Napoleon (1927)
"Napoléon" (original title)

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

Director:

Abel Gance

Writer:

Abel Gance

Stars:

Albert Dieudonné, Vladimir Roudenko, Edmond Van Daële

3 wins.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
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

Storyline

A massive six-hour biopic of Napoleon, tracing his career from his schooldays (where a snowball fight is staged like a military campaign), his flight from Corsica, through the French Revolution (where a real storm is intercut with a political storm) and the Terror, culminating in his triumphant invasion of Italy in 1797 (the film stops there because it was intended to be part one of six, but director Abel Gance never raised the money to make the other five). The film's legendary reputation is due to the astonishing range of techniques that Gance uses to tell his story, culminating in the final twenty-minute triptych sequence, which alternates widescreen panoramas with complex multiple- image montages projected simultaneously on three screens.

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Plot Keywords:

military | corsica | french revolution | campaign | snowball fight | 

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Taglines:

Abel Gance's 1927 Masterpiece [reissue]

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Genres:

Biography | Drama | History | War

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Details

Country:

France

Release Date:

17 February 1929 (USA)

Also Known As:

Abel Gance's Napoleon

Filming Locations:

Briançon, Hautes-Alpes, France

Company Credits

Production Co:

Ciné France Films, Films Abel Gance, Isepa-Wengeroff Film GmbH

Technical Specs

Runtime:

240 min 222 min (DVD edition) 330 min (2000 restoration) 235 min (1981 restored) 313 min (cinémathèque française print)

Sound Mix:

Dolby (1981 re-release) Mono Silent

Color:

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

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Sections of the film are entitled Vendémiaire and Thermidor. These were two of the new names given to the months of the year in the French Republican Calendar. Thermidor covered the equivalent of mid July to mid August, a Vendémiaire covered mid September to mid October.

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Goofs

The drawing and name of Saint Helena on the blackboard differ between shots - the shape of the island, the accents used.

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Connections

Referenced in The 100 Greatest War Films (2005)

User Reviews

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.'