Napoléon (1927 film)

Napoléon
Albert Dieudonné as Napoleon
Directed by	Abel Gance
Written by	Abel Gance
Produced by	Abel Gance
Starring	Albert Dieudonné Antonin Artaud Edmond Van Daële
Cinematography	Jules Kruger
Edited by	Marguerite Beaugé (1927) various others at later times
Music by	Arthur Honegger (1927 in France) Werner Heymann (1927 in Germany) Carl Davis (1980 in the UK) Carmine Coppola (1981 in the US)
Distributed by	Gaumont (Europe) MGM (USA)
Release date	April 7, 1927
Running time	various lengths
Country	France
Language	Silent film with intertitles

Napoléon (1927) is an epic silent French film by Abel Gance that tells the story of the rise of Napoleon I of France from .

It begins from his 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.

Ahead of its time in its use of hand-held cameras and in its radical montage editing, many scenes were hand tinted or toned. Gance shot the final reel of the film as a triptych via triple projection, or Polyvision.

It was first released in a gala premiere at the Paris Opéra in April 1927. Napoléon had been screened in only 8 European cities when Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer bought the rights to the film, but after screening it intact in London, it was cut drastically in length, and only the central panel of the widescreen sequences retained before it was put on limited release in the United States, where it was indifferently received at a time when talkies were just starting to appear.

Primary cast

• Albert Dieudonné as Napoléon Bonaparte
• Vladimir Roudenko as Napoléon Bonaparte (child)
• Edmond Van Daële as Maximilien Robespierre
• Alexandre Koubitzky as Georges Danton
• Antonin Artaud as Jean-Paul Marat
• Abel Gance as Louis de Saint-Just
• Gina Manès as Joséphine de Beauharnais
• Suzanne Bianchetti as Marie Antoinette
• Marguerite Gance as Charlotte Corday
• Yvette Dieudonné as Élisa Bonaparte
• Philippe Hériat as Antonio Salicetti
• Annabella as Violine Fleuri (and Désirée Clary)

Released versions

Date	Title	Length	Editor	Score	Venues	Triptych	Format
April 1927	Napoléon	5400 m (4:10)	Marguerite Beaugé	Arthur Honegger	Paris Opera	toned	35 mm
May 1927	Napoléon (version définitif)	12,800 m (9:22)	Abel Gance	Arthur Honegger	Apollo Theatre, Paris	none	35 mm
October 1927	Napoléon (UFA)	under 3:00	Universum Film AG	Werner Heymann	Germany and Central Europe	toned	35 mm
November 1927	Napoléon	total 4:10, shown in two seatings, some scenes repeated	Abel Gance	Arthur Honegger	Marivaux Theatre, Paris	toned, shown twice	35 mm
Winter 1927–28	Napoléon	various			French provinces		35 mm
1928?	Napoleon (version définitif as sent to the U.S. in 29 reels)	29,000 feet (8,800 m) (6:43)	Abel Gance		none	none	35 mm
March–April 1928	Napoléon (Gaumont)	Shown in two parts totaling about 3:00	Gaumont Film Company	Arthur Honegger	Gaumont-Palace	none	35 mm
June 1928	Napoleon (UK 1928)	11,400 m (7:20}	Abel Gance	Arthur Honegger	UK	toned	35 mm
January 1929	Napoleon (USA 1929)	8,000 feet (2,400 m) (1:51)	Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer		USA	none	35 mm
1928?	Napoléon (Pathé-Rural)	17 reels			Rural France	none	17.5 mm
1928	Napoléon (Pathé-Baby)	9 reels			French homes	none	9.5 mm
1929	Napoléon (Pathescope)	6 reels			UK homes	none	9.5 mm
1935	Napoléon Bonaparte vu et entendre par Abel Gance	13,000 feet (4,000 m), later 10,000 feet (3,000 m)	Abel Gance	Henri Verdun		none	35 mm
1935	Napoléon Bonaparte (Film-Office version)	5,000 feet (1,500 m)	Abel Gance	Henri Verdun		none	16 mm 9.5 mm 8 mm
1935	Napoléon Bonaparte (Studio 28 version)					black and white	35 mm
1965	Napoléon		Henri Langlois		Cinematheque Francaise	none	35 mm
1970	Bonaparte et la Révolution	4:45 at 20 fps (4:00 at 24 fps)	Abel Gance			none	35 mm
1980	Napoléon (Brownlow 1980)	4:50 at 20 fps	Kevin Brownlow	Carl Davis	London	black and white	35 mm
1980	Napoleon (Coppola)	4:00 at 24 fps	Francis Ford Coppola	Carmine Coppola	USA	black and white	35 mm
1983	Napoléon (Brownlow 1983)	5:13 at 20 fps	Kevin Brownlow	Carl Davis	Cinematheque Francaise	black and white	35 mm
1983	Napoléon (Brownlow 1983 TV cut)	4:50 at 20 fps	Kevin Brownlow	Carl Davis	Channel 4 (UK television)	none	35 mm
1989	Napoleon (Brownlow 1980)	4:50 at 20 fps	Kevin Brownlow	Marius Constant	Cité de la Musique, Paris	none	35 mm
1989	Napoléon (Brownlow 1989 TV cut)	4:50 at 20 fps	Kevin Brownlow	Carl Davis	Channel 4 (UK television)	toned, letterboxed inside 4:3	35 mm
2000	Napoléon (Brownlow 2000)	5:30 at 20 fps	Kevin Brownlow	Carl Davis	Royal Festival Hall	toned	35 mm
2004	Napoléon (Brownlow 2004)	5:32 at 20 fps	Kevin Brownlow	Carl Davis	Royal Festival Hall	toned	35 mm

