that was a vastly more enjoyable evening than this has been. The Kevin Brownlow documentarty produced clear back in 1968 that aired before hand, was easily the most enjoyable thing that I saw all night long!

Gance was a remarkable talant this is undeniable, but He just seemed to keep on filming, and filming! Just like Erich Von Stroheim, He didn't seem to know when to quit, or how to rap up a Story? Von Stroheim never did! They just made him finally rap it up! Such was the case with THE MERRY WIDOW. It raps up very quickly after taking a long time to even get to the meat of the story. Not Von Stroheim's choice! Every film of his went on forever! I see that same thing here with Gance! I adore Silent's but this is more detrimental than helpful to their cause I fear!

That being said, I want to thank TCM for devoting the evening to Mister Gance. He was unquestionably a brilliant film maker. So was King Vidor, I just wish it had been his night instead! And that we might have finally seen the long awaited debut of the newly restored version of THE BIG PARADE!

Very few people had seen J'ACCUSED or LA ROUE [/b]until tonight, and both were very high on allot of Silent film fans "Must See List". So that goes a long ways to explaining why they were scheduled as back to back premiers.

The amount of dedication put into a massive project like this has to be greatly admired though. A huge undertaking to restore these extremely rare films. But neither of them is anywhere near as good as NAPOLEON! Please believe me! To bad TCM couldn't have aired that monumental production, but it's still tied up in stupid rights issues.

[Ollie]

After watching the BBC Gance documentary, I had a feeling that Gance loved the gadgetry and technology, which isn't always the sign of a good storyteller.

Nevertheless, the work that was done, finding all the pieces, sticking them together, etc, is impressive.

I wonder how France is treating this - obviously their film society had much to do with this and I wonder if there are theatrical showings all over.

[catherine]

Well, wow, time travel! The very real nightmare of war through the eyes of Abel Gance is described here brilliantly as the vibrancy of the tints decay into muddy despair. J'accuse is a current film, a three hour tour-de-force that showed why John and Yoko said in just seven words "War is over, if you want it." The story shows all types of boundaries assaulted and breached, but somehow, Gance's joy and enthusiasm in the documentary provide hope, like the scene with the single candle. There are scores of gallery grade images framed by Gance's courageous intention that will stay with me forever. And they say you can't take it with you when you go- well, one can take away the experience of seeing these beautiful silent masterpieces.

The documentary is a superb record of a remarkable artist, thank-you Mr. Brownlow and I hope Spring is finally in bloom in London! Just as an aside, Mr. Brownlow looked very groovy, in the groove and happy in those brief shots and wasn't Mr. Gance at ease. Personally, that was four hours of time very well spent.

[charliechaplinfan]

I would like to say thank you to the members of the board who have offered on this thread and via PMs to send me a recording of these treasures. It's very much appreciated folks. If I can ever do the same for any of you don't hesitate to ask

I'm glad you all enjoyed last nights viewing

[moira finnie]

Thanks very, very much to those who offered to send me their dvd-rs of this Gance-a-rama, though right now I've so much stuff to see & read it might have to wait awhile before I get to Abel's babies. I'm glad that I watched Abel Gance: The Charm of Dynamite & J'Accuse, though I just had to get forty winks by the time that La Roue came on.

I found the Brownlow documentary about Gance to be quite touching and a lot of fun, especially since catching a glimpse or two of the rather camera shy (and very young) Kevin Brownlow is always fun. Gance seemed to revel in telling about his ideas and struggles, and, though it had been forty years since the events culminating in his wife's death and the making of La Roue, the two were clearly still a tender wound for him. I loved the behind the scenes footage of the making of Napoleon and all the technical innovations that the director used to capture the emotional truth of the convention scenes, the pillow fight, and the snowball fight. This made me want to see Napoleon again, since that masterpiece seems to be such a heady distillation of many of the director's ideas and his most audience-friendly work.

J'Accuse (1919) had a strong visual impact on me (I swear I dreamt of skeletons dancing ring around the rosy last night). It struck me that, as Gagman & Ollie mentioned, Gance was a bit like Von Stroheim, in love with moviemaking as a form of personal artistic expression and someone whose love of gadgetry may have overwhelmed his storytelling technique at times. Maybe he needed an editor or a strong hand like Thalberg to make his grand vision practical (and profitable?) and a bit more concise. It did seem as though some of the points the filmmaker made in J'Accuse were a bit repetitious, but perhaps I'm looking at the movie from too much of a 21st century window and the film served as an epiphany for the French audiences viewing it just after the end of the wanton destruction of an entire generation. While I'm aware that there were those who recognized the artistic value of J'Accuse at the time of its release and it was a box office smash, did the average French filmgoer find it too painful? How was the film received in the other Allied nations and in Germany & Russia by general audiences? I'd love to know how the contemporary audiences reacted.

The scenes that affected me the most were those that depicted the apparent heartless brutality of Francois, (Séverin-Mars) which gradually emerged as his "coping" mechanism to mask his deep love for (or was it possession of?) of poor, benighted Edith (Maryse Dauvray). I particularly like the moment on the train to the front, when Francois tenderly fingered her comb and a bit of lace that was hers. At first I thought that Francois was going to be a stock villain, but the way that his character became more subtly shaded as the movie went on was very effective.

