Abel GanceFilmography

Born:: October 25, 1889 in Abel Perethon, Paris, France
Occupation:: Director, Editor, Producer, Screenwriter
Biography:: Abel Gance was the major figure among directors in 1920s French film, and among the most ambitious visionaries of the silent cinema. Fueled by literary ambitions from childhood, Gance began working as an actor at the age of 19, with the ambition of breaking into playwriting. In 1909, Gance managed...Read More

Sort By:
Title
Release Date

Abel Gance et Son Napoleon

Synopsis: This documentary focuses on the making of the 235-minute, silent epic Napoleon, the masterpiece of French director/writer/actor Abel Gance. Napoleon showcased Gance's talents with the camera, his use of multiple-images (like a split screen), and his handling of crowded action scenes -- all brought Read More

1984
Bonaparte et la Revolution

Crew: Director, Editor, Screenwriter

Actors: Albert Dieudonné, Antonin Artaud, Edmond van Daele

Synopsis: Using materials from 1927 and 1936 versions of his classic film Napoleon vu par Abel Gance (hence the presence of several individuals in the cast and credits who had since died), director Gance was able to restore and reconstruct it for modern audiences. This four-hour-long version was made Read More

1971
Marie Tudor

Crew: Director

Actors: Françoise Christophe, Marc Cassot

Synopsis: Celebrated director Abel Gance was recruited by the state-run television network of France for this version of the famous stage play by Victor Hugo. Gance sticks to the literal translation of the play that's filmed as the action unfolds. Francois Christophe plays the ill-fated 16th-century queen Read More

1967
Cyrano and D'Artagnan

Crew: Dialogue Writer, Director, Editor, Screenwriter

Actors: Mel Ferrer, José Ferrer, Jean-Pierre Cassel, Sylva Koscina, Daliah Lavi

Synopsis: The oddly featured poet Cyrano De Bergerac(Jose Ferrer, reprising an Oscar-winning role in Michael Gordon's Cyrano De Bergerac), he of the enormous nose, and musketeer D'Artagnan (Jean-Pierre Cassel) lend a hand to put down a revolution in 17th-century Paris. While they bravely fight for the Read More

9/6/63
Abel Gance, hier et demain

1963
The Battle of Austerlitz

Crew: Director, Screenwriter

Actors: Pierre Mondy, Rossano Brazzi, Vittorio De Sica, Claudia Cardinale, Martine Carol, Jean Marais

Synopsis: In what must be the longest lapse of time between a film and its sequel, 70-year-old Abel Gance continues his nearly legendary, 1927 historical drama Napoleon with this tale of Napoleon's life after his victories in Italy. The first half of Austerlitz delves into the private life of Napoleon Read More

6/17/60
Magirama

Crew: Director, Producer, Screenwriter

Actors: Maurice Baquet

1956
La Tour de Nesle

Crew: Director, Screenwriter

Actors: Pierre Brasseur, Silvana Pampanini, Rellys, Paul Guers

Synopsis: The French La Tour de Nesle (The Tower of Nesle) was the third Alexandre Dumas adaptation to be released in the first six weeks of 1955. Like the previous The Queen Margot, the film was scripted by the legendary Abel Gance, who also directed after a 12-year absence from the screen. The somewhat Read More

3/18/55
La Reine Margot

Crew: Screenwriter

Actors: Jeanne Moreau, Françoise Rosay, Armando Francioli, Louis de Funès, Henri Genes, Daniel Ceccaldi

Synopsis: Though the screenplay for La Reine Margot (The Queen Margot) was written by legendary filmmaker Abel Gance, the directorial reins were handled by Jean Dreville. Adapted from a novel by Alexandre Dumas, the film centers around Margot (Jeanne Moreau), the headstrong sister of France's King Charles Read More

11/2/54
Quatorze juillet 1953

Crew: Director

1953
Le Capitaine Fracasse

Crew: Director

Actors: Assia Noris, Fernand Gravey, Jean Weber

6/19/43
La Venus Aveugle

Crew: Director, Screenwriter

Actors: Viviane Romance, Georges Flamant, Henri Guisol

1941
Le Paradis Perdu

Crew: Director, Screenwriter

Actors: Micheline Presle, Elvire Popesco, Fernand Gravey, André Alerme

Synopsis: Originally released in 1939 as Paradis Perdu (Paradise Lost), Abel Gance's Four Flights to Love is typical of the great director's entertaining but insignificant later efforts. The storyline spans the years between the end of the First World War and the beginning of the Second. Unable to reconcile Read More

