Friday, August 10, 2018

Looking Back on Able Gance's Napoleon

I was recently looking at the Internet and memories were brought back by this piece of click bait.


I saw the first restoration of Napoleon, albeit only the 4 hour version not the 6 hour full restoration that occurred a few decades later. It was one of the few things that came out of Zeotrope Studios before One From The Heart bankrupted it. (And it is a beautiful piece of filmmaking, way before it's time - watch it again and see how in front of the times it was!)
Expand to Read about the Plitt Century City

Anyway, I saw this at the old Plitt Century City theaters back when they were still 2 huge ass theaters. (Side note, I was there once to see a movie and during previews the Secret Service came in and President Regan sat with Nancy to watch it with an audience. This was only a few years before the attack on him and the end of Presidents sneaking in anywhere.)

Zeotrope Studios was run by Francis Ford Coppola. He had restored much of the movie, including the tinting and tri-part screening, and his father had written a new score for the film. The time I saw it, there was no live orchestra (as there was in New York at the Restoration Premier a few days earlier). But it was cool. L O N G, but cool. The big ending with the three screen shots, tinting in France's tricolor was very memorable.

Apparently 30 years later, the British Film Institute restored the entire 6 hour version and had lots of copy write fights with Coppola, but that was after my time. However the preview below gives you an idea of the scope. Image seeing this on that massive Plitt screen.