La Roue

Other reviewers have commented on the amazing quality of this restoration and the epic nature of Abel Gance's work, even when dealing with this anguished tale of the unrequited love of railroad engineer Sisif and his son Elie for Norma, the lovely "Rose of the Rails." Sisif rescues Norma from a train wreck when she's a baby, and raises her as his own daughter. When Norma grows into a beautiful young woman, Sisif is dismayed to realize that he desires her. "La Roue" plays out this melodrama of frustrated love and redemption with an absolutely dazzling array of cinematic devices: double exposures, irises, different compositional framing, a mix of crisp natural and expressive lighting, and the fastest editing on earth before the Soviet directors mixed cutting with Hegelian dialectics a few years after "La Roue's" release. There are also the symbolic visual leitmotivs of the locomotive, the violin, the snow, and the omnipresent wheel. In short, Gance nimbly uses all the visual and editing devices we are accustomed to seeing in an accomplished piece of narrative film-making. Even though "La Roue" was financed by Pathe, the exciting thing about this restoration is the sense it conveys to this viewer at being present at the moment of creation. Gance obviously takes extraordinary zest in discovering new cinematic possibilities for expression depending on the dramatic demands of a scene or the opportunities presented by a new location. There is an astonishing shot of Sisif almost at the end of Part One, when he goes into a cavernous railroad shed to bid farewell to his beloved locomotive. Gance stands his actor atop a huge locomotive-bearing wheel, which shunts cars from one track to another so they can be worked on. Sisif stands there like a working-man's Pierrot, and as the wheel slowly turns the background of the shed and the locomotives looming there glide silently behind our distraught unmoving hero. It's a virtuosic shot, made possible by the real (and metaphoric) possibilities of the location. It's all the more amazing when one realizes how difficult it was for directors during the 1920s to achieve effective traveling shots without the aid of bulky cranes. Moments like these show Gance at his experimental best. "La Roue" is worth seeing for treasures like these.Gance and the novelist Blaise Cendrars set their story of the sad life of the railway engineer in the very railway yards stations and locations where real workers toiled on their trains. The documentary quality of these parts of "La Roue" is noteworthy. Whether for reasons of drama, or to save on production costs, or both, this "reality feel" of La Roue convincingly shows us the vanished world of French railroad life between the wars. At his best, Gance has a Dickensian love of character, and Sisif's comrade the stoker, as well as Norma's pet goat (!) have a charming way of stealing every scene in which they appear.My admiration for La Roue is tempered by the clumsiness of the melodramatic scenario. Of all the directors who grew up in Griffith's shadow, Gance, (like Griffith), has the strongest predilection for Victorian sentimentality. That's during Gance's good moments: his bad moments are drenched in bathos. Gance has his own editing rhythms, and likes to juxtapose fast action sequences with slower lyrical scenes, but there is a marked tendency in "La Roue" to linger far too long on shots of the actors in varying stages of overwrought emotional meltdown. The irony of Chaplin or Lubitsch, the withering social analysis of Stroheim in "Greed," are all absent in "La Roue." Instead there is a cloying parade of sentiment for sentiment's sake, and some scenes of truly awful over-acting. (By contrast, watch Chaplin's sophisticated story treatment and restrained direction of "A Woman of Paris," made just a few years after "La Roue.") This viewer was left with the paradox of Gance as a great director who used innovatively all the visual and editing techniques of modern film-making, while telling a maudlin story which drags the movie as far into the past as his expressive techniques push it into the future. In this sense the viewers of "La Roue" are on the wheel quite as much as the bathetic Sisif.

Simply put, La Roue (The Wheel) is one of the greatest films I have ever seen. The movie is just mesmerizing, from the cinematography, to the tragic storyline, to the actors, to the Robert Israel score. In fact, I can't think of another silent film where the film and score are more perfectly matched. Even at almost 4.5 hours, I was sad to see it end.The Flicker Alley DVD includes 2 dvd's and a 16 page booklet.Disc 1 - Part one of the movie (Rail yard near Nice) 161 min.Disc 2 - Part two of the movie (Mont Blanc) 101 min. Disk 2 also includes an 8 minute behind the scenes film and a 3 minute video showing the original press book (in French).The booklet contains 2 articles, "Abel Gance's Tragedy of Modern Times: La Roue" by William Drew and "Composing for La Roue" by Robert Israel. Both are very interesting.For anyone looking for more information on Gance and La Roue, Kevin Brownlow devotes about 40 pages to Abel Gance and his movies in his book, "The Parade's Gone By". If you don't have that book, order it when you order this DVD. If you watch silent films, Brownlow's book, like this dvd, is a must have.Now if someone would only restore and release Gance's Napoleon.

An absolutely fascinating French silent movie directed by Abel Gance who also produced 'Napolean', 'Diary of a Lost Girl', and 'Pandora's Box'. In the 270 minute running time of the film (which had been cut down from 9 hours), one follows the life of the character Sisif who is a locomotive engineer who falls in love with his locomotive. The story is separated into 2 parts as was Sisif's life. The incredible symphonic score by Robert Israel is as involving as the story itself. The DVD is not readily available and the nearly $40 cost is more than I have ever paid for a DVD, should indicate how impressed I was by the film.It was recently aired on Turner Classic Movies which if you are a silent movie fan will expose you to the pre-sound era in many genres.

I love silent movies and this one has everything

This is an incredibly moving story. The film takes its time as it moves through the lives and tragedies of the characters. The best silent film and have ever seen, and ranks high along with talkies!!

Gance's films were eclipsed during decades for "Napoleon", the best know of them. At last, here we have "La roue", one of the most towering achievments in the art of silent movies, in my opinion the equal only to some films of Griffith or Stroheim.Thanks, Flicker Alley. I am waiting for other Gance films: "J'accuse" (promised for next month) and "La dixieme simphonie" (when this one?).

Also supported content is a perfect scoreNo problem also transportI am glad that precious thing is availableThank you

This has been a lost masterpiece - previously only seen in drastically cut-down versions. This DVD brings together all available scenes and episodes to make up a 4 hour epic of breathtaking enjoyment.Abel Gance has deservidly been seen as one of the greatest cinema directors and innovators - his use of montage, moving camera, outdoor units, multiple exposures - but never losing sight of the story, character development and emotional engagement of the audience. This is a lesson in film making for many of our modern directors who allow special effects to swamp their modern tales.This film was released in 1923 - a silent film with orchestral accompaniment- do not let this put you off! - this a wonderful film - the silents have a wealth of entertainment and engagement to offer. This is one of the best.Once you are hooked into this film - as I as sure you will be - then seek out Gance's other masterpiece - Napoleon - then look for Pandora's Box (GW Pabst), Cabinet of Dr Caligari (Robert Weine), Intolerance (DW Griffith), Battleship Potemkin (Sergei Eisenstein), Metropolis (Fritz Lang)- see what all the fuss was about - why these films are considered to be so great. In doing so you will see echoes of La Roue.Abel Gance had flair, imagination and inventiveness that make his films so riveting to watch and revisit - many of his filming techniques seem to have been lost - time to reinvent them and make our modern films as engaging.Highly Recommended

ringrazio per la velocità dell'invio del DVD richiesto a casa mia.l'acquirente è pienamente soddisfatto dell'articolo e lo consiglia a chi acquista NAPOLEON di Gance.

film culte, un bonheur de voire ce film pour la première fois complété

Film mythiqueFait partie de l histoire du cineme

le film est intéressant mais d'une longueur insupportable pour un film muet, reste un témoignage d'une époque et l'oeuvre d'un créateur exceptionnel