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Abel Gance

Screenwriter / Film Director / Film Producer | * 10/25/1889 († 92, 11/10/1981) | Paris (France)
Abel Gance (French: [gɑ̃s]; born Abel Eugène Alexandre Péréthon; 25 October 1889 – 10 November 1981) was a French film director, producer, writer and actor. A pioneer in the theory and practice of montage, he is best known for three major silent films: J'accuse (1919), La Roue (1923), and Napoléon (1927). ()

Abel Gance was a French film director, producer, writer and actor. A pioneer in the theory and practice of montage, he is best known for three major silent films: J'accuse (1919), La Roue (1923), and Napoléon (1927). He was born in Paris in 1889. In 1909, he acted in his first film. He also wrote scenarios, and often sold them to Gaumont. During this period he was diagnosed with tuberculosis, fatal at the time, but he recovered. In 1911, with some friends he established a production company, Le Film Français, and began directing his own films. With the outbreak of WW I, rejected by the army on medical grounds, he started writing and directing for a new film company, Film d'Art until 1918, making over a dozen successful films. Charles Pathé underwrote his next film, J'accuse (1919), in which Gance confronted the waste and suffering which the war had brought. In 1920, he developed La Roue. He brought an unprecedented level of energy and imagination to the technical realization of his story, employing elaborate editing techniques and innovative use of rapid cutting which made the film highly influential. The finished film ran for nearly nine hours, but was edited down for distribution.In 1921, Gance visited America to promote J'accuse. He met D. W. Griffith, whom he had long admired. He was also offered a contract with MGM but turned it down. He then embarked on his greatest project, a six-part life of Napoléon. Only the first part was completed, tracing his early life, through the Revolution, up to the invasion of Italy, but even this occupied a vast canvas with meticulously recreated historical scenes and scores of characters. The film was full of experimental techniques, combining rapid cutting, hand-held cameras, superimposition of images, and, in wide-screen sequences, shot using a system he called Polyvision needing triple cameras (and projectors), achieved a spectacular panoramic effect, including a finale in which the outer two film panels were tinted blue and red, creating a widescreen image of a French flag. The original version ran for around 6 hours. A shortened version received a triumphant première at the Paris Opéra in April 1927. Throughout his life he kept returning to Napoléon, editing his footage, and as a result the original 1927 film was lost from view for decades. The dedicated work of the film historian Kevin Brownlow produced a five-hour version, still incomplete but fuller than anyone had seen since the 1920s. It was presented at the Telluride Film Festival in 1979, and the occasion brought a belated triumph to Gance's career, and made his name known to a worldwide audience.In the assessment of Kevin Brownlow, "...[Abel Gance] made a fuller use of the medium than anyone before or since". As well as his multiscreen ventures with Polyvision, he explored the use of superimposition of images, extreme close-ups, fast rhythmic editing, and he made the camera mobile in unorthodox ways – hand-held, mounted on wires or a pendulum, or even strapped to a horse. He also made early experiments with the addition of sound to film, and with filming in color and in 3-D. There were few aspects of film technique that he did not seek to incorporate in his work, and his influence was acknowledged by contemporaries and later by the French New Wave film-makers.

Photo of Abel Gance
Most frequent genres for this person: Drama | History | War

Known for these Movies & Shows

Awards & Nominations for Abel Gance

BAFTA Fellowship
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Movies with Abel Gance as Actor(8)

as Saint-Just1935 Napoléon Bonaparte
as Jean Novalic1931 End of the World
as Louis Antoine Léon de Saint-Just1927 Napoleon
as Molière jeune1909 Molière

TV Shows/Series with Abel Gance as Actor(2)

as Self (archive footage)1978 Encyclopédie audiovisuelle du cinéma
as himself1956 Cinépanorama

Movies with Abel Gance as Crew(87)

