I found this silent film in the book 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die, it was rated well by critics, five stars out of five, so I looked forward to watching it, directed by Abel Gance (Napoléon). Basically a disastrous train crash occurs, railroad engineer Sisif (Severin-Mars) rescues a small orphan named Norma (Ivy Close),he raises the little girl as his own, along with his son Elie (Gabriel de Gravone),whose mother died during his birth. Norma becomes a lively and playful young woman as time passes, she has her greatest joyous moments spending time with Elie, who has grown into a handsome young man working as a violin maker, she believes she is her natural brother. But Sisif finds himself, to his own horror, falling in love with his adopted daughter, he confesses this unhealthy preoccupation with Norma to a partner Jacques de Hersan (Pierre Magnier). In response, Hersan threatens Sisif with blackmail, he wants to his consent to marry Norma himself, or expose his secret affection, Sisif reluctantly agrees to this arrangement. Sisif drives the train that will deliver Norma to her husband, but distraught, he drives recklessly, and nearly causes a train wreck. Sisif is forced to abandon his trade when he gets an eye injury, he goes to work instead for the funicular (cliff cable train) at Mont Blanc, Norma learns where Sisif and Elie live while on vacation at Chamonix with her husband. Hersan finds out that Elie also has feelings for Norma, he finds a love letter written by him to her in a violin he smashes, jealous Hersan fights with Elie on the mountain. Elie mortally wounds Hersan before falling to his death, enraged by Elie's death Sisif blames Norma and drives her away, but she returns, living undetected for a time in his shack, Sisif's eyesight almost completely gone helps this. Sisif does eventually find her there, they cling to each other, time and tragedy restore their relationship to a father-daughter status. Norma cares for Sisif as he grows older, he sends her out to join in a local festivity, his eyesight not working well, he imagines her walking out and dancing, Sisif dies. I will be honest and say, there being no sound and having to read the title cards, and it being over 3 hours long, I did not fully concentrate on everything going on, to the point where I almost lost my way and almost dozed off, but I can confirm I watched it all, it has some good editing, I don't know if it was as interesting as Napoléon, but it is a worthwhile tragedy. Very good!

Abel Gance in my mind was a pioneer of not just French cinema but cinema in general. All of his work is well worth the look and are visual and technical marvels, some of the techniques being one he pioneered. Some of his best works, 'Napoleon' being one of them, are revolutionary in not just silent film but also film of all kinds and are towering achievements. Is his work for all tastes? Not all, tending to be very long and sprawling with a lot of patience required.

Had heard so many great things about 'La Roue' (English translation being 'The Wheel') and being somebody that loved especially 'Napoleon' so much, there was no doubt in my mind about wanting to see it. Saw it during one of my film reviewing breaks from here on a lazy afternoon alone and was very impressed indeed. 'La Roue' won't be one of my favourite films any time soon and to me it is not quite one of Gance's best, with it for example not having the special factor that 'Napoleon'. It is an extremely good film though with many outstanding elements.

Can understand why 'La Roue' won't be to everybody's taste as it is slightly divisive here. Most of the time the pace to me was fine, but there were times in the slighter moments where the film dragged with some scenes going on a little longer than necessary.

Likewise with anybody feeling that there is some unnecessary repetition, with a couple of actions happening more than once and one questions why.

On the other hand, 'La Roue' looks amazing visually and technically, an achievement even. Not just for back then, but also then. The editing is not as "unlike anything seen before" quality like the innovative editing in 'Napoleon' was, but it is still very fluid and the transitioning is practically seamless throughout. The sets are also beautiful to look at. The standout visually and technically though is the magnificent cinematography, very audacious with some very interesting and beautifully composed techniques. Also with some beautifully poetic shots in the more emotional moments. The music is haunting and fits well, not over-bearing or over-dramatic or sentimentalised.

Gance's direction is near-triumphant and superbly controlled. The story is not always perfect pace-wise, but has a huge amount of poignant heart. Especially in the denouement, my heart broke into two here. Although 'La Roue' is a very long film, the longest seen since March and one of the longest ever, much of the time it doesn't feel long. The pace is controlled and deliberate but mostly is not dull, was too transfixed by the visuals and the emotion. The characters are worth caring for, especially Norma, and Severin-Mars is a revelation (searingly intense but also heartfelt) out of a cast that all play their parts beautifully. Ivy Close is touching too.

Summing up, very good and nearly great. 8/10

This film is a very, very, very long movie about a railroad engineer who's infatuated with his adoptive daughter. While somewhat incestuous and creepy, it gets worse as her brother who does NOT know that she isn't his biological sister also falls for her! In fact, practically every man around this sweet young lady goes mad and is willing to kill to possess her!

This is a very hard film to rate and I am sure I'll irritate legions of old movie buffs when I say that despite LA ROUE being an amazing film with wonderful cinematography, it is also a MAJOR chore to force yourself to watch the entire film. I really feel sorry for the initial audiences for the movie, as it was an 8 1/2 hour film! Then, because no sane audience wanted to see such an interminably long film, it was trimmed to 5 hours. Today, a recently restored version is almost 4 hours--and in my opinion, this is STILL way too long. An hour and a half EASILY could have been trimmed, as the film had way too many lengthy shots of nothing in particular, artsy shots, scenes and plot elements that were irrelevant and scenes that just went on too long. I understand that this was Abel Gance's artistic vision, but he just didn't exercise restraint. The film still desperately needed a good editing.

The same dilemma exists when you hear discussions about Erich Von Stroheim's GREED. For years on IMDb, I have watched the silent film board abound with comments about how sad it is that his original 9 hour film no longer exists. Von Stroheim threw a giant temper tantrum back in 1924 when the studio insisted it be trimmed because of a stupid need to actually make money from his 30003023 reel behemoth and ever since people in the know have longed to see the original. Well, I saw the shortened version of GREED and it was a pretty good film--thus making me some sort of Neanderthal.

Now I am NOT saying all films need to be short--I love a good 3 hour epic and have even seen the Russian version of WAR AND PEACE twice and it's almost 7 hours long. Heck, I saw both mini-series WAR AND REMEMBRANCE and WINDS OF WAR (at about 32 hours long),so I like long things if there's a need. A film about the origins of WWII and WWII itself justified the excessive length.

So what am I trying to say? Well, long is just fine when the plot will sustain it and there is a legitimate reason to make such a long and complex film. Films about very, very complex events justify being long. A rather simple plot like you have in LA ROUE about a rather crazed man's infatuation with his adopted daughter just didn't justify so many reels of film.

The bottom line is that while I respect LA ROUE for being so ground-breaking, beautiful to watch and artfully made, it just made me want to watch it on DVD while using the fast forward button! Okay, silent film snobs--get ready with the "not helpful" comments! Before you slam me, do understand that I have watched and reviewed more silent films than practically anyone so far on IMDb, so I DON'T hate silents--I love them in fact. It's just that I couldn't for the life of me encourage non-silent lovers to watch LA ROUE--as it will probably make them think that silent films are bad or outdated. There are so many great silent films waiting to be seen and only a very, very patient audience could possibly sit through this film.