CONCLUSION: ‘WHY HAVE I BEEN ONLY WHAT I AM?’
THE BURDEN OF REALITY In November 1924, Gance looked to the imminent production of NAPOLÉON as a kind of cross whose weight he had to bear: ‘Will my shoul- ders be strong enough?’ (1924–27). Ironically, it was the success of his last silent fi lm that proved to be Gance’s ‘main handicap’ in 1929: the ‘great stature’ he had earned allowed him to ‘speed ahead into unknown territory’ without adequate preparation (Williams 1992: 164). Though he acknowledged both the profound industrial reorganization within French cinema and the aesthetic changes brought about by sound, Gance believed he could surpass such diffi culties through pure enthusiasm. Despite the obvious warning signs visible in his contract negotiations, he approached LA FIN DU MONDE with a religious sense of his cinematic and personal destiny. Gance placed tremendous moral importance on his own artistic freedom, viewing men like Vassili Ivanoff as unbelievers whose philistinism posed a threat to human progress. In pursuit of utopia, he rejected all compromise. His project exceeded the limits of money, time, and technol- ogy—as well as the patience of his producer. Gance submitted a fi lm so expansive that it was guaranteed to be reduced and so expensive that it was doomed to commercial failure. He ‘spent far too much of other people’s wealth’ in chasing his dreams (Brownlow [1983] 2004: xi), and L A FIN DU MONDE cost his wife her happiness and Ivanoff his life. The critics who viewed this fi lm as Gance’s Waterloo echoed the language of numerous 19th-century interpretations of this battle as
© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2016 205 P. Cuff, Abel Gance and the End of Silent Cinema, DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-38818-2 206 ABEL GANCE AND THE END OF SILENT CINEMA
Napoléon’s Golgotha. Proclaiming to the world his fears, Gance’s cru- cifi xion in the opening scene of LA FIN DU MONDE provides an image of self-fulfi lling prophecy. The production confi rmed all his worst fears and prejudices about the fi lm industry, views which spilled out in numerous interviews in subsequent years. Whilst its maker looked back upon LA FIN DU MONDE and saw a masterpiece trapped inside a catastrophe, audi- ences today can only imagine what Gance’s original conception would have resembled—or the cinematic series of L ES GRANDS INITIÉS for which it was designed as an epilogue. As with so many of his fi lms, we receive L A FIN DU MONDE second-hand—the ‘original’ text having undergone count- less amendments during the intervening years. Gance himself contributed to the dismemberment of his own work, scavenging from the remains of NAPOLÉON and L A FIN DU MONDE for his future projects:
It is as if he wanted to punish the world for its lack of understanding, and for the despair into which the cinema has plunged him. Like an unhappy child, is he tearing the inside out of a favourite toy just to see how it works, or to capture the secret of its origin? (Kaplan 1994: 43)
Following the demise of his mammoth socio-cinematic projects at the end of the 1920s, Gance’s utopia receded beyond the horizon once more—the ‘Annunciation of the New Age’ would have to wait. Gance slowly rebuilt his personal and professional life in the wake of LA FIN DU MONDE : he ceased using cocaine in 1931, remarried in 1933, and had directed 13 more fi lms by the end of the decade. However, dur- ing this time the historical context in which he worked had undergone irrevocable changes. The failure of his plans for a European fi lm syndicate, followed by the bankruptcy of the Société Générale de Films in 1933, left Gance dependent on an industry whose radical downsizing offered scant opportunity for the scale of fi lm-making he wished to pursue. A ‘new generation of small producers operating in the 1930s’ hadn’t the funds to support ‘such ambitious projects’ (King 1984b: 4). If cinema could no longer accommodate his material needs, the political world of the 1930s was even less inclined to support his ideology. When an American astronomer predicted that the Earth would enter a ‘cosmic snowstorm’ in 1933 and risk celestial collision, one French newspaper refl ected that this might ‘simplify various international prob- lems’ but certainly wouldn’t solve them. ‘Before becoming extinct, will we decide to form the “United States of the World”, as Gance does in his CONCLUSION: ‘WHY HAVE I BEEN ONLY WHAT I AM?’ 207 famous fi lm? We doubt it.’ (Tivoly 1933: 3) The gap between idealist fan- tasy and political reality grew ever greater during the 1930s. In December 1930, Berlin’s Mozartsaal cinema hosted the fi rst German exhibition of ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT . Nationalists deemed this adaptation of Erich Maria Remarque’s pacifi st novel to be ‘an attack on the German soldier, a portrayal of defeatism and cowardice’—the work of Jewish pro- paganda (Kelly 1998: 122). Under the direction of Joseph Goebbels, Nazi saboteurs disrupted its premiere by releasing stink bombs and white mice into the audience. In April 1931, Munich was deemed the best German city in which to premiere DAS ENDE DER WELT ; two years later, it was being called the ‘capital city’ of Nazism by the party that had been founded there. Schomburg’s warmongering and control of state media in L A FIN DU MONDE would be tame by the standards set by Goebbels and Hitler in the coming years. Unlike Gance’s failed pacifi sm, theirs was a utopian project embraced with cultish fervour by many millions. For Philip Jenkins, the ‘most dangerous consequence’ of the Great War on religious ideologies was that it made them ‘metastasize into new and sinister forms’. Gance’s silent J’ ACCUSE provides an eerie forerunner of events to come:
As they watched Europe’s new nightmares unfold in the 1920s and 1930s, with the continental drift toward Fascism, Nazism, and racial extermination, perspective religious leaders should have heard countless echoes from their own rhetoric of the holy war and holy nation. Ghosts marched. (Jenkins 2014: 191)
It was in response to these rising extremes that Gance produced his sound remake of J’ ACCUSE in 1938. Once more he begged for peace, this time by resurrecting the horrifying images of the last confl ict. In con- trast to the poet of 1919, the Jean Diaz of 1938 is a scientist. Another surrogate fi lm-maker, this character tries to convince the world through the supernatural power of imagery: in the fi lm’s fi nale he summons the dead from Douaumont cemetery. Here, both on-screen and off-screen spectators experience the raising of the dead as a mass hallucination. We see Diaz calling upon the massed rows of crosses, which eventually dis- solve and become the bodies of the fallen. They rise and begin to march towards us. ‘Fill your eyes with this horror!’ Diaz exclaims as Gance cuts to extreme close-ups of disfi gured veterans—the ‘gueules cassées ’. This confrontation with the horrifi c legacy of war, the literal human face of suffering, is supremely moving. Diaz’s address is no longer diegetic, no 208 ABEL GANCE AND THE END OF SILENT CINEMA longer to the terrifi ed men and women of Douaumont within the fi lm; his authorial voice-over unites with Gance’s imagery to confront us —to challenge the viewers of today as it did those of 1938. By abandoning the pretence of a self-contained fi lmic world, J’ ACCUSE reaches out to bring its resurrection to every theatre and every nation in which it is shown. Gance emphasized that cinema was ‘an instrument whose distribution is the best placed to serve the eternal cause of Peace’: the age of mechanical repro- duction enabled the worldwide promulgation of a fi lm’s spiritual message. J’ACCUSE was designed ‘to force the viewer to remember and to refl ect’ on the tragedy of war (Renault-Decker 1938 cited in Icart 1983: 302). The director announced that his fi lm was ‘an act of faith’ and openly accused those whose fealty lay with nationalism and political extremes rather than with the higher calling of European fraternity (Gance 1938). Inevitably, Gance couldn’t produce a cinematic experience so emotively persuasive that it convinced international audiences of the necessity for peace. The reliably nasty Lucien Rebatet described J’ACCUSE as ‘an orgy of drivel’; the critic ‘escaped’ from the cinema feeling he’d been ‘blasted by wave after wave of imbecility and dementia’ (Vinneuil 1938: 4). His review describes the original ending of J’ ACCUSE (now lost) in which the dead oversee the renouncement of war and mankind’s declaration of the ‘Universal Republic’. That Rebatet wholeheartedly mocked Gance’s ‘reviewed and corrected’ version of the League of Nations is indicative of the political climate in Europe. For the Right, the fi lm-maker’s continuing pacifi sm proved that he was a ‘cretin’ whose brain is ‘jam-packed with the most insane clichés of our era’ (ibid.: 4). Those with power to distribute Gance’s fi lms were no more sympathetic. Just as he couldn’t get Mussolini to show N APOLÉON uncensored in fascist Italy, so he failed to get J’ACCUSE viewed by Hitler or Goebbels and released in Nazi Germany. Though Gance mobilized his acquaintance with Gabriele D’Annunzio and Leni Riefenstahl in these countries, their artistic clout was no guarantee of political infl uence. Even within France, J’ACCUSE was severely reduced in length by its distributors: all mention of the ‘Universal Republic’ was cut. In its depiction of a world on the brink of war, L A FIN DU MONDE repli- cates the circumstances of 1914—yet the comet offers a miraculous alter- native to save humanity from the endless repetition of its self-destructive past. There was to be no such escape in the 1930s. Within France, the political division between Left and Right suggested in LA FIN DU MONDE worsened throughout the decade. The rise and fall of the Popular Front and the violent antagonism between socialists and conservatives were a CONCLUSION: ‘WHY HAVE I BEEN ONLY WHAT I AM?’ 209 direct cause of France’s abject collapse when Germany invaded in 1940. Rather than confront their own logistical and moral failings, generals and politicians blamed ‘fi fth columnists’ and communist sabotage, fostering a ‘nightmare fantasy’ that ‘provided an admirably convenient explanation for otherwise inexplicable disasters’. With catastrophic results, many senior fi gures in the French government viewed ‘the spectre of the Popular Front and of a resurrected [Paris] Commune as a threat no less great than that of the approaching enemy’ (Horne [1969] 2007: 533, 449). When war broke out in September 1939, Gance had to abandon his forthcoming production of C HRISTOPHE COLOMB , a biopic starring Victor Francen as the eponymous explorer. Gance’s screenplay was based on the spurious assertion that Columbus was secretly Jewish; the protagonist is another visionary, this time fi ghting to fi nance his grandiose ambitions in the face of political and racial persecution. As witnessed in the barrage of anti-Semitism from certain reviewers of L A FIN DU MONDE , the links between Gance and his cinematic alter-egos assumed a worrying proxim- ity during the 1930s. Born outside of marriage under the name of Abel Péréthon, he was only ‘legitimized’ at the age of eight when his mother married Adolphe Gance in 1897. Though it is unclear if Gance believed that his biological father, Abel Flament, was Jewish, both ‘friends and ene- mies alike considered [him to be] a Jew’ (Icart 1983: 320). He remained silent on the issue for the rest of his life though there are subtle indica- tions that the Diaz of the 1919 J’ ACCUSE may be Jewish (his mother has a menorah prominently displayed in their home), and the fi lm’s title has connotations of Zola’s accusation against endemic French anti-Semitism. There were even sporadic attempts by Jews to claim Gance as their own— his reputation went far enough abroad for his name to be included in a Hebrew-language series of cigarette cards featuring ‘great Jewish artists and sportsmen’ that was issued in Palestine in 1933. Such rumours came to the fore in 1940–41 when French collaborators actively encouraged Nazi purges of their native fi lm industry. Gance may have tried to ‘show proof of suffi cient Aryan blood’, wrote Lucien Rebatet, but nothing ‘exudes a more potent Jewish stench than the conceited, prim- itive messianism of Prisme ’ (1941: 8). Having been branded ‘a [Victor] Hugo of the synagogue’ helps to explain why Gance dedicated L A VÉNUS AVEUGLE to Marshal Pétain in 1941. After further rumour-mongering that his ‘fervent’ Catholic religiosity was a mask for the fact he was only a ‘recent convert’ and that the police should investigate his productions (Perrier 1941 cited in Jeancolas 1983: 315n), Gance left occupied France 210 ABEL GANCE AND THE END OF SILENT CINEMA for neutral Spain in 1943. Though he later referred to this move as a ‘fl ight’ and his time in Spain as ‘exile’, Gance pursued the forlorn hope of govern- mental sponsorship in each of his wartime locations. In 1941–42, he began negotiations with foreign diplomats for a kind of ‘European Hollywood’ to be established in South America, where the myths of French, Portuguese, and Spanish culture would be brought to life in a series of epic fi lms. The director imagined similar projects might occupy his time in Spain, but none came to fruition (see Rolland 1990, 1992). After his return to France, Gance worked on yet another call for peace during the fi rst years of the Cold War: L A DIVINE TRAGÉDIE (1947–51). Though the fi lm was never made, its completed screenplay is a perfect illustration of Gance’s continuing obsession with the role of cinema in human destiny. L A DIVINE TRAGÉDIE starts with a nuclear holocaust, after which humanity’s survivors gather in ‘the Valley of Fear’. The crowd encounters a prophet who retells the life of Christ, projecting the story on a screen made from a Turin Shroud-like garment. The fi lm cuts between modern and ancient history; as Christ is crucifi ed, a crisis of doubt among the survivors is overcome by faith in united purpose—the prophet fi nally leads them to a safe refuge over the mountain. Given historians’ specula- tion about the Turin Shroud being the product of a kind of early photo- graphic process, it is fascinating to note its role in Gance’s screenplay as an embodiment of the power of the image. Where Christ failed in the past, the image of Christ would succeed in the present. Gance called the Passion ‘the only possible ideographic symbol of deliverance’, believing it would ‘begin again [Christ’s] voyage of redemption’ in the age of modern man (1949: 34). As Jesus was ‘the king of kings’, so Gance proclaimed that L A DIVINE TRAGÉDIE would be ‘the fi lm of fi lms’ (1948–49). Having so often failed to convince producers, politicians, or populace with the importance of cinema’s power, LA DIVINE TRAGÉDIE depicts the perfect captive audi- ence—forced by the prophet fi lm-maker to receive a message of fraternity in order to pass into earthly paradise.