Restorations

The film historian Kevin Brownlow conducted the reconstruction of the film in the years leading up to 1980, including the Polyvision scenes. As a boy, Brownlow had purchased two 9.5 mm reels of the film from a street market. He was captivated by the cinematic boldness of short clips, and his research led to a lifelong fascination with the film and a quest to reconstruct it. On August 31, 1979, Napoleon was shown to a crowd of hundreds at the Telluride Film Festival, in Telluride, Colorado. The film was presented in full Polyvision at the specially constructed Abel Gance Open Air Cinema, which is still in use today. Gance was in the audience until the chilly air drove him indoors after which he watched from the window of his room at the New Sheridan Hotel. Kevin Brownlow was also in attendance and presented Gance with his Silver Medallion.

Brownlow's 1980 reconstruction was re-edited and released in the United States by American Zoetrope (through Universal Pictures) with a score by Carmine Coppola performed live at the screenings. The restoration premiered in the United States at Radio City Music Hall in New York City on January 23–25, 1981; each performance showed to a standing room only house. Gance could not attend because of poor health. At the end of the January 24 screening, a telephone was brought onstage and the audience was told that Gance was listening on the other end and wished to know what they had thought of his film. The audience erupted in an ovation of applause and cheers that lasted several minutes. The acclaim surrounding the film's revival brought Gance much-belated recognition as a master director before his death only 11 months later, in November 1981.

Another restoration was made by Brownlow in 1983. When it was screened at the Barbican Centre in London, French actress Annabella, who plays the fictional character Violine in the film (personifying France in her plight, beset by enemies from within and without), was in attendance. She was introduced to the audience prior to screenings and during one of the intervals sat alongside Kevin Brownlow, signing copies of the latter's book about the history and restoration of the film.

Brownlow re-edited the film again in 2000, including previously missing footage rediscovered by the Cinémathèque Française in Paris. Altogether, 35 minutes of reclaimed film had been added, making the total film length of the 2000 restoration five and a half hours. Also, the tinting and toning made by Pathé for the original film using the Keller-Dorian colour process, were recreated and used in the 2000 restoration.

The film is properly screened in full restoration very rarely due to the expense of the orchestra and the difficult requirement of three synchronised projectors and three screens for the Polyvision section. The last such screening was at the Royal Festival Hall in London in December 2004, and included a live orchestral score of classical music extracts arranged and conducted by Carl Davis. The screening itself was the subject of hotly contested legal threats from Francis Ford Coppola via Universal Studios to the British Film Institute over whether or not the latter had the right to screen the film without the Coppola score. An understanding was reached and the film was screened for both days.

At the San Francisco Silent Film Festival in July 2011, Brownlow announced that there would be four screenings of his 2000 version, shown at the original 20 frames per second, with the final triptych and a live orchestra, to be held at the Paramount Theatre in Oakland, California from March 25 to April 1, 2012. These, the first U.S. screenings of his 5.5-hour-long restoration were described as requiring three intermissions including a dinner break. Score arranger Carl Davis will lead the Oakland East Bay Symphony for the performances.

Home media

Only Region 2 and Region 4 DVDs are available, using the largely outdated 1980 restoration shown at a speeded-up 24 frames per second, with Carmine Coppola's score, Francis Ford Coppola's shortened 223-minute edit, and none of the original film tinting. To suit home viewers watching on a standard-width television screen, the triptych portion is letterboxed.

See also

• List of biopics
• Napoleon in popular culture
• List of early colour feature films
• List of longest films by running time

References

• Brownlow, Kevin (1983). Napoleon: Abel Gance's classic film. Vol. 1. New York: Knopf. ISBN 0-394-533394-1. {{cite book}}: Check |isbn= value: length (help)
• Brownlow, Kevin (2004). Napoleon: Abel Gance's classic film. Vol. 1. Photoplay. pp. 217–236. ISBN 1844570770.

External links

• Napoléon at IMDb
• Napoléon at AllMovie
• Napoléon, SilentEra.com
• The 2000 restoration, SilentEra.com
• Site Napo Ciné Pédia site based upon Napoleon on screen
• 1980 London screening
• 1980 London screenings, announcement
• 2004 London screening, symphony review
• 2004 London review
• Brownlow's 2004 version
• Kevin Brownlow interview with Mark Lyndon - Part 1
• Projecting “Napoleon” – une pièce de resistance. Details of 2004 projection.