I found this silent film in the book 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die, it was rated well by critics, five stars out of five, so I looked forward to watching it, directed by Abel Gance (Napoléon). Basically a disastrous train crash occurs, railroad engineer Sisif (Severin-Mars) rescues a small orphan named Norma (Ivy Close), he raises the little girl as his own, along with his son Elie (Gabriel de Gravone), whose mother died during his birth. Norma becomes a lively and playful young woman as time passes, she has her greatest joyous moments spending time with Elie, who has grown into a handsome young man working as a violin maker, she believes she is her natural brother. But Sisif finds himself, to his own horror, falling in love with his adopted daughter, he confesses this unhealthy preoccupation with Norma to a partner Jacques de Hersan (Pierre Magnier). In response, Hersan threatens Sisif with blackmail, he wants to his consent to marry Norma himself, or expose his secret affection, Sisif reluctantly agrees to this arrangement. Sisif drives the train that will deliver Norma to her husband, but distraught, he drives recklessly, and nearly causes a train wreck. Sisif is forced to abandon his trade when he gets an eye injury, he goes to work instead for the funicular (cliff cable train) at Mont Blanc, Norma learns where Sisif and Elie live while on vacation at Chamonix with her husband. Hersan finds out that Elie also has feelings for Norma, he finds a love letter written by him to her in a violin he smashes, jealous Hersan fights with Elie on the mountain. Elie mortally wounds Hersan before falling to his death, enraged by Elie's death Sisif blames Norma and drives her away, but she returns, living undetected for a time in his shack, Sisif's eyesight almost completely gone helps this. Sisif does eventually find her there, they cling to each other, time and tragedy restore their relationship to a father-daughter status. Norma cares for Sisif as he grows older, he sends her out to join in a local festivity, his eyesight not working well, he imagines her walking out and dancing, Sisif dies. I will be honest and say, there being no sound and having to read the title cards, and it being over 3 hours long, I did not fully concentrate on everything going on, to the point where I almost lost my way and almost dozed off, but I can confirm I watched it all, it has some good editing, I don't know if it was as interesting as Napoléon, but it is a worthwhile tragedy. Very good!
Review of The Wheel