ALTERNATIVE HISTORIES Ruminating on Napoléon’s defeat, Louis Geoffroy wrote: ‘It’s one of the fatal laws of humanity that none should achieve their goal. Everything must remain incomplete and unfi nished—men, materials, glory, fortune, life’ ([1835] 1841: n. pag.). His response to this forestalling of utopia was to reimagine world history. Geoffroy’s Napoléon Apocryphe relates the CONCLUSION: ‘WHY HAVE I BEEN ONLY WHAT I AM?’ 211
Emperor’s successful conquest and partition of Russia, the elimination of Prussia and Spain, and subsequent invasion of Britain. After his armies pour into the Middle East through Constantinople and defeat Islam, he goes on to master the Far East and Africa. Both halves of America are willingly subsumed into this global Republic and, by the time of his death in 1832, Napoléon is crowned Emperor-Christ of the universe. As with Geoffroy’s ‘apocryphal Napoléon’, an author could set themselves the task of writing an alternate history of cinema in which Gance’s dreams were realized. This utopian future would see the triumph of art over commer- cialism, the establishment of cinema as a universal religion, and the realiza- tion of world peace. In this context, L A FIN DU MONDE is both a preface to Gance’s imagined future and an epilogue to the reality of his career. The project took its place in what Gance later termed his ‘vast deskful of lost dreams’ (1958: 16). Even the largest of his completed fi lms is dwarfed by the immense archive of unrealized material: ‘The list of projects is huge, the number of screenplays that were actually written is extraordinary, the time spent try- ing to get them off the ground unbelievable’ (King 1984b: 126). The title of Gance’s unwritten autobiography neatly refl ects this tension between dream and reality: ‘Why have I been only what I am?’ As he explained to Kevin Brownlow in 1967:
[Autobiographies] are usually full of ‘I’ and ‘Me’. It becomes boring to read people talking about themselves. They tend to become ‘What I have done’ rather than ‘What I was trying to do.’ Autobiographies contain the quali- ties one should struggle against – vanity, pride, and self-love. Once you get caught up, your narrative revolves around a fi nished person, instead of what we all are – incomplete, striving (Brownlow [1983] 2004: 177).
Gance’s fi lms also acknowledge the impossibility of creative desire. In U N GRAND AMOUR DE BEETHOVEN , the ailing composer (Harry Baur) resigns himself to creating works whose originality will only be recognized after his death—a mirror for the fi lm-maker’s own sense of isolation as an artist in the 1930s. In both versions of J’ ACCUSE , Diaz is punished as much for transcending the boundaries of human communication as for exceed- ing political or social norms. Both Saint-Just and Jean Novalic prophesy a utopian future in their oration and art but are unable to realize this vision. Only through cinematic fantasy can the fi ctional Martial achieve what the historical Napoléon cannot: the Universal Republic. 212 ABEL GANCE AND THE END OF SILENT CINEMA
As both projects are concerned with the pursuit of unreachable goals, it is appropriate that neither Gance’s Napoleonic cycle nor L A FIN DU MONDE stand as fi nished works. This fate is not uncommon in the canons of Romantic literature and music. Hugo’s epic poem Dieu , a visionary account of man’s elusive search for God, remains unfi nished due to ‘the problem of imposing a conclusion on a poem founded on the theme of inconclusiveness’ (Ireson 1997: 250). Alfred Brendel’s thoughts on the ‘imperfect’ nature of the music of Franz Liszt are equally applicable to Gance’s cinema:
Is the fragment not the purest, the most legitimate form of Romanticism? When Utopia becomes the primary goal, when the attempt is made to con- tain the illimitable, then form will have to remain ‘open’ in order that the illimitable may enter. (1961: 238)
What Brendel terms the ‘allure of the fragmentary’ is an apt defi nition of the power N APOLÉON possesses, as well as the remains of L A FIN DU MONDE : these are Romantic texts rendered in a modern medium. Simultaneous to the joyous zeal Gance’s greatest fi lms bestow upon audiences (and part of this very impact), there exists a sense of incompletion—a longing for the unobtainable. As such, they contain a profound message of exhortation; in the words of Henri Lefebvre, ‘To desire the impossible is to make every- thing possible!’ (1962: 364). Gance explained his immense ambition for cinema in similar terms to British fi lm-maker George Pearson in 1926: ‘I know it seems impossible, but I’m going to fi nd out! ’ (Pearson 1957: 135). Gance’s utopian cinema demonstrates the concern which Richard Wagner believed to be the fundamental driving force behind art:
I cannot help feeling that, if we had life , we’d have no need of art . Art begins at precisely the point where life leaves off: when all around us ceases to exist, we call out in art, ‘I wish’. I simply do not believe that a truly happy individual could ever hit upon the idea of creating ‘art’. (1852 cited in Spencer 2001: 404)
In a similar vein, Jean Epstein once told Gance that if happiness could not be found in the real world it could be sought in their art: ‘À la bonne heure. Ça, c’est du cinéma!’ (1923). The two directors certainly shared this outlook and its implication that fi lms could offer mass audiences a vision of a reality more beautiful than the one they inhabited. In Prisme , CONCLUSION: ‘WHY HAVE I BEEN ONLY WHAT I AM?’ 213
Gance describes the ideal of art as a kind of ‘mad, emerald lie’ that was so ‘vertiginously captivating and seductive’ it would triumph over demon- strable fact to become a more convincing truth: ‘The fi rst truth involves knowing that there isn’t one. The second truth involves creating one. The third truth involves blindly accepting that which you create. And Art starts there!’ (1930g: 35–6, 86). The critical rejection of L A FIN DU MONDE can partly be explained by the fact that the ‘spiritualist ideals’ of the late 19th and early 20th cen- turies were suddenly ‘out of place’ by the end of the 1920s (Plasseraud 2011: 305). At the same time Gance was shooting L A FIN DU MONDE , Fernando Pessoa was writing The Book of Disquiet . Penned by his literary ‘heteronym’, Bernando Soares, the narrator’s ironic observations on art and sentiment offer a kind of Modernist diagnosis of utopianism: ‘The Romantic malady is to want the moon as if it could actually be obtained.’ Yet Pessoa’s tone indicates that he was as regretful as he was relieved that these dreams of a previous century were dying out. He admits that Romanticism may be fi lled with ‘excesses’ and ‘absurdities’, but it can still ‘seduce and move hearts’ through ‘[playing out] the inner truth of human nature’ (Pessoa 2002: 52–3). Through the 1930s and in subse- quent decades, Gance’s critics felt no such melancholy for Romanticism— his fi lms were seen to embody ‘stale, trashy ideas’ (Kale 1986: 142). Yet in dismissing what they regarded as 19th-century conceptions, they also overlooked the primary source for some of the most radical cinematic expression of the 20th century. With only sporadic evidence of sonic experimentation in his subsequent work, most critics have seen the ambitious L A FIN DU MONDE as evidence that Gance could not reconcile his silent practices with sound technology. In fact, the production is as much a story of the technology failing to deal with him. Though the subsequent standardization of fi lm practice side- lined the kind of formal experimentation he had pioneered in the 1920s, Gance was never opposed to sound itself—he later dismissed as ‘nonsense’ the idea that its introduction ‘shut the doorway to dreams’ (1934). L A FIN DU MONDE may be Gance’s least technically polished fi lm, but it is the most representative of his original conception of sonorized cinema. The fi lm’s fl aws were a result of the unsustainable strain he placed on primi- tive equipment, emblematic of his ideological idealism. L A FIN DU MONDE offers ample evidence of the fact that both Gance’s successes and failures as a fi lm-maker were ‘due to the fact that his inner world was stronger than his sense of external reality’ (Kramer and Welsh 1978: 139). 214 ABEL GANCE AND THE END OF SILENT CINEMA
LOOKING TO THE FUTURE In the mid-1950s, Gance told Nelly Kaplan that thanks to the ‘brainless obstacles’ producers had placed in his way, he had only fulfi lled 5 per cent of his capability (Kaplan 1994: 44). The negligible critical impact of his few fi lms from the 1940s through to the 1970s only confi rmed his belief that his career was split between a lost past and an unrealized future:
My life of yesterday is fi nished. I’m still burdened with it, though I can’t see it […] I am impelled by my own memory of the future. This always draws me out of myself, because I’m interested only in tomorrow. I’m interested only in what I haven’t seen, what I haven’t known or felt. (Gance 1980)
