After serving in the trenches of World War I, Jean Diaz recoils with such horror that he renounces love and personal pleasure to immerse himself in scientific research, seeking a machine to prevent war. He thinks he has succeeded, but the government subverts his discovery, and Europe slides with seeming inevitability toward World War II. In desperation, Diaz summons the ghosts of the war dead from the graves and fields of France to give silent, accusing protest.
Direction
Gance's ghost army sequence—silent cinema's most unhinged set piece
Cinematography
Expressionist shadows that predict noir by a decade
Writing
Diaz's machine speech: deranged monologue perfection
Director
Abel Gance
Victor Francen
Jean Diaz
Line Noro
Edith
Sylvie Gance
Flo
Jean-Max
Henri Chimay
Paul Amiot
A friend of Chimay
Marcel Delaître
François Laurin
Georges Saillard
The doctor
Renée Devillers
Hélène
Jean-Louis Barrault
Lucien Bataille
A soldier
Jean Brochard
Soldier Staminal
Rivers Cadet
A villager
Lucien Callamand
Soldier Damaseau
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Gance reused footage from his own 1919 film 'J'accuse'—this is technically a remake of his own anti-war epic.
Released months before Munich Agreement; French audiences watched ghost soldiers protest war while their government appeased Hitler.
FR
