Kino-polis
BrowseCollectionsReading RoomAbout
Kino-polis

A personal screening room for early cinema.

Explore

  • Browse
  • Collections
  • Reading Room
  • About

Connect

  • RSS
  • Contact

© 2026 Kino-polis

La Roue

1923 · 418 min · FR

Directed by Abel Gance

A railwayman raises an orphan girl alongside his son and falls in love with her, and the film runs on a wheel, a mountain and blindness. The runaway locomotive is where Gance edits the rails as if the cut were a piston, and Eisenstein and the Soviets studied it. Séverin-Mars is the railwayman. 1923, seven hours in the restoration.

Romance · Drama

Watch now

Watch La Roue

1923 · Source: English Wikipedia

Public domain presentation

Public Domain Source

English Wikipedia

Video: Abel Gance · Credit: La Roue at the Internet Archive · PD-US · Source: File page

Cast & Crew

Abel Gance · DirectorSéverin-Mars · SisifIvy Close · Norma

Available Subtitles

No subtitle tracks are currently listed.

From the Reading Room

Article
Abel Gance's La roue — The Criterion Collection

Criterion essay on Gance's innovative rapid montage and literary influences from Victor Hugo and Émile Zola.

Cast

Principal players
Séverin-Mars

Séverin-Mars

Sisif

Ivy Close

Ivy Close

Norma

Gabriel de Gravone

Gabriel de Gravone

Elie

Pierre Magnier

Pierre Magnier

Jacques de Hersan

Max Maxudian

Max Maxudian

Le minéralogiste Kalatikascopoulos

Georges Térof

Georges Térof

Machefer

Gil Clary

Gil Clary

Dalilah

A

Abel Gance

Self

Crew

Léonce-Henri Burel

cinematographer

Abel Gance

writer

Gaston Brun

cinematographer

Marc Bujard

cinematographer

Maurice Duverger

cinematographer

More Like This

I Accuse

I Accuse

1919

The Tenth Symphony

The Tenth Symphony

1918

Nana

Nana

1926

Napoléon

Napoléon

1927

Faces of Children

Faces of Children

1925

Cœur fidèle

Cœur fidèle

1923

Mauprat

Mauprat

1926

Six and a Half by Eleven

Six and a Half by Eleven

1927

Under the Roofs of Paris

Under the Roofs of Paris

1930

The Girl from Carthage

The Girl from Carthage

1924

The Late Mathias Pascal

The Late Mathias Pascal

1925

The Wicked Darling

The Wicked Darling

1919