Gance’s reputation rested on a body of work increasingly subject to con- textual dislocation and physical destruction. Yet he insisted that his ideas must be judged by their prescience for the future. Projects that existed only in fragments—celluloid, screenplays, scenarios, or even just notes on scraps of paper—became evidence for his ‘memory of the future’, an intuitive belief in the progress of cinema and humanity. It is unsurprising that he later claimed Prisme to be his greatest creation (Brownlow [1983] 2004: 178): a fragmentary record of his intentions rather than a complete account of his achievements. Even in his last years, Gance said he wanted to ‘think for tomorrow, not for today’ (Gance and Herzog 1979). In the fi nal shot of the documentary UNE MEMOIRE DE L’AVENIR (1980), the 90-year-old Gance is seen on the Corsican coast where he fi lmed scenes for N APOLÉON in 1925. Watching the sunset, his trembling voice hums the ‘Pilgrims’ Chorus’ from Wagner’s Tannhäuser —the melody that was to have accompanied mankind’s rebirth at the end of LA FIN DU MONDE . Having survived two world wars, outlived virtually all of his contemporary fi lm-makers, and witnessed the erosion of so much of his cultural legacy, Gance drew comfort from the notion that he was starting to be embraced by younger generations. At Telluride in 1979, Kevin Brownlow’s fi rst reconstruction of NAPOLÉON was shown in the presence of the director. Gance embraced the fl urry of publicity he received, using the opportunity to try and resur- rect C HRISTOPHE COLOMB —a project he had been planning for over 40 years. Comparing his own diffi culties in producing the fi lm to those of Columbus in discovering America, Gance cultivated his reputation as a visionary whose greatest works were the victim of misunderstanding and CONCLUSION: ‘WHY HAVE I BEEN ONLY WHAT I AM?’ 215 narrow-mindedness. At a public discussion during the festival, German fi lm-maker Werner Herzog emphasized the importance of such mythic antecedence in cinema: ‘There are fi lmmakers around who are like the “battery of men without fear” in N APOLÉON . I think I belong to them’ (Gance and Herzog 1979). The doomed visionary in Herzog’s fi lms, so often played by Klaus Kinski, is one of the few Romantic archetypes visible in modern cinema. Indeed, Gance was so impressed with A GUIRRE, DER ZORN GOTTES (1972) that he deemed Herzog ‘the greatest living direc- tor’ and was convinced that he was the only man ‘capable’ of realizing his vast screenplay for C HRISTOPHE COLOMB (Gance 1980). About to embark on his own epic FITZCARRALDO (1982), Herzog could only offer his moral support: ‘We will carry on the fl ame that he has given to us.’ ‘I would like to give you half my strength’ (Gance and Herzog 1979). Gance did not live long enough to see the completed FITZCARRALDO ; he died in 1981, and CHRISTOPHE COLOMB never advanced beyond a screenplay. In a séance conducted during Hugo’s exile on Jersey, ‘Death’ once gave the author some advice about how to plan his afterlife:
At certain intervals it will be possible to speak with posterity and say unknown things to it, things which will have had time to mature in the ground! What is impossible today is necessary tomorrow. In your testament, space out your posthumous works at ten-yearly intervals, fi ve-yearly inter- vals […] Jesus Christ rose from the dead only once; you can fi ll your tomb with resurrections […] As you died, you would be saying: wake me in 1920, wake me in 1940, wake me in 1960, wake me in 1980, wake me in the year 2000. (Hugo 1854b: 1439–40)
Those who contributed to the physical reduction of Gance’s fi lms and the intellectual marginalization of his ideas during the 20th century were not motivated by a desire to guarantee their posthumous restoration in the 21st. The list of fi lms which have received physical resurrection is small, but growing—a chance to prove the worth of those works Gance believed belonged to the past. The matter of his ideological resuscitation is likely to take far longer. In spite of claims that the digging up of dead artists’ lives and work is a form of ‘necrophilia’ (Willeman 1994, Stannard 1996), histo- rians must be able to re-examine cinema’s broken materials with sympathy and its lost ideas with curiosity. Released from adherence or hostility to the idea of Gance as a martyr, scholars can now renew their exploration of the work of this remarkable fi lm-maker. There is much to discover. FILMOGRAPHY AND BIBLIOGRAPHY
Archival material included in this study derives from public collections held by the Département des Arts du spectacle in the Bibliothèque nationale de France (des- ignated in this bibliography by the abbreviation ‘BnF’); the Bibliothèque du Film at the Cinémathèque Française (‘BiFi’); the Fondation Jérôme Seydoux-Pathé (‘FJSP’); and the Cinémathèque de Toulouse (‘CdT’). In addition, I have been able to access the private Kevin Brownlow Collection (‘KBC’).
FILMS DIRECTED BY GANCE
L’ÉNIGME DE DIX HEURES , 1915. France: Le Film d’Art. LA FOLIE DU DOCTEUR TUBE , 1916 (unreleased). France: Le Film d’Art. LES GAZ MORTELS , 1916. France: Le Film d’Art. BARBEROUSSE , 1917. France: Le Film d’Art. LE DROIT À LA VIE , 1917. France: Le Film d’Art. LA ZONE DE LA MORT , 1917. France: Le Film d’Art. MATER DOLOROSA , 1917. France: Le Film d’Art. LA DIXIÈME SYMPHONIE , 1918. France: Le Film d’Art. ECCE HOMO , 1918 (unfi nished). France: Le Film d’Art. J’ACCUSE! , 1919. France: Pathé/Films Abel Gance. LA ROUE , 1922. France: Pathé/Films Abel Gance. AU SECOURS! , 1924. France: Films Abel Gance. NAPOLÉON, VU PAR ABEL GANCE , 1927. France: Société générale des fi lms. AUTOUR DE NAPOLÉON , 1928. France: Société générale des fi lms. MARINE , 1928. France: Société générale des fi lms. LA FIN DU MONDE , 1930. France: L’Écran d’Art. MATER DOLOROSA , 1932. France: Arci-Film.
© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2016 217 P. Cuff, Abel Gance and the End of Silent Cinema, DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-38818-2 218 FILMOGRAPHY AND BIBLIOGRAPHY
UN GRAND AMOUR DE BEETHOVEN , 1936. France: Général Productions. J’ACCUSE! , 1938. France: Société du fi lm ‘J’accuse’. LA VÉNUS AVEUGLE , 1941. France: France Nouvelle. CYRANO ET D’ARTAGNON , 1963. France/Italy/Spain: Circe Productions/ Champion/Agata Film.
WRITTEN MATERIAL AND INTERVIEWS BY GANCE Gance, Abel (1912), ‘Qu’est-ce que le cinématographe? Un sixième art!’, Ciné- journal , 9 March, p. 10. –––– (1912–13), La Victoire de Samothrace [typescript/manuscript], BnF, 4-COL-36/908. –––– (1912–20?), Notes concerning fi lms centred on the characters Jean Diaz and Novalic [manuscript/typescript], BnF, 4-COL-36/558. –––– (1912/29), Notes concerning apocalyptic scenarios [manuscript/typescript], BiFi, GANCE104-B42. –––– (1913a), Designs for ‘Symphonies lumineuses’, August [typescript/manu- script], CdT, F12-6.1. –––– (1913b), Scenario for L A LÉGENDE DE L’ARC-EN-CIEL [typescript/manuscript], BnF, 4-COL-36/687. –––– (1917), Screenplay for J’ ACCUSE , October [typescript/manuscript], BiFi, GANCE117-B45. –––– (1918a), Letter to Charles Pathé, 30 May [typescript], FJSP. –––– (1918b), Letter to Charles Pathé, 13 July [typescript], FJSP. –––– (1918c), Presentation text for J’ ACCUSE , 13 December. In Roger Icart (ed.) (2002), Abel Gance: Un soleil dans chaque image , Paris: CNRS, pp. 36–9. –––– (1919a), Notes concerning E CCE HOMO [manuscript], BnF, 4-COL-36/558. –––– (1919b), Revised screenplay for E CCE HOMO , 4 November [typescript], BnF, 4-COL-36/550. –––– (1920a), Letter to Charles Pathé, 5 May [typescript], FJSP. –––– (1920b), Letter to Stouvenaut, 3 June [typescript], BiFi, GANCE559-B113. –––– (1920c), Letter to Pathé-Limited of London, 17 November [typescript], BiFi, GANCE559-B113. –––– (1921), Letter to Fourel, 12 March [typescript], BiFi, GANCE559-B113. –––– (1922), ‘Inauguration du buste de Séverin-Mars: Discours de M. Abel Gance’, Comœdia , 19 October, p. 4. –––– (1923a), ‘Rapport Confi dentiel sur la necessité de la création d’une biblio- thèque internationale du cinéma en fi lms d’une bobine’, March [typescript], BiFi, GANCE491-B101. –––– (1923b), Interview with André Lang, ‘La Confession d’Abel Gance. La puis- sance au cinéma’, La Revue hebdomadaire , 32:6, pp. 473–83. –––– (1923c), Unsent letter to Charles Pathé, October [typescript/manuscript], CdT, F12-8.77. FILMOGRAPHY AND BIBLIOGRAPHY 219
–––– (1923d), Letter to Giuseppe Barattolo, 6 November [typescript], BnF, 4-COL-36/552. –––– (1923e), ‘La Cinématographie c’est la musique de la lumière’, Cinéa-Ciné pour tous , 15 December, p. 11. –––– (1924a), Production note to Édouard de Bersaucourt and Noë Bloch, 18 August [typescript], BiFi, GANCE181-B61. –––– (1924b), Letter to Édouard de Bersaucourt, 2 September [typescript], BnF, 4-COL-36/554. –––– (1924c), Notes concerning N APOLÉON [manuscript], BnF, 4-COL-36/554. –––– (1924–27), Production diary for N APOLÉON [manuscript], BnF, 4-COL-36/926. –––– (1925a), Letter to Noë Bloch, 22 April [typescript], BnF, 4-COL-36/554. –––– (1925b), Letter to Albert Thomas, 28 September [typescript], BnF, 4-COL-36/810. –––– (1926), Confi dential notes, November-December [manuscript/typescript], BnF, 4-COL-36/783. –––– (1926–28), Notes and screenplay material for V ICTOR HUGO [manuscript/ typescript], BnF, 4-COL-36/757. –––– (1927a), ‘Comme j’ai vu Napoléon’, programme for the Théâtre de l’Opéra presentation of N APOLÉON , 7 April. –––– (1927b), ‘Aux Spectateurs de Napoléon ’, programme for the Marivaux Theatre presentation of N APOLÉON , November. –––– (1927c), Letter to Wilhelm Meydam, 6 December [typescript], BnF, 4-COL-36/783. –––– (1927d), ‘Le temps de l’image est venu!’ In L’Art cinématographique II , Paris: Librairie Félix Alcan, pp. 83–104. –––– (1927e), Napoléon, vu par Abel Gance. Épopée cinégraphique en cinq époques – Première époque: Bonaparte , Paris: Plon. –––– (1927f), ‘Projet de constitution de l’Occident’ [typescript], BnF, 4-COL-36/662. –––– (1928?a), ‘Buts généraux pour la SGF’ , n.d. [typescript], BiFi, GANCE491-B101. –––– (1928?b), ‘Notice sur SGF’ , n.d. [typescript], BiFi, GANCE493-B101. –––– (1928a), List of intertitles for A UTOUR DE NAPOLÉON , 10 January [typescript], BnF, 4-COL-36/555. –––– (1928b), Notes concerning L ES GRANDS INITIÉS (‘Les Évangiles de la lumière’), January [manuscript], BiFi, GANCE492-B101. –––– (1928c), ‘ SGF: Exposé Général’, 14 April [typescript], BiFi, GANCE493-B101. –––– (1928d), ‘La Section Cinématographique de la Société des Nations. Rapport sur l’utilité d’organiser et d’élargir l’infl uence de la Société des Nations à l’aide du cinéma et de la radiophonie’, May [typescript], BnF, 4-COL-36/810. –––– (1928e), ‘Le Sens moderne – Comment on fait un fi lm’, Conférencia , 5 August, pp. 197–209. 220 FILMOGRAPHY AND BIBLIOGRAPHY
