binaryg
I feel fortunate that tickets were available at the last minute and I was able to see the Kevin Brownlaw 5 1/2 hr restoration of Abel Gance's "Napoleon". The hype after the first weekend's performances made it irresistible. The film was accompanied by the Carl Davis score, conducted live by Mr. Davis, and played flawlessly, by the Oakland East Bay Symphony, at the beautiful Paramount Theater in Oakland, California. (Eat your hearts out Manhattan and Hollywood.) It felt a special occasion and the audience was primed for the event.I've wanted to see "Napoleon" for a very long time and somehow as I've gravitated toward DVD I hoped that I could watch it at home. Wait, wait, wait and nothing. Luckily, the DVD option never happened.When I heard that the San Francisco Silent Film Festival intended to show the Brownlaw restoration over two weekends in Oakland. I never thought that a regular film buff, like myself, would be able to get tickets. Fortunately I was able to do so.I traveled to Oakland, arrived an hour early for what was, in itself, with intermissions and a dinner break, an eight hour commitment. I've attended films with similar demands ("Our Hitler" comes to mind) and I only hoped it would be worth the commitment.At the dinner break, about half way through the film, while I was impressed with the production values and the seemingly modern shooting style what most impressed me was the live symphonic accompaniment. But, based on my own expectations, I was a bit disappointed in the film itself. But that feeling was soon dissipated by the beauty and the power of the last half of the film. The cinematography seemed even more modern (lots of hand-held shots and special effects), plus the frankness of the sexuality, the humor, the romanticism, and beautifully paced scenes of great sensitivity.By the time of the "Three Screens," wonderment, (Gance called it "Polyvision") I'd been won over, completely by this Masterpiece. There is no way to describe what Gance was able to produce. It must be witnessed first hand. One can only hope that somehow it will receive further exposure to those who love the greatest art form, Cinema. I'd see it again in a heartbeat.
publicspaces-331-277021
Four showings at the art deco palace Paramount Theatre in downtown Oakland on March 24, 25, 31 and April 1 will be a landmark for cinemaphiles. From the opening snowball fight to the closing triptych of the eagle's shadow leading the Grande Armee, there was so much to love. Abel Gance takes you on a journey that your mind gets to ride with distinct pleasures. Robespierre in the John Lennonesque sunglasses, the teaching of the Marsailles, the dinghy with an escaping Napoleon and the General Assembly simultaneously in stormy seas, are but a few. I can't imagine I'll ever watch this on DVD after seeing it like I did. I certainly could never consider a sped up 24pp version. I watched Metropolis once like that and it just wasn't the same film. In fact criminal. So weirdly, I recommend the film but can't recommend seeing it unless a better format is available. I'm going to buy Carl Davis' score and play the film in my head from memory, which includes the crowd at the Paramount rising to their feet at the close shouting Vive La France! Vive La Gance!
G K
The film begins from Napoleon's youth in school where he managed a snowball fight like a military campaign, to his victory in invading Italy in 1797. Planned to be the first of six movies about Napoleon Bonaparte, it was realised after the completion of the film that the costs involved would make this impossible.A cinematic epic, although brilliant in most particulars, it owes its greatest interest to its narrative sweep, its flair for composition and its use of triptych screens which at the end combine to show one giant picture, the clear precursor of Cinerama. In 1934 director Abel Gance cut his film to 140 minutes and added stereophonic sound.
Michael_Elliott
Napoleon (1927) 1981 cut **** (out of 4) Abel Gance's technical marvel was certainly years ahead of its time but I'd guess that most people would find it a chore to sit through today. The film follows Napoleon as a child all the way up to mid-life where the film ends because the director had planned on making five more films in the series but could never get the backing. Storywise, there really isn't anything new here that we haven't seen in previous epics from Griffith or DeMille. What really separates this thing is its technical beauty, something that could be lost on those who don't know much about how films were back in the day. If anyone has a decent amount of knowledge about the silent era then this film will certainly knock their socks off. I would argue that the actual battle scenes were better in Intolerance and Ben-Hur but the scope here is certainly multiplied. The director was highly influenced by Griffith and even asked for his advice before going into this film and it's clear what Griffith told him, he took it to the next level. For starters, the first big battle takes place when Napoleon is a child and he and his friends are having a snowball fight. This might sound simple but the director makes a great battle of it. The next big moment happens when Napoleon is stuck on a small boat out at sea when a storm hits. The way this is edited together creates some great tension and even better are the various (at the time) strange camera movements that get you right into the storm. Another battle, taking place at night, during a rain storm, also looks wonderful. Not to mention the final battle scene where the director uses an early example of widescreen. This effect (three cameras side by side shooting) might not stand up to today's standards because it's easy to see where the "next screen" is but it still looks great.
AD
