I got excited too fast and I said: I’ll amaze them all at the cinema because I’ve got a very original story. My idea was to write La folie du Docteur Tube. It was the story of a mad scientist who discovers how to split light rays, so things are no longer perceived in the habitual way. I used distorting mirrors, I did everything technically that I thought the public would greatly appreciate because it had never been done before. And when I showed the film to the directors of the Company, they said to themselves: “He’s crazy, we’d better not give him a cent, he’ll ruin us!”. I was discouraged. Cinema was therefore not what I had thought… Then, after severe admonitions, they told me: “Since you earned money for us with your prior films, we’re going to give you one more chance, but don’t break the rules. You know that the actors are to be shown from the knees up, and that there needs to be some action, and that’s it!”.

Abel Gance dal film di Nelly Kaplan Abel Gance, hier et demain (1964), in Archives d’un visionnaire. Abel Gance. Collection Nelly Kaplan, 1993