La Roue
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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La Roue (The Wheel) is a silent French film, directed by Abel Gance, who later directed Napoléon and J'accuse!. It was released in 1923. Originally running over nine hours, its recent editions have been cut to about four hours. The film used then-revolutionary lighting techniques, and rapid scene changes and cuts.
Plot synopsis
Railroad engineer Sisif rescues a small orphan, whose name he learns is Norma, following a disastrous crash. He raises the little girl as his own, along with his son Elie, whose mother died during his birth.
In time, Norma becomes a lively and playful young woman. Her greatest joy is time spent with Elie, by now a handsome violin maker. whom she believes to be her natural brother. But Sisif, to his own horror, finds himself falling in love with his adopted daughter. Sisif confesses to a partner, Hersan, that he is preoccupied in an unhealthy way with Norma. Hersan threatens Sisif with blackmail if he does not consent to give Norma to him in marriage. Sisif reluctantly agrees with this arrangement, and himself drives the train that will deliver Norma to her husband. Distraught, he drives recklessly, and nearly wrecks the train.
An eye injury forces Sisif to abandon his trade, and he goes to work instead on the funicular at Mont Blanc. When Norma comes to vacation at Chamonix with her husband, she learns that Elie, who accompanied Sisif to Mont Blanc, is not her actual brother. The two young people discover their reciprocal love. A jealous Hersan fights with Elie on the mountain. Elie falls to his death, but not before mortally wounding Hersan. Sisif, enraged by Elie's death, blames Norma and drives her away. But she returns, and with Sisif's eyesight almost completely gone, manages to live undetected in his shack for a time. When he at last realizes she is there, they cling to one another, time and tragedy having restored the balance in their father-daughter relationship.
Sisif grows old, cared for by Norma. After sending her out to join in a local festivity, Sisif waits at the window, watching not with his eyes but with his mind. As Norma dances, Sisif dies.
Cast
- Séverin-Mars as Sisif
- Ivy Close as Norma
- Gabriel de Gravone as Elie
- Pierre Magnier as Jacques de Hersan
