The White Rose of the Railroad - Tetsuro no Shirobara (English: La Roue)

A French silent film. Completed in 1922, it was revised several times because it was too long, and was released to the public in 1924 after being significantly shortened. It was released in Japan in 1926 (Taisho 15). Written and directed by Abel Gance, it stars Severn Mars and Yvie Croze. Engineer Sisif takes in the orphan Norma, and as she grows into a beautiful woman, he and his son Ellie are attracted to her. However, Norma marries another man and leaves them, and Sisif, who has also become blind, is so desperate that he crashes his locomotive into a stop sign and overturns it. He eventually reunites with Norma in the snowy Alps, but the elderly Sisif dies alone. Part one is entitled "Symphony in Black" and part two is entitled "Symphony in White", and it is a work that puts into practice Gance's theory that film is a visual symphony, and became a representative work of photogeny and rhythm theory in France at the time. The scene in which Sisyph crashes the locomotives is famous for depicting the mechanical rhythm of the galloping locomotives and Sisyph's inner conflict through the alternation of short shots known as flashbacks, and had a major influence on subsequent films.

[Kyoichiro Murayama]

Source: Shogakukan Encyclopedia Nipponica About Encyclopedia Nipponica Information | Legend

フランスのサイレント映画。1922年に完成したが、長すぎるため幾度か手直しされ、24年に大幅に短縮して一般公開された。26年（大正15）日本公開。脚本・監督アベル・ガンス。主演はセブラン・マルス、イビ・クローズ。機関士シジフは孤児ノルマを引き取るが、美しく成長した彼女に息子エリーともども心をひかれる。だがノルマはほかの男と結婚して2人のもとを去ってしまい、シジフは失明も重なって、絶望のあまり機関車を車止めに衝突させ転覆させてしまう。やがて雪深いアルプスの山中でノルマと再会するが、老いたシジフは孤独のうちに息を引き取る。第一部「黒の交響楽」、第二部「白の交響楽」と題され、映画を視覚的交響楽とみるガンスの所論を実践した作品で、当時のフランスにおけるフォトジェニー論、リズム論の代表作となった。シジフが機関車を衝突させるシーンは、驀進(ばくしん)する機関車のメカニックなリズムとシジフの内面的な葛藤(かっとう)とが、フラッシュ・バックとよばれる短いショットの交錯によって描かれていることで有名で、その後の映画に大きな影響を与えた。

［村山匡一郎］

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