–––– (1928f), Screenplay for S AINTE-HÉLÈNE , 3 September [manuscript/type- script], BiFi, GANCE499-B103. –––– (1928g), ‘Projet d’Organisation d’une Société Musulmane de fi lms’ [type- script], BiFi, GANCE491-B101. –––– (1928–29a), Letters from Abel Gance to Romuald Joubé and M. Henri- Demont, November 1928-January 1929 [typescript], BiFi, GANCE120-B46. –––– (1928–29b), ‘Document Statistiques et Psychologiques sur les Réligions’, n.d. [typescript], BiFi, GANCE492-B101. –––– (1928–29c), Notes concerning SGF and ‘L’Académie des Dix’, n.d. [manu- script/typescript], BiFi, GANCE493-B101. –––– (1929a), Interview with Jean Arroy, ‘Avec Abel Gance, face à l’océan’, Cinémagazine , 8 February, pp. 239–42. –––– (1929b), Interview with Nino Frank, ‘Abel Gance, écrivain, réalisateur, acteur’, Pour Vous , 7 March, p. 8. –––– (1929c), ‘Argument de la Fin du Monde ’, 18 March [manuscript/type- script], BiFi, GANCE110-B42. –––– (1929d), ‘Schéma dramatique de la Fin du Monde , vue par Abel Gance’, 25 March [manuscript/typescript], BiFi, GANCE103-B42. –––– (1929e), Confi dential note, 9 April [manuscript], BiFi, GANCE99-B43. –––– (1929f), Screenplay for L A FIN DU MONDE , April-June [manuscript], BiFi, GANCE101-B44. –––– (1929g), Interview in ‘Le Film sonore – Qu’en pensent nos réalisateurs?’, Cinéa-Ciné pour tous , 1–15 August, pp. 9–10. –––– (1929h), Letter to Vassili Ivanoff, 31 May [typescript], BiFi, GANCE106-B42. –––– (1929i), Letter to Conrad Veidt, 5 June [typescript], BiFi, GANCE573-B114. –––– (1929j), Letter to Gabrielle Flammarion, 7 June [typescript], BiFi, GANCE573-B114. –––– (1929k), Letter to Antonin Artaud, 13 June [typescript], BiFi, GANCE564-B113. –––– (1929l), Letter to Julien Luchaire, 18 June [typescript], BnF, 4-COL-36/810. –––– (1929m), Scenes discarded from the screenplay for L A FIN DU MONDE , June [typescript], BnF, 4-COL-36/558. –––– (1929n), Screenplay for L A FIN DU MONDE , June [typescript], BnF, 4-COL-36/558. –––– (1929o), Interview with Pierre Heuzé, ‘Abel Gance nous dit sa foi dans le fi lm parlant’, Cinémonde , 18 July, p. 667. –––– (1929p), Letter to Albert Thomas, 21 August [typescript], BnF, 4. COL-36/810. –––– (1929q), ‘Autour du moi et du monde: le cinéma de demain’, Conférencia , 23:18 (5 September), pp. 277–91. –––– (1929r), Interview with Pierre Leprohon, ‘À Versailles, Abel Gance nous parle de La Fin du Monde ’, Pour Vous , 12 September, p. 14. –––– (1929s), Interview with Claude Doré, ‘Le commencement de La Fin du Monde ’, Ciné-Miroir , 27 September, p. 615. FILMOGRAPHY AND BIBLIOGRAPHY 221
–––– (1929t), Address to the cast and crew of L A FIN DU MONDE , 15 October [typescript], BnF, 4-COL-36/558. –––– (1929u), Letter to Albert Thomas, 20 November [typescript], BnF, 4 COL-36/810. –––– (1929v), Miscellaneous notes concerning L A FIN DU MONDE , n.d. [manu- script/typescript], BnF, 4-COL-36/558. –––– (1929w), ‘Note sur “Les Opéras Cinématographiques”’, n.d. [typescript], BnF, 4-COL-36/799. –––– (1929–30), Production notes concerning L A FIN DU MONDE , March 1929- March 1930 [manuscript/typescript], BiFi, GANCE106-B42, GANCE107-B42, GANCE108-B42, GANCE109-B42. –––– (1930a), ‘Images d’hier, voix de demain’, Cinéopse , January, pp. 25–6. –––– (1930b), Letter to the director of the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées, 13 February [typescript], BiFi, GANCE 573/B114. –––– (1930c), Letter to Pierre Robard, 4 April [typescript], BiFi, GANCE 573/ B114. –––– (1930d), Letter to Vassili Ivanoff, 30 May [typescript], BnF, 4-COL-36/558. –––– (1930e), ‘Maladie et Guérison du cinéma’, Pour Vous , 31 July, p. 3. –––– (1930f), ‘L’agonie du cinéma’, Les Cahiers de Radio-Paris , 4, pp. 328–32. –––– (1930g), Prisme , Paris: Gallimard. –––– (1931a), Interview with Maurice Mairgance, ‘Les projets d’Abel Gance’, L’Ami du peuple (du soir) , 23 January, n.p. [press cutting], BnF, 8-Rk 4479. –––– (1931b), Letter to E. Panel, 29 January [typescript], BiFi, GANCE572-B114. –––– (1931c), Speech delivered at a screening of L A ROUE in Bruges, 13 February [manuscript/typescript], BiFi, GANCE240-B71. –––– (1931d), Interview with Charles Delpierre, ‘Un entretien avec Abel Gance’, Les Beaux-Arts , 20 February, n.p. [press cutting], BnF, 8-Rk 4479. –––– (1931e), ‘Opinions sur le parlant, parle, sonore: M. Abel Gance’, Ciné- Journal , 6 March, p. 26. –––– (1931f), Letter to Dr Pierre Winter, 18 March [typescript], BiFi, GANCE572-B114. –––– (1931g), Interview with Yvonne Droux, ‘Abel Gance va tourner en Russie la suite de Napoléon ’, Cinémonde , 20 August, p. 541. –––– (1931h), Interview with Chamine, ‘Passe-t-on nos fi lms en Russe?’, Pour Vous , 12 November, p. 2. –––– (1932a), Interview with Jean Vidal, ‘Les Projets et les conceptions de M. Abel Gance’, Pour Vous , 11 August, p. 6. –––– (1932b), Interview with Lucie Derain, ‘Abel Gance nous parle de Mater Dolorosa , du Vaisseau Fantôme et de l’avenir du Cinéma européen’, Cinémonde , 3 November, p. 885. –––– (1934), ‘Il y a le cinéma et il y a l’art du cinéma’ [typescript], BnF, 4-COL-36/851. 222 FILMOGRAPHY AND BIBLIOGRAPHY
–––– (1936a), Interview with Nino Frank, ‘Pourquoi j’ai fait mes derniers fi lms’, Pour Vous , 9 April, p. 2. –––– (1936b), ‘Où je voyais une église, on fait un bazar’, L’Intransigeant , 19 April, p. 9. –––– (1938), Introductory text in the programme booklet for J’ ACCUSE . –––– (1939), ‘Je tournerai Christophe Colomb parce que le cinéma est une machine à ressusciter les héros’, Cinémonde , 5 April, p. 5. –––– (1948–49), Notes concerning L A DIVINE TRAGÉDIE [typescript], BiFi, GANCE71-B31. –––– (1949), ‘Un grand projet: La Divine Tragédie ’, Revue internationale du cinéma , 1:2, pp. 33–4. –––– (1954), ‘Départ vers la Polyvision’, Cahiers du cinéma , 41, pp. 4–9. –––– (1955a), Interview with Charles Ford and René Jeanne, July-August, Entretiens avec Abel Gance [radio], Chaîne parisienne. –––– (1955b), ‘Mon ami Epstein’, Cahiers du cinéma , 50, pp. 57–8. –––– (1958), Interview with Louis Mollion, ‘Le Bureau des Rêves perdus’, L’Écran , 3, pp. 16–26. –––– (1963), Voiceover track, A BEL GANCE, HIER ET DEMAIN [documentary fi lm]. –––– (1971), Interview with Jacques Chancel, 26 February. In Jacques Chancel (ed.), (1973), Radioscopie , Paris: Laffont, pp. 11–30. –––– (1972), Letter to Jacques Duhamel, 5 August [typescript], BnF, 4-COL-36/111. –––– (1974), Interview with Steven Philip Kramer and James Michael Welsh, ‘Film as Incantation: An Interview with Abel Gance’, Film Comment , 10:2, pp. 19–22. –––– (1976), Interview with Jean-Pierre Chartier and Maurice Bessy, 22 February, ‘Autour de la Roue ’, episode two of Les Grandes Heures d’Abel Gance [televi- sion], FR3. –––– (1980), Interview with Laurent Drancourt and Thierry Filliard, A BEL GANCE, UNE MÉMOIRE DE L’AVENIR [documentary fi lm]. –––– and Georges Buraud (1929), Notes and suggested revisions for L A FIN DU MONDE , n.d. [manuscript/typescript], BnF, 4-COL-36/558. –––– and Werner Herzog (1979), Interview with Kevin Brownlow, September, Telluride Film Festival [transcript], KBC. –––– and Vassili Ivanoff (1929), Drafts for the contractual and fi nancial organiza- tion of LA FIN DU MONDE [manuscript/typescript], BnF, 4-COL-36/558. –––– and Dimitri Kirsanoff (1929), Correspondence, July-August [typescript], BiFi, GANCE573-B114. –––– and Jules Kruger (1929), Correspondence, May [manuscript/typescript], BiFi, GANCE565-B113. –––– and Charles Pathé (1919), Contract for ‘Le Rail’ (L A ROUE ), n.d. [type- script], BiFi, GANCE257-B73. FILMOGRAPHY AND BIBLIOGRAPHY 223
