Abel Gance

Though the technique of rapid editing was historically attributed to Soviet Russia, Gance actually pioneered the process in Das Rad (1923). It can also be seen in Napoleon (1927) with more heroic ambition.
When Gance did not receive the necessary financial support to expand his masterpiece "Napoleom" to complete his original conception of a cinematic trilogy, he just discarded cans of film that would have been used, depriving future film historians of invaluable insights into the director's vision.
Was asked by the Vichy Government, during 1941, to prove his Aryan origins to the head of the Cinema industry when accused of being Jewish.
Published his first article in the Parisian Ciné-Journal entitled "What is the cinema? A sixth art form!" on March 9th 1912.
Was a stretcher-bearer during World War I, as he was exempt from active military duty due to health reasons.

I'm not interested in politics... But I am against war, because war is futile. Ten or twenty years afterward, one reflects that millions have died and all for nothing. One has found friends among one's old enemies, and enemies among one's friends.
[on Ich klage an (1919)] The conditions in which we filmed were profoundly moving... These men had come straight from the Front - from Verdun - and they were due back eight days later. They played the dead knowing that in all probability they'd be dead themselves before long. Within a few weeks of their return, eighty per cent had been killed.
My greatest mistake was ever to have compromised. My greatest achievement has been to survive.
[on being asked by a French general, while filming the opening sequence of Ich klage an (1919), in which hundreds of soldiers come together to form the films title on the battlefield, whom he was accusing] I am accusing war... I am accusing man... I am accusing universal stupidity.

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Biografie