By the end of the film, my sympathy was largely with his character. Francois was one of those people destined to go unloved and because he hadn't experienced love, he couldn't express his own tenderness adequately, though the closest he would come seemed to be in the alliance he formed with his perceived enemy, Jean (Romuald Joubé). I realize that male friendships were viewed as sometimes "purer" than that of a relationship between a man and a woman, but do you think we were supposed to see an element of homosexuality in their bond--or am I again looking at something with jaded 21st century eyes? I also kept hoping that Edith might ditch all three guys (dad, hubby and lover) and hit the bricks, but that again is probably modern poppycock. In the context of her times, was Edith's refusal to kill herself before or after her forced submission to the Germans and her even more bold love for her baby (Angele Guy who was darling) was the only act of rebellion that she could be expected to make, or not? The most powerful sequence by far was the climactic rising of the dead asking if their sacrifice had been worth it. That whole part of the movie would have been a masterpiece in itself, though I doubt if it would have had the same emotional impact without all that had occurred previously.

I can't help but wonder if others think Abel Gance was as successful at capturing quiet moments between people as he was when photographing spectacles? One more question: why did Edith & Jean, who were obviously so compatible not marry? Could it be because Jean Diaz's family was Jewish? I noticed that there was a candelabra in the Diaz household that might have been a menorah and that no priest attended Mama Diaz when she was ill and dying.

During the film, I also noticed that Edith's militaristic father kept eyeing his map of Alsace-Lorraine, which had been lost to the Germans in 1871 during the Franco-Prussian War. It dawned on me that without that event driving my grandfather's family from the former French province, I wouldn't even exist. Not of worldwide significance, I grant you. But of some importance to this rather bleary-eyed viewer.

[SSO Admins]

I was having issues last night, so if anyone can send me the documentary and La Roue I'd appreciate it. I did manage to get J'Accuse though.

[Gagman 66]

Jondaris,

Well, I ordered the LA ROUE DVD, last week. But if I had known how morbid this film was going to be, I would have ordered Ernst Lubitsch THE DOLL (1920) instead.

These were two of the least Cheerful movies I have ever seen in my life. To me Rowland V. Lee's BARBED WIRE (1927) is a much better film than Gance J'ACCUSED. It is far more concise, and basically covers most of the same ground, in less than half the time, and more effectively!

LA ROUE is a truly bizarre picture, and a rather disturbing story about a middle-aged man, a Railroad engineer, who takes in an Orphaned Child a little girl as his own after her parents are both killed in a train accident. The man successfully manages to pass her off as his, and He raises her and loves her as his own daughter, along with his own true blood Son. Strangely No mention is ever made of what happened to the mans Wife?

All is fine until the "Daughter" blossoms into young Woman-hood. Gradually the man begins to have other than fatherly feelings towards her. It is much the same with her "Brother" the two are excessively close, and she hugs and kisses him far more than is to the Father's liking. He frowns on such displays of affection.

This restoration is 4 and a half hours long, and is still not complete. But to be honest, it seemed more like 6 hours long, so that is not a good thing. What little is still missing, I don't believe would have had much effect on the story, if any. The film is much to long in my opinion as is, and could have benefited greatly from substantial cutting back in the day. I just did not find the story-line all that compelling, and to some degree it is even in poor taste, and rather objectionable.

I mean even if you had believed all your life that your Sister was your Sister, and than suddenly found out that it was not true, and you were not even related would you want to go out and Marry her right away??? Allot of people had to be rather shocked by the central premise of the film in general?

To make things worse, fearful of what might transpire, the poor Girl feels un-loved, and spurned by both Her Father, and Brother, who send her away. She is forced to Marry a man she does not even care for to keep the horrific truth hidden. Even when she returns they are cold, and seemingly unfeeling toward her. It's just to much to bare. I personally could not take this!

LA ROUE seems an endless series of tragic ironies, one mounting upon the other. Again would have much rather TCM aired the new restoration of THE BIG PARADE other than this stuff! Or maybe concentrat it's efforts on finally getting the Photo-play Productions version of WINGS.

[Dawtrina]

I set these to record and watched the documentary and J'Accuse yesterday. I'll probably watch La Roue today.

Beyond certain basics (some Chaneys, some slapstick), I came late to silent movies but I became quickly addicted. Because of the inherent limitations of the medium, the best of them seem to be the truest film art. I'm now halfway through the SilentEra Top 100 and eagerly devour every new silent that comes along.

And as I gradually watched more, absorbed more and learned more about the era, I found a rule of thumb. Before 1920, there were some great shorts, plenty of floundering around and D W Griffith. After 1920 came everything else. Yesterday just broke that rule of thumb wide open.

Adding Gance to the picture adds someone else working at a feature length (or double the feature length!) but with plenty to say and a great maturity with which to say it. It certainly seems like I'm not the only one to whom Gance was a huge gap, but the first step to remedying a gap is knowing that it's there. The documentary was also eye opening in what Gance originated (and thus others didn't). That and the fact that J'accuse was released in 1919 will cause me to reevaluate much of what came afterwards.

J'accuse is hardly the sort of story I'd usually be drawn to but I was rivetted to the screen for the entire three hours. I can't say that it's my favourite silent or even in the top ten or top twenty but it was a stunning piece of work and I'm very thankful to have seen it. I'm really looking forward to La Roue.

[charliechaplinfan]

Dawtrina you make it sound like my kind of film. I'm a bit like you only finding silents via the DVD rentals. I too love devouring anything I can watch. I've always loved the silent comedians and we are told that so much of cinema history hinges around D W Griffith and then you see work by Sjostrom and Stiller and they were as advanced in technique. Gance is a director whose work I haven't seen yet, although I've just acquired Napoleon, I can't wait to discover another directors talents.

[Ollie]

Two days into this, and I'm still working on the recordings because of their vast file size, trying to determine the best break-points for Disk 1 to Disk 2 to Disk 3 - "Should there be four disks? Then re-set all those breakpoints..."

LA ROUE's May 6th delivery on the commercial DVD front may give me a good excuse to bypass the niceties of this longest film but that's a whole other issue.