WRITTEN MATERIAL CONCERNING CINEMA 12 Uhr Blatt (1930), ‘ Ende der Welt ’, 9 September, n.p. [press cutting], BnF, 8-Rk 4479. Abel, Richard (1984), French Cinema: The First Wave, 1915–29 , Princeton: Princeton University Press. Andrew, Dudley (1980), ‘Sound in France: The Origins of a Native School’, Yale French Studies , 90, pp. 94–114. Anon. (1930), Telegram to Abel Gance, 16 October [typescript], BnF, 4-COL-36/5. Arnoux, Alexandre (1931), ‘Cinéma: La Fin du Monde ’, Les Nouvelles littéraires , 7 February, p.10. Aros, Bon (1931), ‘Das Ende des Monumentalfi lms’, Film-Echo , 4 May, n.p. [press cutting], BnF, 4-COL-36/558. Arroy, Jean (1927), En tournant ‘Napoléon’ avec Abel Gance. Souvenirs et impres- sions d’un sans-culotte , Paris: Plon/La Renaissance du Livre. Bardèche, Maurice and Robert Brasillach (1935), Histoire du Cinéma , Paris: Denoël/Steele. Beaugé, Marguerite (1930), Production note to Vassili Ivanoff, 19 February [typescript], BiFi, GANCE106-B42. Beaux, Jean (1931), Unpublished article on L A FIN DU MONDE , n.d. [typescript], BiFi, GANCE572-B114. Bec et ongles (1933), ‘Où l’on reparle d’Abel Gance’, 29 April, pp. 13–14. Bing (1930), ‘Abel Gance’, Fantasio , 1 December, p. 217. Birchard, Robert S. (2004), Cecil B. DeMille’s Hollywood , Lexington: University Press of Kentucky. Bost, Pierre (1931), ‘La Fin du Monde ’, Les Annales politiques et littéraires , 1 March, p. 233. Brasillach, Robert (1941), Notre Avant-guerre , Paris: Plon. Brownlow, Kevin (1968), The Parade’s Gone By… , New York: Knopf. –––– [1983] (2004), ‘Napoleon’, Abel Gance’s classic fi lm , London: Photoplay. –––– (2005), Interview to author, London, 28 October. Buraud, Georges (1928), Biographical notes on Abel Gance, n.d. [typescript], BnF, GANCE652-B138. Bush, W. Stephen (1916), ‘Leon Gaumont on a Visit’, The Moving Picture World , 8 April, p. 233. Canudo, Ricciotto (1921), ‘L’immatériel au cinéma’, L’Amour de l’art , 2:12, p. 404. Cendrars, Blaise (1919–21), ‘L’ABC du cinéma’ . In Blaise Cendrars (1960–64), Œuvres complètes (ed. Raymond Dumay and Nino Frank), 8 vols., Paris: Denoël, IV, pp. 161–6. –––– (1923), List of titles for A UTOUR DE LA ROUE , n.d. [manuscript/typescript], BiFi, GANCE242-B72. 224 FILMOGRAPHY AND BIBLIOGRAPHY
Chicago Tribune (Paris) (1931), 23 January, n.p. [press cutting], BnF, 8-Rk 4479. Cinéa-Ciné pour tous (1929a), ‘Enthousiasme’, 1 December, p. 30. –––– (1929b), ‘L’activité cinégraphique’, 15 December, pp. 26–7. Coty, François (1925), ‘Pouquoi je ne donne pas mon concours au fi lm dont Napoléon sera l’étoile’, Le Figaro , 28 September, p. 1. Crisp, Colin G. (1997), The Classic French Cinema, 1930–60 , Bloomington: Indiana University Press. –––– (2002), Genre, Myth, and Convention in the French Cinema, 1929–39 , Bloomington: Indiana University Press. Cuff, Paul (2013), ‘Napoléon, vu par Abel Gance (1927): The case for enthusi- asm’, Studies in French Cinema , 13:2, pp. 95–109. –––– (2015), A revolution for the screen: Abel Gance’s ‘Napoléon’ , Amsterdam: Amsterdam Univeristy Press. –––– (2016a), ‘Presenting the past: Abel Gance’s Napoléon (1927), from live pro- jection to digital reproduction’, Kinétraces Editions , 2 [online]. Available at: < http://cms.kinetraces.fr/index.php/fr/editions >. –––– (2016b), ‘“The reawakening of French cinema”: expression and innovation in Abel Gance’s J’accuse! (1919)’. In Olaf Brill and Gary D. Rhodes (eds), Expressionism in Cinema , Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, pp. 145–68. Daria, Sophie (1959), Abel Gance: Hier et demain , Paris: La Palatine. Decaris, Germaine (1931), ‘La Fin du Monde ’, Le Soir , 31 January, n.p. [press cut- ting], BnF, 8-Rk 4479. Delaprée, Louis (1930), ‘La Fin du Monde , ou le Créateur incomplet’, Pour Vous , 4 September, pp. 8–9. Doderet, André (1931), ‘Le “genre genie”’, Le Figaro , 29 March, p. 6. Drazin, Charles (2011), The Faber Book of French Cinema , London: Faber/Faber. Druick, Zoë (2008), ‘“Reaching the Multimillions”: Liberal Internationalism and the Establishment of Documentary Film’. In Lee Grieveson and Haidee Wasson (eds), Inventing Film Studies , Durham, NC: Duke University Press, pp. 66–92. Eisenstein, Sergei (1946–47), Beyond the Stars, the Memoirs of Sergei Eisenstein . In Sergei Eisenstein (1988–94), Selected Works (ed./trans. Michael Glenny, William Powell, Richard Taylor), 4 vols., London: BFI , IV. Epstein, Jean (1923), Letter to Abel Gance, 2 October [manuscript], BnF, 4-COL-36/267. –––– (1925), ‘Pour une nouvelle avant-garde’, Cinéa-Ciné pour tous , 15 January, pp. 8–10. Faure, Élie (1929), ‘Préface’. In Abel Gance (1930), Prisme , Paris: Gallimard, pp. 11–15. Fayard, Jean (1931), ‘La Fin du Monde ’, Candide , 22 January, n.p. [press cut- ting], BnF, 8-Rk 4479. Film-Kurier (Berlin) (1930), ‘Abel Gance macht Kolonial-Filme’, 10 October, p. 1. –––– (1931a), ‘Wie die Schweiz den Abel Gance-Film sieht’, 21 January, p. 2. –––– (1931b), ‘Pariser Kurier’, 31 January, p. 4. FILMOGRAPHY AND BIBLIOGRAPHY 225
–––– (1931c), ‘Pariser Kurier’, 2 February, p. 4. –––– (1931d), ‘Pariser Zahlen über Das Ende der Welt ’, 12 February, p. 3. Francen, Victor (1964), Interview with Hubert Knapp, 19 November, Cinéastes de notre temps: Abel Gance portrait brisé [television], Chaîne 2. Frank, Felicia Miller (1996), ‘L’Inhumaine , La Fin du monde : Modernist Utopias and Film-Making Angels’, Modern Language Notes , 111:5, pp. 938–53. Frank, Nino (1931), ‘Abel Gance, vu et entendu par lui-même’, Pour Vous , 5 March, p. 14. Friedrich, Evy (1931), Remarques sur Abel Gance , Luxembourg: Le Film Luxembourgeois. G.A.A. (1920), ‘Men with a message to the world’, Daily Express , 1 June, p. 3. Gance, Marguerite (1930a), Letter to Abel Gance, n.d. [manuscript], BnF, 4-COL-36/5. –––– (1930b), Telegram to Abel Gance, 9 September [typescript], BnF, 4-COL-36/5. –––– (1930?), Letter to Abel Gance, n.d. [manuscript], BnF, 4-COL-36/5. Gelas, Jean-Pierre (1931), ‘A propos la Fin du Monde ’, L’Action Française , 23 January, p. 4. Gojon, Edmond (1919), ‘“J’accuse”, Tragédie des temps modernes, de M. Abel Gance, Adaptée par M. Edmond Gojon’, L’Afrique du Nord Illustré , 1 June-27 December, pp. 5–30. Gravone, Gabriel de (1923), Interview with J.-A. de Munto, ‘Gabriel de Gravone’, Mon Ciné , 11 January, pp. 15–17. Gréville, Wanda (1980?), Interview with Kevin Brownlow [transcript of phone conversation], KBC. –––– (1995), Interview with Kevin Brownlow, ‘End of an Era’, episode six of Cinema Europe [television], BBC2. Hagener, Malte (2007), Moving Forward, Looking Back. The European Avant- Garde and the Invention of Film Culture, 1919–39 , Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press. Hammond, Paul (1997), ‘L’Âge d’or’ , London: BFI . Hebdo-Film (1930), ‘La fi n de… La Fin du Monde ’, 12 April, p. 23. Herbert, Michel (1928), ‘Le statut du cinéma’, Cyrano , 26 February, p. 26. Herzog, Werner (2009), Conquest of the Useless: Refl ections from the making of ‘Fitzcarraldo’ (trans. Krishna Winston), New York: Ecco. Huet, Maurice (1931), ‘La Fin du Monde ’, Le Petit Parisien , 23 January, p. 5. Icart, Roger (1983), Abel Gance, ou Le Prométhée foudroyé , Lausanne: L’Age d’homme. –––– (2000), ‘Abel Gance, auteur et ses fi lms alimentaires’, 1895 , 31, pp. 81–7. –––– (ed.) (2002), Abel Gance: Un soleil dans chaque image , Paris: CNRS . Illustrierter Film-Kurier (Vienna) (1932), ‘Ende der Welt ’, 448. Ivanoff, Vassili (1929), Production note, ‘Remarques concernant M. Abel Gance par M. V. Ivanoff’, 19 July [typescript], BiFi, GANCE106-B42. 226 FILMOGRAPHY AND BIBLIOGRAPHY
–––– (1930a), Note to Abel Gance, 3 January [typescript], BiFi, GANCE 107-B42. –––– (1930b), Letter to Abel Gance, 6 January [typescript], BnF, 4-COL-36/558. Jäger, Ernst (1931), ‘Film-Kritik: Ende der Welt ’, Film-Kurier (Berlin), 2 May, p. 2. Jeancolas, Jean-Pierre (1983), 15 ans des années trente , Paris: Stock. Jeanne, René and Charles Ford (1963), Abel Gance , Paris: Seghers. Jolivet, René (1931), ‘La Fin du Monde ’, unidentifi ed publication, 22 February, n.p. [press cutting], BnF, 8-Rk 4479. K.G.L. (1931), ‘Ende der Welt – Uranfführung im Theater am Hollendorfplatz’, Berliner Tageblatt , 3 May, n.p. [press cutting], BnF, 8-Rk 4479. Kael, Pauline (1986), Taking It All In , London: Boyars. Kaplan, Nelly (1994), ‘Napoléon’ (ed./trans. Bernard McGuirk), London: BFI . –––– (2006), ‘Artaud/Gance: dans le dédale de l’esprit’. In Guillaume Fau (ed.), Antonin Artaud , Paris: Bibliothèque nationale de France/Gallimard, pp. 154–9. –––– (2008), Mon Cygne, mon Signe… (Correspondances Abel Gance-Nelly Kaplan) , Paris: Rocher. Kelly, Andrew (1998), Filming ‘All Quiet on the Western Front’ , London/New York: I.B. Tauris. King, Norman (1984a), ‘The Sound of Silents’, Screen , 25:3, pp. 2–15. –––– (1984b), Abel Gance: A politics of spectacle , London: BFI . Kracauer, Siegfried (1931), ‘Neue Filme’. In Siegfried Kracauer (2004), Kleine Schriften zum Film (ed. Inka Mülder-Bach), 3 vols., Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp, II, pp. 508–13. Kramer, Steven Philip and James Michael Welsh (1978), Abel Gance , Boston: Twayne. L’Humanité (1930), ‘Cinéma-Courier’, 5 October, p. 4. L’Illustration (1931), ‘ La Fin du Monde ’, 7 February, n.p. [press cutting], BnF, 8-Rk 4479. La Griffe Cinématographique (1929), ‘La Fin du Monde ’, n.d., n.p. [press cut- ting], KBC. Lalou, René (1931), ‘Gala Abel Gance (au Théâtre des Champs-Elysées)’, La Quinzaine , 25 March, p. xiii. Lang, André (1931), ‘La Fin du Monde , violente et pathétique, vue et entendue par Abel Gance’, Pour Vous , 15 January, pp. 8–9. Lartisan, Blanc (1931), ‘Soyons justes!’, Les Spectacles , 27 March, p. 1. Le Figaro (1931), ‘Chez nous’, 2 August, p. 6. Le Monde (1931), ‘Sur un fi lm d’Abel Gance’, 31 January, n.p. [press cutting], BnF, 8-Rk 4479. Le Nord Marocain (1923), Advert for A UTOUR DE LA ROUE , 10 October, n.p. [press cutting], BnF, 4-COL-36/552. FILMOGRAPHY AND BIBLIOGRAPHY 227