1940
Louise

Crew: Director

Actors: Grace Moore, Suzanne Desprès, Ginette Leclerc

Synopsis: What was it about opera diva Grace Moore that attracted the attention of filmdom's top directors? Moore's 1937 American movie vehicle When You're in Love had been directed by Josef Von Sternberg; two years later, her French starrer Louise was helmed by no less than Abel Gance, who a decade earlier Read More

1939
J'accuse

Crew: Director, Producer, Screenwriter

Actors: Line Noro, Renee Devillers, Victor Francen, Delaitre, Jean Max

Synopsis: This 1938 sci-fi and horror-tinged war drama from writer/director Abel Gance is an updated remake of Gance's own 1919 silent feature of the same name. J'accuse stars Victor Francen as Jean Diaz, a scientist who, after witnessing the unspeakable horrors of the battlefield during the First World Read More

1937
Le Voleur de Femmes

Crew: Director, Screenwriter

Actors: Annie Ducaux, Suzanne Desprès, Jules Berry, Saturnin Fabre

Synopsis: Director Abel Gance was several degrees removed from his silent masterpiece Napoleon when he called the shots on the conformist crime melodrama Le Voleur de Femmes (aka Woman Thief and A Thief of Women). Annie Ducaux plays a young girl named Anna, who is blackmailed into a life of crime. Leading Read More

1936
Abel Gance's Beethoven

Crew: Director, Producer, Screenwriter

Actors: Harry Baur, Annie Ducaux, Jean-Louis Barrault, Jany Holt, Roger Blin, Jean Debucourt

Synopsis: This fascinating biography chronicles the years in which the master composer began to lose his hearing. The director's use of sound to represent Beethoven's affliction is notable. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide Read More

1936
Jerome Perreau

Crew: Director

Actors: Tania Fedor, Valentine Tessier, Georges Milton, Samson Fainsilber

1935
Le Roman D'Un Jeune Homme Pauvre

Crew: Director

Actors: Marie Bell, Marcelle Praince, Pierre Fresnay

1935
Lucrezia Borgia

Crew: Director

Actors: Edwige Feuillère, Gabriel Gabrio, Roger Karl, Aimé Clariond, Maurice Escande

Synopsis: With director Abel Gance at the helm, the title character in Lucrezia Borgia exudes more sex appeal and wears fewer clothes than any previous screen incarnation of the infamous Florentine poisoner. Edwige Feuillere stars as Lucrezia, who learns her ruthless political cunning at the knee of Read More

1935
Poliche

Crew: Director

Actors: Marie Bell, Edith Mera, Constant Remy

1934
La Dame aux Camelias

Crew: Supervisor/Manager

Actors: Yvonne Printemps, Jane Marken [Jeanne], Pierre Fresnay

Synopsis: Alexandre Dumas' romantic novel Lady of the Camelias (more popularly known as Camille) was filmed twice in 1953, first in Argentina, then in France. The Argentine film was heavily modernized, while the French version returns to Dumas' 19th-century milieu. Micheline Presle is excellent as Read More

1934
Le Maitre de Forges

Crew: Director, Screenwriter, Supervisor/Manager

Actors: Gaby Morlay, Paule Andral, Henri Rollan, Leon Belieres

Synopsis: Le Maitre de Forges (The Ironmaster) was filmed under the supervision of the legendary Abel Gance, who magnanimously allowed Ferdinand Rivers to direct. Based on the popular 19th-century novel by Georges Ohnet, the story focuses on Claire de Beaulieu (Gaby Morlay), the daughter of an aristocratic Read More

1933
Mater Dolorosa

Crew: Director

Actors: Line Noro, Samson Fainsilber, Jean Galland, Antonin Artaud

Synopsis: Le Serment (The Pledge) was a minor "entertainment" from legendary French filmmaker Abel Gance -- so minor that it seldom shows up in the list of his films. A remake of Gance's silent film Mater Dolorosa (its original release title), the story concerns Marthe Berleac (Line Noro) the neglected wife Read More

