Napoleon (1929)

Abel Gance's 1927 masterpiece is absolutely indispensable for silent-film buffs or anyone interested in classic world cinema. From the future emperor's first strategic victory, a schoolyard snowball fight, to the climactic invasion of Italy, Napoleon truly rules! This is no static, antiquated relic. Among Gance's innovations was to free the camera (for one battle scene, he had it mounted on horseback!). The film's justly celebrated climax features a triptych of synchronized images that anticipates by more than 30 years Cinerama and widescreen. But more than a triumph of filmmaking, Napoleon is a triumph of film restoration and was a boon to the vital cause of film preservation. Gance's movie was long thought lost. But historian Kevin Brownlow, with the cooperation of film archives from around the world, spent more than a decade painstakingly reassembling it. Francis Ford Coppola's name (not to mention a reported quarter of a million of his dollars) helped find Napoleon the audience this film so richly deserves. The rousing score was composed by Coppola's father, Carmine. Viva la Gance! --Donald Liebenson Amazon.com

Gance's overblown masterpiece is available on DVD...

This is not so much a review as a notice that the "Zoetrope" version of "Napoleon" is available on DVD from Australia (I got my copy from EzyDVD). You should be able to get it for under $25. The DVD is Region 4, so you will need a multi-region DVD player, but it plays fine. I presume it is identical to this VHS version. I'm not a huge fan of this film (hence the three stars and the inevitable slating I'll receive), but it nevertheless deserves a worldwide DVD release so people can make up their own minds. January 1, 2009

Manifique!

Upon seeing the restored and re-released film in 1981, I placed this silent at the top of my list of favorite foreign films from the silent era. The use of triptych, color, and daring camera angles is breathtaking! Gance was one of film's innovative pioneering geniuses. Although at times the acting is a bit stilted, the viewer must remember that these actors are turn-of-the-century schooled; today's acting style is far different and more relaxed. The electricity sparks between Napoleon and Josephine. Finally, Coppola's score is unforgettable, haunting, and touching. This film is one to add to your film collection! January 8, 2008

in the heart of the master pieces

Not only the history of Europe takes place in the images of this movie but also it is decided through the steps of a man. Like would Pierre Teilhard de Chardin say: aristogenesis. March 2, 2007

Gance needed a figure as powerful as "Napoleon" to fulfill his dream of super cinema...

Abel Gance's 'Napoleon' was premiered on April 7, 1927, at the Paris Opera House, the first movie to be accorded such an honor... It was been shown on a triple screen and to full orchestral accompaniment, running slightly under four hours...

Impressive as it seems, it was conceived as the first of a six-part biography running many hours and tracing the life of Napoleon from childhood to the bitter end in St Helena... Fortunately-for Abel Gance who directed and for us-the project was only completed to that moment where Napoleon enters Italy at the head of the French army, and the later and less pleasant aspects of his spectacular career were left unfilmed... The Little Corporal, after all, is a less controversial figure than the Emperor...

Gance needed a figure as emblematic and powerful as 'Napoleon' to fulfill his dream of super cinema...

'Napoleon' is a masterpiece of excess:

- The child Bonaparte keeps a pet eagle and wins a snow fight while at school in Brienne... In this sequence, the frame splits into nine subliminal images; as Napoleon watches his men entering Italy, the screen expands on each side to form a breathtaking panorama, then changes into three coordinated views of the scene...

- The National Convention seems to sway and rock as Napoleon makes his escape from Corsica in a storm-tossed sailboat...

- The Gallic of cabaret singers, Damia, leads French troops into battle personifying 'La Marseillaise'...

'Napoleon' is like one grand musical composition. It throbs with life...

That was Gance the great filmmaker who thought that film could do everything and who said to Kevin Brownlow: 'For me, the cinema is not just pictures. It is something great, mysterious and sublime.' Brownlow is known now not only as an English filmmaker and film historian but also as a great restorer of silent films, notably Abel Gance's 'Napoleon.'

January 10, 2007

THIS IS INDEED THE GREATEST FILM EVER!!!

...At least I thought so when I first saw this MASTERPIECE at the Colony Theater in Shaker Heights (Cleveland), Ohio back in the early 1980's ( I still have the program guide ). It ran nearly 4 hours!!! I was mezmorized. It was presented by Francis Ford Coppola of GODFATHER fame. The score was by Francis's father Carmine Coppola, which I thought was fantastic!!!
Please, Francis...if somehow you are preventing the future release of a superior version of this great masterpiece simply because of legal rights pending your father's score, then shame on you many times over!!! Get it done!!! You've got the money, you've got the fame...I've even enjoyed DEMENTIA 13!!!! & I want to see as complete a version of this film as possible!!! I loved your father's score. I bought the album. I bought the cd. It will probably always be THE NAPOLEON SCORE to me as well as to others!!!
Francis,...I really want the most complete version of Abel Gance's NAPOLEON as possible...Don't screw this up. January 1, 2007

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