Le Petit Parisien (1931), ‘Violent incendie dans des studios de cinéma’, 20 March, p. 6. Le Soir (Brussels) (1931), ‘La Fin du Monde ’, 2 January, n.p. [press cutting], BnF, 8-Rk 4479. Les Spectacles (1927), ‘Quelques mots sur le triptyque d’Abel Gance’, 21 October, p. 7. –––– (1928), ‘Le coin des Directeurs: L’Écran d’Art’, 14 September, p. 10. Library of Congress Copyright Offi ce (1932), Catalog of Copyright Entries (Musical Compositions) for the year 1931 , Washington, DC: United States Government Printing Offi ce. –––– (1934), Catalog of Copyright Entries (Dramatic Compositions and Motion Pictures) for the year 1933 , Washington, DC: United States Government Printing Offi ce. Luchaire, Julien (1924), ‘Relations of the Cinematograph to Intellectual Life’ (Report to the Committee on Intellectual Co-operation, 28 July). In William Marston Seabury (1929), Motion picture problems: The cinema and the League of Nations , New York: Avondale, pp. 235–64. Maltby, Richard (1999), ‘Cinema and the League of Nations’. In Andrew Higson and Richard Maltby (eds), ‘Film Europe’ and ‘Film America’: Cinema, Commerce, and Cultural Exchange, 1920–39 , Exeter: University of Exeter Press, pp. 82–116. Marion, Denis (1931), ‘La Fin du Monde ’, Revue du Cinéma , 1 March, pp. 64–5. Meusy, Jean-Jacques (2000), ‘La Polyvision, espoir oublié d’un cinéma nouveau’, 1895 , 31, pp. 153–211. Miomandre, Francis de (1927), ‘Le Napoléon d’Abel Gance’, L’Europe Nouvelle , 28 May, p. 707. –––– (1928), ‘Au Studio 28’, L’Europe Nouvelle , 18 February, p. 215. Mirbel, Jean de (1929), ‘Avant La Fin du Monde ’, Cinémagazine , 21 June, pp. 497–8. Mitry, Jean (1967–80), Histoire du Cinéma , 5 vols., Paris: Éditions universitaires/ Delarge. Morienval, Jean (1931), ‘Le Cinéma’, Le Correspondant , 25 February, pp. 607–12. Moussinac, Léon (1922a), ‘Cinématographe: Après J’accuse et avant la Roue ’, Mercure de France , 1 May, pp. 786–7. –––– (1922b), J’accuse, d’après le fi lm d’Abel Gance , Paris: La Lampe Merveilleuse. –––– (1927), ‘Un fi lm français: Napoléon ’, L’Humanité , 23 and 30 April, p. 4. Nead, Lynda (2008), The Haunted Gallery: Painting, Photography and Film c.1900 , New Haven: Yale University Press. O’Brien, Charles (2004), Cinema’s conversion to sound: Technology and fi lm style in France and the US , Bloomington: Indiana University Press. Paris-Soir (1930a), ‘La fi n du monde pour 17 pays à l’écran sonore’, 18 September, p. 4. –––– (1930b), ‘Mme Abel Gance a tenté de se suicider’, 22 October, p. 3. 228 FILMOGRAPHY AND BIBLIOGRAPHY
–––– (1931), ‘À Joinville le feu détruit un studio de cinema et deux pavillons’, 20 March, pp. 1, 3. Parker, Noel (1998), ‘The French Revolution on Film: Oppositions and Continuities’. In Ian Germani and Robin Swales (eds), Symbols, Myths and Images of the French Revolution , Regina: University of Regina, pp. 265–82. Parsons, Louella (1921), ‘Abel Gance’, New York Telegraph , 14 August. Reproduced in Taylorology , 67 (1998) [online]. Available at:
Thompson, Kristin (1985), Exporting Entertainment: America in the World Film Market, 1907–34 , London: BFI . Tinee, Mae (1934), ‘“End of World” Is the Villain in This Movie’, Chicago Tribune (Chicago), 25 September, p. 15. Ulff-Møller, Jens (1999), ‘Hollywood’s “Foreign War”: The Effect of National Commercial Policy on the Emergence of the American Film Hegemony in France, 1920–29’. In Andrew Higson and Richard Maltby (eds), ‘Film Europe’ and ‘Film America’: Cinema, Commerce, and Cultural Exchange, 1920–39 , Exeter: University of Exeter Press, pp. 181–206. Véray, Laurent (2000), ‘Abel Gance: cinéaste à l’œuvre cicatricielle’, 1895 , 31, pp. 19–52. Vezyroglou, Dimitri (2000), ‘Les grandes espérances. Abel Gance, la Société des Nations et le cinéma européen à la fi n des années vingt’, 1895 , 31, pp. 129–42. –––– (2011), Le Cinéma en France à la veille du parlant: Un essai d’histoire cul- turelle , Paris: CNRS. Vincendeau, Ginette (1999), ‘Hollywood Babel: The Coming of Sound and the Multi-Language Version’. In Andrew Higson and Richard Maltby (eds), ‘Film Europe’ and ‘Film America’: Cinema, Commerce, and Cultural Exchange, 1920–39 , Exeter: University of Exeter Press, pp. 207–24. Vincent, Carl (1931), ‘La Fin du Monde ’, L’Indépendence Belge , 2 January, p. 6. Vinneuil, François [Lucien Rebatet] (1931), ‘La Fin du Monde ’, L’Action Française , 30 January, p. 4. –––– (1938), ‘L’Ecran de la semaine: J’accuse ’, L’Action Française , 28 January, p. 4, 6. Vogel, Lucien (1931), Letter to Abel Gance, 29 September [typescript], BiFi, GANCE572-B114. Volguine, Alexandre (1929), ‘La Cinématographie et l’Astrologie’, L’Astrosophie , 1:4, pp. 158–64. Wall-Romana, Christophe (2013), Cinepoetry: Imaginary Cinemas in French Poetry , New York: Fordham University Press. Weinberg, Herman G. (1954), Letter to Abel Gance, 9 June [typescript], BnF, 4-COL-36/558. Weiskopf, Franz Carl (1931), ‘Der Bindestrich zwischen Paris und Moskau: Gespräch mit Filmregisseur Abel Gance’. In Klaus Kändler, Helga Karolewski, and Ilse Siebert (eds) (1987), Berliner Begegnungen: Ausländische Künstler in Berlin 1918 bis 1933 , Berlin: Verlag, pp. 455–6. Willemen, Paul (1994), ‘Through a Glass Darkly: Cinephilia Reconsidered’. In Paul Willemen, Looks and Frictions: Essays in Cultural Studies and Film Theory , London: BFI, pp. 223–57. Williams, Alan (1992), Republic of Images: A History of French Filmmaking , Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. 230 FILMOGRAPHY AND BIBLIOGRAPHY
OTHER WRITTEN MATERIAL Balzac, Honoré de (1834–35), Séraphîta . In Honoré de Balzac (1835), Le livre mystique , 2 vols., Paris: Werdet, II, pp. 1–359. Barbusse, Henri (1908), L’Enfer , Paris: La Librairie Mondiale. –––– (1916), Le Feu , Paris: Flammarion. –––– (1917), ‘Pourquoi te bats-tu?’. In Henri Barbusse (1920), Paroles d’un com- battant: articles et discours (1917–20) , Paris: Flammarion, pp. 8–21. –––– (1919), Clarté , Paris: Flammarion. –––– (1921), Le couteau entre les dents: Aux intellectuels , Paris: Clarté. –––– (1927), Jésus , Paris: Flammarion. Barenboim, Daniel (2008), Everything is Connected: The Power of Music , London: Phoenix. Bartov, Omer (2000), Mirrors of Destruction: War, Genocide, and Modern Identity , Oxford: Oxford University Press. Bensaude-Vincent, Bernadette and Christine Blondel (2002), ‘Introduction’. In Bernadette Bensaude-Vincent and Christine Blondel (eds), Des savants faces à l’occulte, 1870–1940 , Paris: La Découverte, pp. 5–18. Bergerac, Cyrano de [1657–62] (1962), Histoire comique des états et empires de la lune et du Soleil , Paris: Pauvert. Berget, Alphonse (1912), La vie et la mort du globe , Paris: Flammarion. –––– (1923), Le ciel , Paris: Larousse. Bloch, Ernst [1923] (2000), The Spirit of Utopia (trans. Anthony A. Nassar), Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press. Borchmeyer, Dieter (1992), ‘The Question of Anti-Semitisim’. In Ulrich Müller and Peter Wapnewski (eds), Wagner Handbook , Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, pp. 166–85. Bowers, Faubion (1996), Scriabin: A Biography , Mineola: Dover. Brendel, Alfred (1961), ‘Liszt Misunderstood’. In Alfred Brendel (2001), Alfred Brendel on Music: Collected Essays , London: Robson, pp. 236–40. Burleigh, Michael (2005), Earthly Powers: The Clash of Religion and Politics in Europe, from the French Revolution to the Great War , London: HarperCollins. Cairns, David (2000), Berlioz: The Making of an Artist, 1803–32 , London: Penguin. Canudo, Ricciotto (1905), Le Livre de la Genèse: Vision de la IXe symphonie de Beethoven , Paris: Éditions de la Plume. –––– (1907), Le Livre de l’Evolution: L’Homme. Psychologie musicale des civilisa- tions , Paris: Sansot. Cendrars, Blaise (1918), J’ai tué . In Blaise Cendrars (1960–64), Œuvres complètes (ed. Raymond Dumay and Nino Frank), 8 vols., Paris: Denoël, IV, pp. 147–52. –––– (1919), La Fin du monde, fi lmée par l’ange de N.-D. In Blaise Cendrars (1960–64), Œuvres complètes (ed. Raymond Dumay and Nino Frank), 8 vols., Paris: Denoël, II, pp. 7–50. FILMOGRAPHY AND BIBLIOGRAPHY 231
D’Annunzio, Gabriele [1900] (1991), The Flame (trans. Susan Bassnett), London: Quartet. Darwin, Erasmus (1789–91), The Botanic Garden; A Poem, in Two Parts , 2 vols., London: Johnson. Delaunay, Robert (1958), Du cubisme à l’art abstrait , Paris: SEVPEN. Donehower, Bruce (2007), ‘Introduction’. In Novalis, The Birth of Novalis: Friedrich von Hardenberg’s Journal of 1797, With Selected Letters and Documents (ed./ trans. Bruce Donehower), New York: State University of New York, pp. 1–34. Eliade, Mircea (1958), Patterns in Comparative Religion (trans. R. Sheed), New York: Sheed/Ward. –––– (1965), Mephistopheles and the Androgyne: Studies in religious myth and sym- bol (trans. J.M. Cohen), New York: Sheed/Ward. Ferns, Christopher S. (1999), Narrating utopia: Ideology, gender, form in utopian literature , Liverpool: Liverpool University Press. Flammarion, Camille (1862), La pluralité des mondes habités , Paris: Mallet-Bachelier. –––– (1867), ‘Lumen – Histoire d’une âme’. In Camille Flammarion (1873), Récits de l’infi ni , Paris: Didier, pp. 3–236. –––– (1889), Uranie , Paris: Marpon/Flammarion. –––– (1894), La Fin du Monde , Paris: Flammarion. –––– (1900), L’Inconnu et les problèmes psychiques , Paris: Flammarion. –––– (1903), Astronomie des Dames , Paris: Flammarion. –––– (1907), Les Forces naturelles inconnues , Paris: Flammarion. –––– (1911), Mémoires biographiques et philosophiques d’un astronome , Paris: Flammarion. –––– (1920), La Mort et son mystère , 3 vols., Paris: Flammarion. Fortesque, William (2000), The Third Republic in France, 1870–1940: Confl icts and Continuities , London: Routledge. Gautier, Théophile (1898), Guide de l’amateur au Musée du Louvre , Paris: Charpentier. Gawboy, Anna M. and Justin Townsend (2012), ‘Scriabin and the Possible’, Music Theory Online , 18:2 [online]. Available at:
