Napoléon (1927)

Director:

Abel Gance

Writer:

Abel Gance (written by)

Release Date:

17 February 1929 (USA)

Genre:

Biography | War

Tagline:

Abel Gance's 1927 Masterpiece [reissue]

Plot:

A film about the French Field Marshal's youth and early military career.

Plot Keywords:

18th Century | Formal Ball | Beach | Execution | Mercy

Awards:

3 wins

Cast

Albert Dieudonné	...	Napoléon Bonaparte
Vladimir Roudenko	...	Napoléon Bonaparte enfant
Edmond Van Daële	...	Maximilien Robespierre
Alexandre Koubitzky	...	Danton
Antonin Artaud	...	Marat
Abel Gance	...	Louis Saint-Just
Gina Manès	...	Joséphine de Beauharnais
Suzanne Bianchetti	...	Marie-Antoinette
Marguerite Gance	...	Charlotte Corday
Yvette Dieudonné	...	Élisa Bonaparte
Philippe Hériat	...	Antonio Salicetti
Pierre Batcheff	...	Le général Lazare Hoche
Eugénie Buffet	...	Laetizia Bonaparte
Acho Chakatouny	...	Pozzo di Borgo
Nicolas Koline	...	Tristan Fleuri

Also Known As:

Abel Gance's Napoleon (USA)
Napoléon Bonaparte (France)
Napoléon vu par Abel Gance (France)
Napoleon (USA)

Runtime:

313 min (20 fps) (cinémathèque française print) | Spain:222 min (DVD edition) | UK:330 min (2000 restoration) | USA:235 min (1981 restored version)

Country:

France

Color:

Black and White | Black and White (tinted) (some sequences)

Aspect Ratio:

4.00 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby (1981 re-release) | Mono | Silent

Certification:

South Korea:All (2004) | Finland:K-12 (1966) | Spain:T | Sweden:Btl | USA:G (1981 re-release)

Filming Locations:

Briançon, Hautes-Alpes, France

Company:

Films Abel Gance

Trivia:

Some footage shot in dual-strip 35mm 3-D format, though this wasn't included in the final release print, nor any subsequent re-release version. Sources suggest this footage still exists.

Goofs:

Continuity: In Act IV - the Army of Italy sequence - there are a couple of shots of Napoleon's head where the image has been flipped. This is obvious because usually when viewed from the front, the tricolor on Napoleon's hat is over his left eye (the viewer's right), whereas in the flipped clips it's over his right eye (the viewer's left).

Movie Connections:

Referenced in "Mystery Science Theater 3000: Alien from L.A. (#6.16)" (1993)

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.'