Festival du Cinéma muet d'Anères: The Tenth Symphony

Festival du Cinéma muet d'Anères: The Tenth Symphony invites you into Abel Gance’s 1918 silent feature, *The Tenth Symphony*. Over 91 minutes, the film unspools the tragic tale of rich heiress Eve Dinant, who falls under the sway of the unscrupulous adventurer Fred Ryce and his sister, accidentally kills the sister, and then faces blackmail and a partial loss of her fortune. Shot in the summer of 1917 and released in 1918, this early Gance work is an intimate portrait that emphasizes close‑up and medium shots, highlighting the actors’ expressive faces. Gance favors richly decorated interiors, but when he wants to spotlight emotion, he places his characters against a stark black backdrop or beside symbolic objects—such as an oriental deity statue during death scenes—to underscore their powerlessness in the face of fate. It is a pure romantic tradition that shows art as the fruit of torment and suffering, with a composer’s muse inspired by Beethoven and absorbed in a symphony. The film is in French, silent, 1h31m, produced in France, and the surviving copy resides with the Cinémathèque Française. Join us for a live concert score, conducted by original composer and pianist Benjamin Moussay, with violinist Frédéric Norel—an experience that breathes new life into Gance’s early masterpiece.