Hegel, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich (1822–28), ‘The varieties of historical writing’. In Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (1975), Lectures on the philosophy of world history, introduction (trans. H.B. Nisbet), Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 11–24. Henig, Ruth (2010), The League of Nations , London: Haus. Horne, Alistair [1965] (2007), The Fall of Paris: The Siege and the Commune 1870–71 , London: Penguin. –––– [1969] (2007), To Lose a Battle: France 1940 , London: Penguin. Housden, Martyn (2012), The League of Nations and the Organization of Peace , Harlow: Pearson. Hugo, Adèle (1854), Diary entry, 15 June. In Adèle Hugo (1968–84), Le Journal d’Adèle Hugo (ed. Frances Vernor Guille), 3 vols., Paris: Minard, III, p. 268. Hugo, Victor (1843), ‘Voyage aux Pyrénées’. In Victor Hugo (1890), Alpes et Pyrénées , Paris: Hetzel, pp. 37–228. –––– (1854a), ‘À la fenêtre pendant la nuit’. In Victor Hugo (1856), Les Contemplations , 2 vols., Paris: Lévy, II, pp. 251–7. –––– (1854b), Séance with ‘La Mort’, 29 September. In Victor Hugo (1967–71), Œuvres complètes. Édition chronologique (ed. Jean Massin), 18 vols., Paris: Club Français du Livre, IX, pp. 1438–40. –––– (1855), Séance with ‘Jésus Christ’, 11 February. In Victor Hugo (1967–71), Œuvres complètes. Édition chronologique (ed. Jean Massin), 18 vols., Paris: Club Français du Livre, IX, pp. 1454–5. –––– (1855–58), ‘Rêveries sur Dieu’. In Victor Hugo (1967–71), Œuvres com- plètes. Édition chronologique (ed. Jean Massin), 18 vols., Paris: Club Français du Livre, X, pp. 1209–10. –––– (1856), Letter to Jules Michelet, 9 May. In Victor Hugo (1947–52), Correspondance (ed. C. Daubray), 4 vols., Paris: Imprimerie Nationale/ Ollendorf, II, p. 247. –––– (1859), ‘La trompette du jugement’. In Victor Hugo (1859), La Légende des siècles, Première série , 2 vols., Paris: Lévy, II, pp. 251–63. –––– (1864a), ‘A Reims’. In Victor Hugo (1967–71), Œuvres complètes. Édition chronologique (ed. Jean Massin), 18 vols., Paris: Club Français du Livre, XII, pp. 394–400. –––– (1864b), William Shakespeare , Paris: Nelson. –––– (1875–78), Fragments from ‘Philosophie de ma vie’. In Victor Hugo (1967–71), Œuvres complètes. Édition chronologique (ed. Jean Massin), 18 vols., Paris: Club Français du Livre, XVI, pp. 373–92. Hutchisson, James M. (2005), Poe , Jackson, MS: University Press of Mississippi. Ireson, J.C. (1997), Victor Hugo: A Companion to his Poetry , Oxford: Clarendon. Jameson, Frederic (2005), Archaeologies of the future: The desire called utopia and other science fi ctions , London: Verso. Jenkins, Philip (2014), The great and holy war: How World War I became a religious crusade , New York: HarperOne. FILMOGRAPHY AND BIBLIOGRAPHY 233
Jonas, Raymond (1992), ‘L’Année Terrible, 1870–71’. In Jacques Benoist (ed.), Le Sacré-Cœur de Montmartre: de 1870 à nos jours , Paris: Ouvrières, pp. 31–42. Keyserling, Hermann (1919), Das Reisetagebuch eines Philosophen , Munich/ Leipzig: Dunker/Humbolt. King-Hele, Desmond (1986), Erasmus Darwin and the Romantic Poets , London: Palgrave/Macmillan. Kitcher, Philip and Richard Schacht (2004), Finding an Ending: Refl ections on Wagner’s ‘Ring’ , Oxford: Oxford University Press. Kropotkin, Pyotr Alexeyevich (1885), Paroles d’un révolté , Paris: Marpon/ Flammarion. –––– (1909), La grande révolution (1789–93) , Paris: Stock. La Paix par le droit (1920), ‘Pour la paix par le droit: Appel-programme’, 30:1–2, pp. 1–5. Lagana, Marc (1990), Le Parti Colonial Français: Éléments d’Histoire , Montreal: Presses de l’Université du Québec. Lamarck, Jean-Baptiste (1802), Recherches sur l’organisation des corps vivans , Paris: Maillard. –––– (1809), Philosophie zoologique , 2 vols., Paris: Dentu. –––– (1815–22), Histoire naturelle des animaux sans vertèbres , 7 vols., Paris: Déterville. Laplace, Pierre-Simon de (1796), Exposition du système du monde . In Pierre-Simon de Laplace (1878–1912), Œuvres complètes , 14 vols., Paris: Gauthier-Villars, VI, pp. 1–509. League of Nations Offi cial Journal (1920), ‘Procès-Verbal of the First Meeting of the Council of the League of Nations’, 1:1, pp. 17–25. Lefebvre, Henri (1962), Introduction à la modernité: Préludes , Paris: Minuit. Levitas, Ruth (2013), Utopia as Method: The Imaginary Reconstitution of Society , London: Palgrave/Macmillan. Maeterlinck, Maurice (1896), Le trésor des humbles , Paris: Mercure de France. –––– (1928), La vie de l’espace , Paris: Charpentier. –––– (1929), La Grande Féerie , Paris: Charpentier. Magee, Bryan (2000), Wagner and Philosophy , London: Penguin. Monroe, John Warne (2008), Laboratories of faith: Mesmerism, spiritism, and occultism in modern France , New York: Cornell University Press. Morgan, Owen (2007), ‘“J’accuse…!”: Zola and the Dreyfus Affair’. In Brian Nelson (ed.), The Cambridge Companion to Zola , Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 188–205. Nattiez, Jean Jacques (1990), Wagner androgyne: Essai sur l’interprétation , Paris: Bourgois. Nerval, Gérard de (1845), ‘Vers dorés’. In Gérard de Nerval (1856), Les fi lles du feu , Paris: Lévy, p. 298. –––– (1851), Voyage en Orient , 2 vols., Paris: Charpentier. –––– (1855), ‘Aurélia, ou le rêve et la vie’, Revue de Paris , 24, pp. 5–26; 477–500. 234 FILMOGRAPHY AND BIBLIOGRAPHY
Nietzsche, Friedrich [1872] (2003), The Birth of Tragedy (Out of the Spirit of Music) (trans. Sean Whiteside), London: Penguin. –––– [1882] (2001), The Gay Science (trans. Josefi ne Nauckhoff), Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Novalis (1797–98), ‘Miscellaneous Observations’. In Novalis (1997), Philosophical Writings (ed./trans. Margaret Stoljar), New York: State University of New York Press, pp. 23–46. –––– (1798–99), Fragments from Das Allgemeine Brouillon . In Novalis (2007), Notes for a Romantic Encyclopaedia (ed./trans. David W. Wood), New York: State University of New York, pp. 1–190. –––– [1800] (1992), Henry von Ofterdingen: A Novel (trans. Palmer Hilty), Illinois: Waveland Press. –––– [1802] (2005), The Novices of Saïs (trans. Ralph Manheim), New York: Archipelago. Pessoa, Fernando (2002), The Book of Disquiet (trans. Richard Zenith), London: Penguin. Poe, Edgar Allen (1848), Eureka: A prose poem , New York: Putnam. Pradt, Abbé de (1815), Histoire de l’Ambassade dans le Grand Duché de Varsovie en 1812 , Paris: Pillet. Renan, Ernest (1863–81), Histoire des origines du Christianisme , 7 vols., Paris: Lévy. –––– (1867), ‘Préface de la treizième édition’. In Ernest Renan [1863], Vie de Jésus , Paris: Lévy, pp. iii-xxxi. –––– (1890), L’avenir de la science: Pensées de 1848 , Paris: Lévy. Robb, Graham (1997), Victor Hugo , London: Picador. –––– (2003), Strangers: Homosexual love in the 19th century , London: Picador. Rodriguez, Marie-José (2014), ‘Robert Delaunay, Rythmes sans fi n’, September [online]. Available at:
–––– (1900), ‘Introduction: Le théâtre de l’âme’. In Édouard Schuré (1900–05), Le théâtre de l’âme , 3 vols., Paris: Perrin, I, pp. ix-xx. –––– (1904), Précurseurs et révoltés , Paris: Perrin. –––– (1912), L’évolution du sphinx au divine Christ , Paris: Perrin. Sheppard, William Anthony (2001), Revealing Masks: Exotic Infl uences and Ritualized Performance in Modernist Music Theatre , Berkeley, CA: Cambridge University Press. Simon, Gustave (ed.) (1923), Chez Victor Hugo: Les tables tournantes de Jersey , Paris: Stock. Spencer, Stewart (2001), ‘Wagner Literature: Biographies’. In Barry Millington (ed.), The Wagner Compendium , London: Thames/Hudson, pp. 402–4. Stannard, Martin (1996), ‘The Necrophiliac Art?’ In Dale Salwak (ed.), The Literary Biography: Problems and Solutions , London: Macmillan, pp. 32–40. Stapfer, Paul (1905), Victor Hugo à Guernesey. Souvenirs Personnels , Paris: Société Française d’Imprimerie et de Librairie. Symons, Arthur (1899), The symbolist movement in literature , London: Heinemann. The Bible: King James Version (2011), London: HarperCollins. Tivoly, Jean (1933), ‘La Fin du Monde’, L’Etudiant français , 25 April-10 May, p. 3. Wagner, Richard (1880), ‘Religion and Art’. In Richard Wagner (1895–99), Richard Wagner’s Prose Works (trans. W.A. Ellis), 8 vols., London: Paul/ Trench/Trübner, VI, pp. 211–52. Warner, Charles Dudley (1883), ‘Wagner’s Parsifal ’, The Atlantic Monthly , January, pp. 75–86. Winter, Jay (1995), Sites of memory, sites of mourning: The Great War in European cultural history , Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Zamoyski, Adam (2005), 1812: Napoleon’s fatal march on Moscow , London: Harper. Zola, Émile (1898), ‘J’Accuse…!’, L’Aurore , 13 January, pp. 1–2. INDEX
A Böhme, Jacob, 22, 42 Arroy, Jean, xv, xvi Brownlow, Kevin, vii–viii, xxix, 14, 62, Artaud, Antonin, 109, 130n4, 190–3, 66, 85, 171, 205, 211, 214 195, 200, 202 Buraud, Georges, xvi, 75, 76, 77n1, AU SECOURS !, 127, 130n3 153, 154, 156, 167, 175 AUTOUR DE LA FIN DU MONDE , 127, 139–41, 156, 161, 166n7, 174, 183, 190, 191, 193, 194, 200 C AUTOUR DE LA ROUE , 140, 141, 204n1 Canudo, Ricciotto, 5, 65, 69, 72 AUTOUR DE NAPOLÉON , 140, 141, 193, Cendrars, Blaise, 29, 35, 36, 79, 140, 204n2 177, 179 Chaplin, Charlie, 130n5 CYRANO ET D’ARTAGNON , 59 B Balzac, Honoré de, 49, 50 BARBEROUSSE , 85 D Barbusse, Henri, 12, 13, 21, 22, 41, Danis, Ida, 8, 15, 66, 106 61 Danis, Pierre, 110, 116 Barenboim, Daniel, 145, 201, 203 D’Annunzio, Gabriele, 50, 51, 69, 72, Beethoven, Ludwig van, 43, 69, 76 93, 104n1, 187, 208 Bergerac, Cyrano de, 59 Darwin, Charles, 58 Berlioz, Hector, 31, 37, 195 Darwin, Erasmus, 58, 59 Bersaucourt, Edouard de, 134 Delaunay, Robert, 73 Bloch, Ernst, 38, 64, 69, 70, 202
Note: Page numbers followed by “n” refer to notes.
© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2016 237 P. Cuff, Abel Gance and the End of Silent Cinema, DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-38818-2 238 INDEX
DeMille, Cecil B., 22, 103, 128, 130n4, 144, 147, 154, 158, 140, 169 159, 198, 200, 211 ; Martial Deslaw, Eugene, 110, 125, 127, 139, Novalic, 42, 53, 97, 109, 121, 141 131n9, 149, 201 ; Schomburg, DIVINE TRAGÉDIE, LA , 210 24, 36, 97, 109, 121, 146, DIXIÈME SYMPHONIE, LA , 6, 7, 20n3, 149, 150, 155, 156, 160–2, 29, 31, 43, 85, 127, 131n6, 169 164, 168, 169, 171–6, 178, Dréville, Jean, 113, 140 207 ; Werster, 109, 131n6, 156, DROIT À LA VIE, LE , 85, 169, 171 160, 168, 169, 171, 172, Dupont, Ewald André, 92 175–8, 183, 184, 196 conception and development, xxx, 83 see also Gance, Abel, E religious trilogy, plans for ; ECCE HOMO , 6–8, 10, 15, 20n3, 23, GRANDS INITIÉS, LES (series) 27, 42, 53, 67, 85, 86, 109, 110, critical reception, xiv, 128 154, 155, 159, 160 distribution of French-language Écran d’Art, L’, xix, 105–7, 110, 116, version, 117 118, 120, 121, 125, 128, 129, distribution of German-language 129n1, 130n1, 154 . See also FIN version, 122, 199 DU MONDE , LA , production; music, use of, 125, 144, 145, 212 Ivanoff, Vassili performance styles, 151, 152 Einstein, Albert, 62–4, 187 perspective sound, plans for, 203 Eisenstein, Sergei, 92, 114, 115, 135 see also Gance, Abel, sound, ENDE DER WELT, DAS . See FIN DU views on MONDE , LA , distribution of production, 116, 133, 161 German-language version scenario and screenplay, xxx, 35, 108 ÉNIGME DE DIX HEURES, L’ , 171 scenes ; credits, 80, 143 ; ending , 76, Epstein, Jean, viii, xiv, xxvii, 5, 113, 177 ; orgy , 183, 200 ; Passion 130n3, 130n4, 212 play , 24, 43, 115, 145, 148 ; Étiévant, Henri, 105, 110, 113 ‘Universal Convention’, 162, 177, 185, 186 ; universal panic, 180, 200 F sound design, 200 see also Gance, Fainsilber, Samson, 109, 120, 121, Abel, sound, views on 127, 156, 175 triptych, plans for, 43, 92, 178 Faure, Elie, 5, 49 Flammarion, Camille, 31–4, 50, 60–5, FIN DU MONDE, LA 72, 75, 143, 148, 165n1, 180 casting, 108–10, 112, 120 Flammarion, Gabrielle, 32 characters ; Abraham de Murcie, FOLIE DU DOCTEUR TUBE, LA , 127, 192 109 ; Geneviève de Murcie, 24 ; Francen, Victor, xxi, 47, 54, 109, 121, Jean Novalic, 7, 24, 37, 42, 43, 153, 193, 209 45–53, 57, 58, 79, 109, 113, Frank, Nino, 127 INDEX 239
G Grenade, Sylvie, 109, 120, 131n9, Gance, Abel 175 critical reputation, xiv Gréville, Wanda, 109, 121, 130n5, 183 ideology of cinema, 65 see also Griffi th, David Wark, 8, 86, 103, 121, League of Nations, The 140 personal life, 206 see also Danis, Ida ; Grinieff, Jacques, 90, 106 Danis, Pierre ; Gance, Marguerite ; Grenade, Sylvie relationship with producers see H Ivanoff, Vassili ; Nalpas, Louis ; Hegel, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich, 30 Pathé, Charles Herzog, Werner, xxviii, 214, 215 religion and spirituality, 9, 57 Hitler, Adolf, 207, 208 religious trilogy, plans for, 6, 22, Hugo, Victor, xxiv, 27–9, 37, 41, 44, 83 60–3, 90, 106, 121, 186, 209, sound, views on, 200 see also FIN DU 215 . See also VICTOR HUGO MONDE , LA , sound design theatre work, 28, 74 war trilogy, plans for, 6 see also fi lm I projects by title Icart, Roger, xxviii, xxix, 6, 20, 22, 87, Gance, Marguerite, 109, 110, 116, 106, 120, 128, 131n10, 151, 118, 120, 130n4, 135n1 . See also 153, 208, 209 Gance, Abel, personal life Ivanoff, Vassili, xix, xxi, xxvi, xxviii, Gaumont, Léon , 86, 88, 89, 98, 107, 105–18, 121, 128, 131n10, 134, 161, 184, 187, 189, 190, 192 135n1, 160, 199, 205 . See also Gaumont-Metro-Goldwyn, xviii, 89 . FIN DU MONDE , LA, production See also Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Gautier, Théophile, 48 GAZ MORTELS, LES , 85, 97, 171 J Geoffroy, Louis, 210, 211 J’ACCUSE ! (silent version), xiv, xxviii, Goebbels, Joseph, 207, 208 10, 14 . See also Gance, Abel, plans GRAND AMOUR DE BEETHOVEN, UN , for war trilogy xxviii, 211 J’ACCUSE ! (sound version), xxviii, 97, GRANDS INITIÉS, LES (series), xix, 22–5, 106, 208, 212 28–30, 41, 73, 76, 92, 206 Gravone, Gabriel de, 15, 20n3 Great War, The, 3, 6, 8, 12, 15, 17, K 18, 21, 25, 27, 29, 33, 35, 37, Kaplan, Nelly, viii, 47, 57, 111, 113, 83, 88, 93, 97, 128, 133, 207 . 190, 204n2, 206, 214 See also Barbusse, Henri; Gance, Kipling, Rudyard, 86, 104n1, 187 Abel, plans for war trilogy; Kirsanoff, Dimitri, 110 Grelling, Richard Kracauer, Siegfried, xxiii, 199 Grelling, Richard, 13, 14, 37, 38 Kropotkin, Pyotr Alexeyevich, 37, 39 240 INDEX
L P Lamarck, Jean-Baptiste, 48, 49, 58, 60 Pathé (company), 85 Lang, Fritz, xviii, xxv, 92 Pathé, Charles, 7, 8, 17, 22, 85–9, 98, League of Nations, The, xix, 10, 83, 106 93, 95–8, 126, 133, 208 . See also Pearson, George, 212 Gance, Abel, ideology of cinema Pessoa, Fernando, 213 LÉGENDE DE L’ARC-EN-CIEL, LA , 73, 74 Pick, Lupu, 92 Luchaire, Julien, 94, 108 Poe, Edgar Allan, 59, 171
M R Maeterlinck, Maurice, 64, 72, 104n1, Rebatet, Lucien (aka François 187 Vinneuil), xxv, 208, 209 MARINE , 140 Renan, Ernest, 36, 55, 55n1 MATER DOLOROSA , 20n3, 85, 127 Riefenstahl, Leni, 208 Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, 89 . See also Robard, Pierre, 105, 116 Gaumont-Metro-Goldwyn ROUE, LA , xiv, xxvii, 15–18, 29, 34, Moussinac, Léon, xv, 17, 20n1 35, 49, 66, 67, 86–8, 90, 91, 97, Mussolini, Benito, 44, 187, 208 106, 107, 110, 126, 127, 140, 141, 143, 150, 152, 158, 159, 169, 171, 204n1 N Ruttmann, Walter, 99, 110 Nalpas, Louis, 85, 86, 98 NAPOLÉON, VU PAR ABEL GANCE characters ; Bonaparte, xiii, 17–20, S 29, 33, 38, 41–3, 53, 79, 80, Said, Edward W., 201 153, 154, 187, 193, 201 ; SAINTE-HÉLÈNE , 20, 29, 38, 75, 76, Saint-Just, 45, 47, 50, 51, 58, 188, 197 80, 201, 211 Saint-Simon, Henri de, 30, 31, 37, critical reception, xiv, 128 55 distribution and exhibition, 91, 112 Schopenhauer, Arthur, 22, 29, 67–70, politics, 25 72, 74, 202, 203 production, xiv, xxix, xxx, 17, 90, 140 Schuré, Edouard, 23, 24, 29, 55, 72, triptych scenes, xiv–xv, 19, 43, 112, 93 127, 140, 178 Scriabin, Alexander, 70–3, 77, 201 Napoléon Bonaparte, xiii, 17, 38, 43, Séverin-Mars, 6, 15, 66, 67, 75 79, 187 Société Générale de fi lms, 90, 206 Napoléon III, emperor of France, 27 Stinnes, Hugo, 90, 106 Nerval, Gérard de, 52, 53, 59, 60, 180 Nietzsche, Friedrich, 22, 34, 44, 48, 69, 93, 158 T Novalis, 42, 53, 54, 57, 76, 131n9 Thomas, Albert, 94, 112, 187 INDEX 241
Tourjansky, Viacheslav, 110, 117, VICTOR HUGO , 28, 197 130n3 Vinneuil, François . See Rebatet, Lucien t’Serstevens, Albert, 7, 8, 154, 162
W U Wagner, Richard, x, 27–9, 31, 37, 38, utopia 39n1, 50, 68, 69, 71, 100, 144, in cinema, 212 145, 163, 165, 165n3, 197, 199, in literature, 31 212, 214 in music, 201 Wengeroff, Vladamir, 89 in political philosophy, xviii, 38 World War One . See Great War, The
V Z Veidt, Conrad, 54, 109, 183 Zola, Émile, 13–14, 105, 209 Vengen, Vanda . See Gréville, Wanda ZONE DE LA MORT, LA , 85 VÉNUS AVEUGLE, LA , xxviii, 209