This film is a very, very, very long movie about a railroad engineer who's infatuated with his adoptive daughter. While somewhat incestuous and creepy, it gets worse as her brother who does NOT know that she isn't his biological sister also falls for her! In fact, practically every man around this sweet young lady goes mad and is willing to kill to possess her!
This is a very hard film to rate and I am sure I'll irritate legions of old movie buffs when I say that despite LA ROUE being an amazing film with wonderful cinematography, it is also a MAJOR chore to force yourself to watch the entire film. I really feel sorry for the initial audiences for the movie, as it was an 8 1/2 hour film! Then, because no sane audience wanted to see such an interminably long film, it was trimmed to 5 hours. Today, a recently restored version is almost 4 hours--and in my opinion, this is STILL way too long. An hour and a half EASILY could have been trimmed, as the film had way too many lengthy shots of nothing in particular, artsy shots, scenes and plot elements that were irrelevant and scenes that just went on too long. I understand that this was Abel Gance's artistic vision, but he just didn't exercise restraint. The film still desperately needed a good editing.
The same dilemma exists when you hear discussions about Erich Von Stroheim's GREED. For years on IMDb, I have watched the silent film board abound with comments about how sad it is that his original 9 hour film no longer exists. Von Stroheim threw a giant temper tantrum back in 1924 when the studio insisted it be trimmed because of a stupid need to actually make money from his 30003023 reel behemoth and ever since people in the know have longed to see the original. Well, I saw the shortened version of GREED and it was a pretty good film--thus making me some sort of Neanderthal.
Now I am NOT saying all films need to be short--I love a good 3 hour epic and have even seen the Russian version of WAR AND PEACE twice and it's almost 7 hours long. Heck, I saw both mini-series WAR AND REMEMBRANCE and WINDS OF WAR (at about 32 hours long), so I like long things if there's a need. A film about the origins of WWII and WWII itself justified the excessive length.
So what am I trying to say? Well, long is just fine when the plot will sustain it and there is a legitimate reason to make such a long and complex film. Films about very, very complex events justify being long. A rather simple plot like you have in LA ROUE about a rather crazed man's infatuation with his adopted daughter just didn't justify so many reels of film.
The bottom line is that while I respect LA ROUE for being so ground-breaking, beautiful to watch and artfully made, it just made me want to watch it on DVD while using the fast forward button! Okay, silent film snobs--get ready with the "not helpful" comments! Before you slam me, do understand that I have watched and reviewed more silent films than practically anyone so far on IMDb, so I DON'T hate silents--I love them in fact. It's just that I couldn't for the life of me encourage non-silent lovers to watch LA ROUE--as it will probably make them think that silent films are bad or outdated. There are so many great silent films waiting to be seen and only a very, very patient audience could possibly sit through this film.
This is a very hard film to rate and I am sure I'll irritate legions of old movie buffs when I say that despite LA ROUE being an amazing film with wonderful cinematography, it is also a MAJOR chore to force yourself to watch the entire film. I really feel sorry for the initial audiences for the movie, as it was an 8 1/2 hour film! Then, because no sane audience wanted to see such an interminably long film, it was trimmed to 5 hours. Today, a recently restored version is almost 4 hours--and in my opinion, this is STILL way too long. An hour and a half EASILY could have been trimmed, as the film had way too many lengthy shots of nothing in particular, artsy shots, scenes and plot elements that were irrelevant and scenes that just went on too long. I understand that this was Abel Gance's artistic vision, but he just didn't exercise restraint. The film still desperately needed a good editing.
The same dilemma exists when you hear discussions about Erich Von Stroheim's GREED. For years on IMDb, I have watched the silent film board abound with comments about how sad it is that his original 9 hour film no longer exists. Von Stroheim threw a giant temper tantrum back in 1924 when the studio insisted it be trimmed because of a stupid need to actually make money from his 30003023 reel behemoth and ever since people in the know have longed to see the original. Well, I saw the shortened version of GREED and it was a pretty good film--thus making me some sort of Neanderthal.
Now I am NOT saying all films need to be short--I love a good 3 hour epic and have even seen the Russian version of WAR AND PEACE twice and it's almost 7 hours long. Heck, I saw both mini-series WAR AND REMEMBRANCE and WINDS OF WAR (at about 32 hours long), so I like long things if there's a need. A film about the origins of WWII and WWII itself justified the excessive length.
So what am I trying to say? Well, long is just fine when the plot will sustain it and there is a legitimate reason to make such a long and complex film. Films about very, very complex events justify being long. A rather simple plot like you have in LA ROUE about a rather crazed man's infatuation with his adopted daughter just didn't justify so many reels of film.
The bottom line is that while I respect LA ROUE for being so ground-breaking, beautiful to watch and artfully made, it just made me want to watch it on DVD while using the fast forward button! Okay, silent film snobs--get ready with the "not helpful" comments! Before you slam me, do understand that I have watched and reviewed more silent films than practically anyone so far on IMDb, so I DON'T hate silents--I love them in fact. It's just that I couldn't for the life of me encourage non-silent lovers to watch LA ROUE--as it will probably make them think that silent films are bad or outdated. There are so many great silent films waiting to be seen and only a very, very patient audience could possibly sit through this film.