Napoléon (1927)

User Rating:

7.9/10   

Director:

Abel Gance

Writer:

Abel Gance (written by)

Release Date:

17 February 1929 (USA)

Genre:

Biography | Drama | War

Tagline:

Abel Gance's 1927 Masterpiece [reissue]

Plot:

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

Plot Keywords:

Military | Snowball Fight | French Revolution | Campaign | Corsica

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:

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

Country:

France

Color:

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

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 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:

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.

Goofs:

Continuity: When Charlotte Corday assassinates Marat, the position of the knife and Marat's clothing change between shots.

Movie Connections:

Featured in The 100 Greatest War Films (2005) (TV)

Vive Napoleon! Vive Abel Gance!

January 23, 1981. Radio City Music Hall. Nearly midnight. One of the most thrilling experiences of my life. "Napoleon", restored, and reconstructed, not seen for over fifty years, was debuting in front of 6,000 people packed into the great theater with Carmine Coppolla conducting a huge orchestra rising up on the lift as lighting cast fifty foot shadows of the conductor on the walls. The score was magnificent. By the end of the film when the tryptyches stretched the size of the screen to triple size filling the glorious famous sunburst proscenium, Radio City Music Hall erupted in a standing ovation - and Kevin Brownlow, who restored the film, at that very moment from the theater had Abel Gance (soon to die) live on the phone from France to hear the ovation! Just incredible. Glorious. The film is a masterpiece of the Twentieth Century. And a must see. The best scene was the battle in the Convention between the Girondists and Jacobins superimposed on Napoleon's escape from Corsica in a sea storm. Staggering editing and camera work. It is a tragedy for us all the the remaining chapters of Napoleon's life were never put on film as Gance planned.