An exploration of Abel Gance's contributions to cinema technique and storytelling via his film, J'accuse (1919). Acknowledged as the first anti-war feature film, J'accuse is unique in its use of battlefield footage and soldiers on leave from the frontlines at Verdun as actors. Presented at <em>The Cambridge Center for Adult Education</em> with an associated screening of excerpts from the film. (November 2009)</p

1. Abel Gance
& J’accuse
Cinematic Pacifism &
Filmic Poetry
Abel Gance, 1889-1981

2. Setting the
Stage

7. Still Life with Bowl and Fruit
Femme devant sa fenetre
Picasso, 1912
Fernand Leger, 1923

8. Inception of a
Film

9. Abel Gance
1889 - 1981

11. “I pulled myself up short and
said, ‘Why are people making
films which are nothing but
events, when they have at their
disposal such a marvelous
medium for psychological
stories? They go on making films
about people chasing each other,
killing each other or trying to
commit suicide, but why not
films which show feelings instead
of merely action?’”
- Abel Gance, 1960

12. La Folie du Dr. Tube (1915)

15. Francois
Jean

17. Technical
innovation
Cinematic
Poetry
The First
Anti-War Film

18. TECHNICAL
INNOVATION

20. Close-Ups
“Don’t take your camera too close. you
know you’re supposed to show the whole of
your actors, so you can see their gestures.
“What are these huge pictures supposed to
mean? They’ll show up all the faults in the
face. you’ll have people panicking in the
cinema. They’ll make for the exits!”
- Louis Nalpas (Gance’s producer), 1915

21. Dynamic Lighting

23. Traveling Shots

25. Traveling Shots

26. Rapid Editing

27. Cinematic
Poetry

28. A Bag of Tricks

29. Is it Poetry?
• Ode • Repetition • Symbolism
• Sonnet • Rhyme • Metaphor
• Haiku • Rhythm • Irony

30. Poetic Elements:
Rhythm

31. Poetic Elements:
Symbolism & Metaphor

32. Hands Going to War

33. Poetic Elements:
Repetition

34. Jean as a Poet

35. Ode to the Sun

36. Ode to the Sun (repeated)

38. The First
Anti-War Film

39. Soldiers’ Letters

40. The weather is mild and
the morning indifferent.
The dead won’t hold back
the spring. - A Soldier’s Letter

41. If these letters
reach anyone, may
they instill in the
honest heart a
horror of the
infamy of those
responsible for this
war. - A Soldier’s Letter

42. Darling mama -
If you receive no more letters from me after
this one, tell yourself that your son has left this
world for a country without postmen, but that
he still thinks of you night and day.
- A Soldier’s Letter

43. Soldiers’ Letters

44. “J’accuse for me was not just a film. I felt
that I must use what I had left of my
strength and health to make it. I was
very ill at the time. When I saw the
horrors of war and that all my best
friends were dead - I had ten good
friends and all were killed except one. I
had a feeling of frenzy to use this new
medium, the cinema, to show the world
the stupidity of war.” - Abel Gance, 1965

45. The Human Toll

46. The Battle of Verdun

47. The Dead Awake

48. “How I would like to see
all those killed in the war
rising up one night to visit
their countries, their
homes, to see if their
sacrifice was worth
anything at all. The war
would stop of its own
accord, horrified by its
own awfulness.”
- Abel Gance, 1917

49. Reception of
the Film

51. “J’accuse forms one of the most terrible
indictments against war which it is possible to
imagine. But the effect is not produced by the
insistent horrors and sheer frightfulness. It is
obtained by the emphasis of simple, natural
humanity.” - Kine Weekly, 1919.

52. “If this film had
been shown in
every country and
in every town in the
world in 1913, then
perhaps there
would have been no
war.”
- Prague Newspaper, 1919

53. Abel Gance in Times Square, 1921

54. Abel Gance and D.W. Griffith, 1921

55. GANCE AFTER
J’ACCUSE

57. Napoleon, Abel Gance, 1927

58. Napoleon, Abel Gance, 1927

60. Where to Go
from Here

61. Where to Go From Here

62. Where to Go From Here

63. Thank you!