A documentary about cinematic relics that itself has become outdated, when Kevin Brownlow made this TV program on silent-era French filmmaker Abel Gance, he was closer in time to the three films of Gance's covered here--"J'Accuse!" (1919), "La Roue" (1923) and "Napoléon" (1927)--than we are today, in 2021, to this 1968 production. Heck, almost a century on, we're nearly as far removed now from Gance's "Napoléon" as Gance and his film were from the actual Napoleon Bonaparte. Fortunately, too, film preservationists and scholars like Brownlow have expanded our understanding of silent cinema and restored more extant prints of those three Gance pictures since 1968. Justly assuming viewers wouldn't have access to these films at the time, fairly lengthy plot summaries and clips are shown, although especially in the case of "J'Accuse!," it seems as though they didn't even have enough material at the time to go into much detail on that production (fortunately, as with the other two, this has since changed with quality reconstructions available on home video and, perhaps, even longer versions of the other two to come.)
Just as inspiration for Brownlow's subsequent efforts, after first being transfixed as a teenager watching a 9.5mm two-reel cut, in restoring "Napoléon" to over five-and-a-half-hours length, "Abel Gance: The Charm of Dynamite" was worthwhile, as well for his further efforts in documenting silent cinema in books, such as "The Parades Gone By" written the same year as this program, and documentaries, including the incredibly more-thorough "Hollywood" (1980) and "Cinema Europe: The Other Hollywood' (1995). An entire field devoted to research on silent films has become established since and which barely existed when Brownlow initially set out to document and preserve this heritage. In 1968, however, they weren't even quite sure what the proper speed should be for silent films, and even though it's pointed out here that Gance's films should be played at a slower rate, they're nonetheless shown sped-up here at the sound-film pace of 24 frames per second--a habit that for generations promoted an impression of silent cinema being overly archaic or ridiculous.
Interviews of Gance as well as of Napoleon himself, Albert Dieudonné, are also worth watching. Best of all, though, may be the footage of the production of "Napoléon," Gance being ahead of his time in all sorts of manner, had the filming of his film filmed itself. What today has become a common making-of-documentary subject for home-video extras and promotion materials. Of particular interest in this case are some of the production's extraordinary camera setups, including a camera harnessed to a cameraman, various dolly and hanging-camera shots, and the vertical stack of three cameras to capture the "Polyvision" triptych climax. Even more behind-the-scenes footage may be seen in the subsequent documentary "Abel Gance and His Napoléon" (1984) by Nelly Kaplan.
Just as inspiration for Brownlow's subsequent efforts, after first being transfixed as a teenager watching a 9.5mm two-reel cut, in restoring "Napoléon" to over five-and-a-half-hours length, "Abel Gance: The Charm of Dynamite" was worthwhile, as well for his further efforts in documenting silent cinema in books, such as "The Parades Gone By" written the same year as this program, and documentaries, including the incredibly more-thorough "Hollywood" (1980) and "Cinema Europe: The Other Hollywood' (1995). An entire field devoted to research on silent films has become established since and which barely existed when Brownlow initially set out to document and preserve this heritage. In 1968, however, they weren't even quite sure what the proper speed should be for silent films, and even though it's pointed out here that Gance's films should be played at a slower rate, they're nonetheless shown sped-up here at the sound-film pace of 24 frames per second--a habit that for generations promoted an impression of silent cinema being overly archaic or ridiculous.
Interviews of Gance as well as of Napoleon himself, Albert Dieudonné, are also worth watching. Best of all, though, may be the footage of the production of "Napoléon," Gance being ahead of his time in all sorts of manner, had the filming of his film filmed itself. What today has become a common making-of-documentary subject for home-video extras and promotion materials. Of particular interest in this case are some of the production's extraordinary camera setups, including a camera harnessed to a cameraman, various dolly and hanging-camera shots, and the vertical stack of three cameras to capture the "Polyvision" triptych climax. Even more behind-the-scenes footage may be seen in the subsequent documentary "Abel Gance and His Napoléon" (1984) by Nelly Kaplan.
