Directed by Abel Gance
My rating: 3.5 stars out of 4
IMDb
(DVD, Flicker Alley)
The first two parts of this film deal with a romantic love triangle between a married woman and a poet. It can get quite convoluted at times, and the end result seems to be that she is in love with both men, which they more or less accept. War first intercedes on their relationships when she is captured and raped by invading Germans. She has a child in secret, not telling either men the truth until much later. The men, once bitter enemies, go off to war. In the third, and epic, final part of the film, they become friends in the trenches. The war scenes are haunting, incorporating some real footage. They both survive but end up together in a hospital. The poet is shell shocked, and sent home a raving lunatic. He has visions of the dead returning to life to demand respect from the living for their sacrifices. The poet lays final blame on God, in a long rant against the sun which ends the film.
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