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IMDbPro

The Wheel

Original title: La roue
  • 19231923
  • Not RatedNot Rated
  • 6h 57m
IMDb RATING
7.5/10
2.3K
YOUR RATING
POPULARITY
47,059
17,838
The Wheel (1923)
Drama
A railway engineer adopts a young girl orphaned by a train crash. Years later when she starts getting suitors, he grapples with whether or not to tell her the truth about her parentage.A railway engineer adopts a young girl orphaned by a train crash. Years later when she starts getting suitors, he grapples with whether or not to tell her the truth about her parentage.A railway engineer adopts a young girl orphaned by a train crash. Years later when she starts getting suitors, he grapples with whether or not to tell her the truth about her parentage.
IMDb RATING
7.5/10
2.3K
YOUR RATING
POPULARITY
47,059
17,838
  • See more at IMDbPro
    • Director
      • Abel Gance
    • Writer
      • Abel Gance
    • Stars
      • Gabriel de Gravone
      • Pierre Magnier
      • Georges Térof
    Top credits
    • Director
      • Abel Gance
    • Writer
      • Abel Gance
    • Stars
      • Gabriel de Gravone
      • Pierre Magnier
      • Georges Térof
  • See production, box office & company info
    • 25User reviews
    • 31Critic reviews
  • See production, box office & company info
    • Awards
      • 1 win

    Photos77

    Ivy Close and Séverin-Mars in The Wheel (1923)
    Séverin-Mars in The Wheel (1923)
    Pierre Magnier and Séverin-Mars in The Wheel (1923)
    Séverin-Mars in The Wheel (1923)
    Ivy Close and Pierre Magnier in The Wheel (1923)
    The Wheel (1923)
    Georges Térof in The Wheel (1923)
    The Wheel (1923)
    The Wheel (1923)
    Ivy Close and Gabriel de Gravone in The Wheel (1923)
    The Wheel (1923)
    Ivy Close in The Wheel (1923)

    Top cast

    Edit
    Gabriel de Gravone
    Gabriel de Gravone
    • Elie
    Pierre Magnier
    Pierre Magnier
    • Jacques de Hersan
    Georges Térof
    • Mâchefer
    Séverin-Mars
    Séverin-Mars
    • Sisif
    Ivy Close
    Ivy Close
    • Norma
    Max Maxudian
    Max Maxudian
    • Le minéralogiste Kalatarikarascopoulos
    Gil Clary
    • Dalilah
    • (as Mme. Gil-Clary)
    Géo Dugast
    • Le cheminot Jacobin
    • Director
      • Abel Gance
    • Writer
      • Abel Gance
    • All cast & crew
    • Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

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    Storyline

    Edit

    Did you know

    Edit
    • Trivia
      This film was originally released with a running time of 8 hours, 32 minutes. It was edited down to just over five hours for general release.
    • Goofs
      When Sisif is running in front of the locomotive, the first shot has the locomotive numbered 475. In subsequent shots, the number on the loco is 2013.
    • Quotes

      Title Card: [Notes written in secret] The engine driver Duterne drinks wine. The engine driver Chaume drinks water. The stoker Larment drinks beer. The stoker Leger drinks vermouth... Sisif, engineer first class, drinks large amounts of alcohol.

    • Alternate versions
      Originally released to the public with a running time of just over 5 hours. Later edited down to 2 1/2 hours. .
    • Connections
      Edited into Histoire(s) du cinéma: Une histoire seule (1989)

    User reviews25

    Review
    Top review
    A meditation on train wrecks
    An intimate, sprawling epicn, nearly unreviewable, it veers wildly from brilliance to hypnotic ennui, dulling the senses.

    Impressive train wreck opens this five hour (originally nine hours) meditation on a small family living and working in train yards, beginning in 1923 France, and the next several decades.

    Experimental in the extreme: narrative structure (and largely, coherence) is dismissed from minute one. Many scenes appear as though the cinematographer was hypnotically drawn to something, and just filmed it endlessly. An editor should have cut this footage down tremendously, but the editor appears to be suffering the same malady.

    Surreal set designs and lighting, backlighting to produce silhouettes, actors walking in and out of focus as they walk in the frame, and quick-cut editing give this an impressive, hallucinatory feeling, like a very long, meandering hallucination, with circular lenses and shapes to impart on the audience the father's failing eyesight.

    Entire reels of film roll through, where I am left with a sense of "What am I watching, and why is it taking so long for something to happen?" Free form filmmaking, partially engrossing, but one can't help but wonder if a LOT of editing would have improved this by adding a bit of coherency? Yet would that have cost the film its hypnotic, hallucinatory feel?
    helpful•10
    1
    • Zbigniew_Krycsiwiki
    • Sep 26, 2013

    Details

    Edit
    • Release date
      • February 17, 1923 (France)
    • Country of origin
      • France
    • Languages
      • None
      • French
      • English
    • Also known as
      • Tocak
    • Filming locations
      • Mont-Blanc, Chamonix, Haute-Savoie, France
    • Production company
      • Films Abel Gance
    • See more company credits at IMDbPro

    Technical specs

    Edit
    • Runtime
      6 hours 57 minutes
    • Color
      • Black and White
    • Sound mix
      • Silent
    • Aspect ratio
      • 1.33 : 1

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