Directing/Director1972 Bonaparte et la révolution
Directing/Director1964 Cyrano and d'Artagnan
Writing/Screenplay1964 Cyrano and d'Artagnan
Directing/Director1960 The Battle of Austerlitz
Writing/Writer1960 The Battle of Austerlitz
Directing/Director1958 Magirama
Directing/Director1955 Tower of Lust
Writing/Screenplay1955 Tower of Lust
Writing/Writer1954 Queen Margot
Directing/Director1943 Captain Fracasse
Writing/Writer1943 Captain Fracasse
Directing/Director1941 Blind Venus
Writing/Writer1941 Blind Venus
Directing/Director1939 Louise
Directing/Director1939 Paradis perdu
Writing/Scenario Writer1939 Paradis perdu
Directing/Director1938 I Accuse
Writing/Writer1938 I Accuse
Directing/Director1938 The Woman Thief
Directing/Director1937 The Life and Loves of Beethoven
Directing/Director1935 Lucrezia Borgia
Writing/Writer1935 Lucrezia Borgia
Directing/Director1935 Le Roman d'un jeune homme pauvre
Writing/Screenplay1935 Le Roman d'un jeune homme pauvre
Directing/Director1935 Napoléon Bonaparte
Editing/Editor1935 Napoléon Bonaparte
Writing/Screenplay1935 Napoléon Bonaparte
Directing/Director1935 The Queen and the Cardinal
Writing/Writer1935 The Queen and the Cardinal
Directing/Director1934 La Dame aux camélias
Directing/Director1934 Poliche
Directing/Director1933 Mater Dolorosa
Writing/Writer1933 Mater Dolorosa
Writing/Screenplay1933 The Ironmaster
Directing/Director1931 End of the World
Writing/Screenplay1931 End of the World
Writing/Story1929 Napoleon at St. Helena
Directing/Director1928 Marines et cristeaux
Directing/Director1927 Napoleon
Editing/Editor1927 Napoleon
Writing/Writer1927 Napoleon
Directing/Director1924 Au Secours!
Production/Producer1924 Au Secours!
Writing/Writer1924 Au Secours!
Directing/Director1923 La Roue
Editing/Editor1923 La Roue
Production/Producer1923 La Roue
Writing/Writer1923 La Roue
Production/Producer1923 The Hearth
Directing/Director1919 J'accuse
Editing/Editor1919 J'accuse
Writing/Screenplay1919 J'accuse
Directing/Director1918 The Tenth Symphony
Writing/Writer1918 The Tenth Symphony
Directing/Director1917 The Torture of Silence
Writing/Writer1917 The Torture of Silence
Directing/Director1917 Barberousse
Writing/Writer1917 Barberousse
Directing/Director1917 La zone de la mort
Writing/Writer1917 La zone de la mort
Directing/Director1917 The Right to Life
Writing/Writer1917 The Right to Life
Directing/Director1916 Le fou de la falaise
Writing/Writer1916 Le fou de la falaise
Directing/Director1916 Deadly Gas
Writing/Writer1916 Deadly Gas
Directing/Director1916 Le périscope
Writing/Writer1916 Le périscope
Directing/Director1915 Un drame au château d'Acre
Writing/Writer1915 Un drame au château d'Acre
Directing/Director1915 L'héroïsme de Paddy
Writing/Writer1915 L'héroïsme de Paddy
Directing/Director1915 L'énigme de dix heures
Writing/Writer1915 L'énigme de dix heures
Directing/Director1915 The Madness of Dr. Tube
Writing/Writer1915 The Madness of Dr. Tube
Writing/Writer1914 L'infirmière
Directing/Director1912 The Mask of Horror
Writing/Screenplay1912 The Mask of Horror
Writing/Writer1912 A Tragic Love of Mona Lisa
Directing/Director1911 La digue
Writing/Writer1911 La digue
Writing/Writer1910 Jephté's Daughter
Writing/Writer1909 Molière
Writing/Writer1909 Le portrait de Mireille

TV Shows/Series with Abel Gance as Crew(2)

Directing/Director1966 Marie Tudor
Writing/Writer1966 Marie Tudor

Full Name: Abel Ábel Gance
Citizenship: France
Born: Friday, 10/25 1889 (October) in Paris (France)
Died: Tuesday, 11/10 1981 (November) in 16th arrondissement of Paris (aged: 92)
Zodiac sign: Scorpio (Chinese zodiac sign: Ox)
Languages: French (FR, native language)
Educated at: Lycée Chaptal
Spouses (current/former): Sylvie Gance
Other names for Abel Gance (nicknames, foreign languages etc.):
"아벨 강스"
"Abel Eugène Alexandre Péréton"
Abel Gance frequently works together with these people:
Roger Hubert (7x, Crew)
Albert Dieudonné (7x, Actor)
Léonce Perret (7x, Crew)
Henri Maillard (6x, Cast)
Nelly Kaplan (6x, Crew)
Steve Passeur (5x, Crew)
Antonin Artaud (5x, Actor)
Sylvie Gance (5x, Actress)
Fernand Rivers (5x, Crew)
Gérard Philipe (3x, Actor)
WatchPlayStream ID: PEOPLE:33429, Added: 05/13/2018, Last updated: 03/22/2024