1911-1920 Abel Gance Classics France Silent

Abel Gance – La Dixième Symphonie AKA The Tenth Symphony (1918)

adminApril 24, 2019

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Synopsis:
A young girl, rich and orphaned (Emmy LYNN), harrassed by a deprived adventurer (Jean TOULOUT) and by his sister, kills the latter. The adventurer blackmails her. A year later, the girl marries a famous composer, an admiror of Beethoven (Séverin MARS). The adventurer starts courting, secretly, the composer’s daughter (Elizabeth NIZAN) – daughter by a previous marriage. The composer, on finding out that a sordid relationship had existed, in the past, between his wife and the adventurer wrote, on the occasion of his daughter’s engagement, a symphony describing his unhappiness. The composer hereby defines the theme of the 10th symphony: “At the feet of his master Beethoven , a musician distraught by the treason of women, tries to forget and express his sadness”.

This extraordinary melodramatic scenario gave the ambitious Abel GANCE, the opportunity to translate human sentiments, passions and exasperations, by a succession of dazzling sequences (all the scenes are materially remarkable, often very inventive, and carry their theme of tragedy with tumultuous music).