Director: Abel Gance
Year: 1927
Run-time: 5 hr 30 min
Source: PAL region DVD
I didn't need a 330 minute silent Napoleon biopic in my life. Despite the rave reviews I'd found comparing a screening of this movie to a religious experience, I was slightly dreading this one.
To give a brief summary of the ambitious lunacy that French director Abel Gance brought to this production: Napoleon was envisoned in 1923 as a six-part film covering all of the dictator's life. Four years later, Gance had spent his entire budget filmed nine hours worth of material, covering 2/3 of the first part, and ending with a 27-year old military commander just beginning his campaign in Italy. The film never got any wide release, but instead a scattering of screenings, each with a different cut. Most of these screenings ended with the famous triptych sequence, in which the film played on three separate screens simultaneously. Today, film scholars have reconstructed five and a half hours of the original movie, including this last sequence. It is available on PAL region DVD and Blu-ray, or (unnoticed by me until now) streaming.
Is it worth it? Oh, yes. Napoleon is undoubtedly a masterpiece. Gance, with all of his artistic ambition, wanted to tell a story that any plebeian on the street could follow, understand, and feel the highs and lows of. If I can make one of my patented stupid analogies here, Napoleon is the Lord of the Rings of the 1920's. It's endlessly long, the story is entirely predictable, and the characters are (for the most part) unrelatable archetypes, but damn if you don't get wrapped up in it all while you're watching it.
This is not the farcical Napoleon of Night of the Museum or Bill and Ted, but the military genius with fate on his shoulder and a serious chip up there as well. Gance's sympathetic story may strike an odd note in this post-WWII world, but we have to keep in mind that in his early career, there were many who viewed him as Europe's savior. The problems down the line are gently foreshadowed, but Gance's goal here is to note how remarkable it was for a young poor Corsican to become France's top military commander. It's never really in doubt that there's more myth than history on display, and that's okay.
Napoleon is also a superb dramatization of the French revolution, with all the key characters present, from Marat in his bath to Saint-Just (played by Gance himself) quietly behind the scenes during the Reign of Terror. It's also the best war movie to date - Gance films an entire battle at night during the rain, and it's incredible. So many wonderful moments in this film, too many to highlight in this short post.
It doesn't change the fact that no one needs a 330 minute silent film in their lives. However, you won't be sorry if you let it in.
Year: 1927
Run-time: 5 hr 30 min
Source: PAL region DVD
I didn't need a 330 minute silent Napoleon biopic in my life. Despite the rave reviews I'd found comparing a screening of this movie to a religious experience, I was slightly dreading this one.
To give a brief summary of the ambitious lunacy that French director Abel Gance brought to this production: Napoleon was envisoned in 1923 as a six-part film covering all of the dictator's life. Four years later, Gance had spent his entire budget filmed nine hours worth of material, covering 2/3 of the first part, and ending with a 27-year old military commander just beginning his campaign in Italy. The film never got any wide release, but instead a scattering of screenings, each with a different cut. Most of these screenings ended with the famous triptych sequence, in which the film played on three separate screens simultaneously. Today, film scholars have reconstructed five and a half hours of the original movie, including this last sequence. It is available on PAL region DVD and Blu-ray, or (unnoticed by me until now) streaming.
Is it worth it? Oh, yes. Napoleon is undoubtedly a masterpiece. Gance, with all of his artistic ambition, wanted to tell a story that any plebeian on the street could follow, understand, and feel the highs and lows of. If I can make one of my patented stupid analogies here, Napoleon is the Lord of the Rings of the 1920's. It's endlessly long, the story is entirely predictable, and the characters are (for the most part) unrelatable archetypes, but damn if you don't get wrapped up in it all while you're watching it.
This is not the farcical Napoleon of Night of the Museum or Bill and Ted, but the military genius with fate on his shoulder and a serious chip up there as well. Gance's sympathetic story may strike an odd note in this post-WWII world, but we have to keep in mind that in his early career, there were many who viewed him as Europe's savior. The problems down the line are gently foreshadowed, but Gance's goal here is to note how remarkable it was for a young poor Corsican to become France's top military commander. It's never really in doubt that there's more myth than history on display, and that's okay.
Napoleon is also a superb dramatization of the French revolution, with all the key characters present, from Marat in his bath to Saint-Just (played by Gance himself) quietly behind the scenes during the Reign of Terror. It's also the best war movie to date - Gance films an entire battle at night during the rain, and it's incredible. So many wonderful moments in this film, too many to highlight in this short post.
It doesn't change the fact that no one needs a 330 minute silent film in their lives. However, you won't be sorry if you let it in.
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