Napoléon (Bfi Film Classics)
Publisher: British Film Institute
Published: May 1, 1995
Language: eng
Format: Paperback
Number of pages: 70
ISBN-13: 9780851704661
Subjects: Film theory & criticism; Napolâeon (Motion picture : 1927); Silent Films; Pop Arts / Pop Culture; Performing Arts/Dance; Film & Video - History & Criticism; Performing Arts / General; 1769-1821; Emperor of the French,; I,; In motion pictures; Napoleon
Description: Abel Gance's great film Napoleon, as heroic in ambition as its subject, opened at the Opera de Paris in April 1927. It was the summation of the silent cinema, a remarkable feat of imagination, ingenuity and stamina. Years in the planning and months in production, the film astonished its audience with the boldness of its conception - not least at the moment when the screen expanded to reveal Gance's visionary invention of Polyvision, a wide-screen system thirty years ahead of its time.

Yet Gance's triumph was to be short-lived. The American version, re-edited by MGM, was a disaster. The sheer length of the film, and its spectacular effects, produced problems for exhibitors. Gance never gave up trying to 'improve' it. In 1934 he added sound; in 1970 he was still editing.