1932
La Fin du Monde

Crew: Director, Screenwriter

Actors: Colette Darfeuil, Abel Gance, Victor Francen, Jeanne Brindau, Samson Fainsilber

Synopsis: Never one to do anything by halves, director Abel Gance delivers just what the title La Fin du Monde promises: The End of the World. As a comet speeds along on a collision course with Planet Earth, the world prays for a miracle. Scientist Victor Francen races against time to avoid the cataclysm Read More

1931
Napoléon

Crew: Director, Editor, Producer, Screenwriter

Actors: Albert Dieudonné, Abel Gance, Edmond van Daele, Gina Manès, Annabella, Antonin Artaud, Pierre Batcheff, Alexandre Koubitzky

Synopsis: The chef d'ouevre of legendary French filmmaker Abel Gance, the 235-minute Napoleon was supposed to have been the first installment in a multipart film study of the French military hero. Each of the film's set pieces is treated like a movie in itself: the opening pillow fights and snowball Read More

1927
La Roue

Crew: Director, Editor, Producer, Screenwriter

Actors: Severin-Mars, Ivy Close, Pierre Magnier

Synopsis: Sisif (Severin-Mars) is the kindly railroad engineer who adopts the orphan girl Norma (Ivy Close). He raises her as his own along with his son Elie (Pierre Magnier). When they are grown, Elie and Herson (Gabriele de Gravvone) are compelled to fight to the death on a mountain top over the love of Read More

1923
L'Atre

Crew: Producer

Actors: Charles Vanel, Maurice Schutz

1923
Au Secours!

Crew: Director, Producer, Screenwriter

Actors: Max Linder, Jean Toulout

1923
Le Petit Poucet

Crew: Producer

1920
J'accuse

Crew: Director, Editor, Screenwriter

Actors: Romuald Joube, Severin-Mars, Maryse Dauvray, Maxime des Jardins

Synopsis: France's innovative film pioneer Abel Gance had already served briefly in World War I, but he enlisted again so he could film hair-raising footage of soldiers under fire. He used the shots in this compelling anti-war epic, which originally ran 14 reels (it was cut down to ten for release in the Read More

1919
Ecce Homo

Crew: Director, Screenwriter

1918
La Dixieme Symphonie

Crew: Director, Screenwriter

Actors: Jean Toulout, André Lefaur

Synopsis: La Dixieme Symphony was the second film for director Abel Gance and the first to earn international acclaim. The story, set in the 19th century, finds a society woman being blackmailed while a scurrilous rogue courts her sister. When her composer husband thinks his wife is being unfaithful, his Read More

1918
La Zone de la Mort

Crew: Director, Screenwriter

1917
Le Droit a La Vie

Crew: Director, Screenwriter

1917
Mater Dolorosa

Crew: Director, Screenwriter

Synopsis: Hardly one of French filmmaker Abel Gance's masterpieces, The Torture of Silence nevertheless has more dramatic and psychological value than your average romantic-triangle tale. Simply put, the film concerns a doctor, his wife, and his brother. The doctor, a specialist in pediatrics, has no time Read More

1917
Le Periscope

Crew: Director, Screenwriter

1916
Un Drame Au Chateau d'acre

Crew: Director, Screenwriter

1915
La Folie du Docteur Tube

Crew: Director

1915
Strass et Compagnie

Crew: Director, Screenwriter

1915
Le Negre Blanc

Crew: Director, Screenwriter

1912
Il Y a des Pieds Au Plafond

Crew: Director, Screenwriter

1912
Le Masque d'horreur

Crew: Director, Screenwriter

1912
La Pierre Philosophe

Crew: Director, Screenwriter

1912
Un Clair de Lune Sous Richelieu

Crew: Screenwriter

1911
La Digue

Crew: Director, Screenwriter

1911
Cyrano et d'assoucy

Crew: Screenwriter

1911
La Fille de Jephte

Crew: Screenwriter

1910
L'Auberge Rouge

Crew: Screenwriter

1910
La Tragique Amour de Mona Lisa

Crew: Screenwriter

1910
La Fin de Paganini

Crew: Screenwriter

1910
Le Portrait de Mireille

Crew: Screenwriter

1909
Molière

1909
Abel Gance at Work

Movie data provided by

Add this Person to Favorites

Need Help?

E-mail