The Cinema as Time Machine: Temporality and Duration in the Films of Abel Gance

Abstract

This essay examines the role of duration in the films of Abel Gance, focusing in particular on J’accuse! (1919) and La Roue (1922). I relate how the length and format of these films played a central role in the way they were produced, distributed, and receiving critically. The essay begins by tracing the evolution of Gance’s early films in relation to contemporary modes of production and distribution. I demonstrate that his move from short to feature-length films also involved a move toward seriality as a means of commercial exhibition. By exploiting its long duration and multipart format, Pathé successfully marketed Gance’s four-hour J’accuse as a work of great artistic quality and of tremendous popular appeal. My second section traces the release of La Roue, highlighting the critical reaction against its extreme (eight-hour) duration and episodic format. The essay’s final section contains a close analysis of the final “episode” of La Roue. I defend the film’s slow tempo and extensive duration, arguing that both serve a complex expressive purpose – especially in its last scenes. Finally, I suggest that Gance’s concern with temporality stems from his belief in cinema as a means of memorializing the lost – and that the narrative resolution of La Roue embodies his own attempt to come to terms with personal grief.