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Just like Napoleon, film director Abel Gance had revolutionary ambitions but also encountered difficulties. His original plan was to shoot a six-episode movie series, but the process of making one was “disastrous” enough and worthy of being passed down to generations. Gance’s first cut took nearly ten hours, but it couldn’t pass the publisher’s test. Later, “Napoleon” was screened in various countries and was cut to different lengths, some three or four hours, and some only 100 minutes. As a result, the film fell into pieces, but it was the British who later restored it.
British director Lenny. The British and American version of “Napoleon” shot by Scottcaused a round of criticism from French critics, is expected. For many people who do not understand and do not need to understand the historical details, seeing the French emperor’s exciting battles inside and outside the palace is enough to “give away” popcorn soda. In fact, as a historical figure, Napoleon not only dominated the European revolutions and imperial hegemony in the 18th and 19th centuries, but also became a legend in the history of movies since the 20th century.
It is difficult to make a historical film, and the first thing to do is to select the materials and test your skills. For example, the new version of “Napoleon” describes his rise to fame in World War I, his proclaimed emperor, and his death. It only spends more space on action scenes and omits jumps in the transitions between major plots. However, to describe a biography of a figure like Napoleon in detail would probably require the length of a full-length drama. 1927 by French director Abel. The masterpiece “Napoleon” produced by Abel Gance took five and a half hours, and it only talked about the protagonist completing the Battle of Italy, and it had not yet reached the stage of coup d’état to become king.
Image source: 1927 version of the movie “Napoleon”
Just like Napoleon, Gance had revolutionary ambitions but also suffered a lot. His original plan was to shoot a six-episode movie series, but the process of making one was “disastrous” enough and worthy of being passed down to generations. Gance’s first cut took nearly ten hours, but it couldn’t pass the publisher’s test. Later, “Napoleon” was screened in various countries and was cut to different lengths, some three or four hours, and some only 100 minutes. As a result, the film fell into pieces, but it was the British who later restored it.
British film director and scholar Kevin Brownlow began the restoration project of “Napoleon” in 1969. With the support of the French Cinematheque and the British Film Institute (BFI), it was not until 2000 that the BFI and Photoplay released a five-and-a-half-hour film. restored version, but the Cinémathèque Française went ahead to restore a seven-hour version. This restoration process of constantly piecing together a “complete” and “original” version from the fragments is as difficult and complex as historians trying to reconstruct Napoleon’s life through documentary records.
This “Napoleon” is a silent film, and the dialogue and narration are all displayed on subtitle cards. Gance consulted a large amount of information when preparing for filming, and any content that was well-founded was marked “historical” in the lower right corner of the subtitle card. He also went to shoot historical scenes, such as the scene in Napoleon’s hometown of Corsica where his family was being hunted and escaping. However, the reason why this film has been praised by future generations is not because of whether it conforms to specific historical facts, but because Gance used bold and innovative film language to create characters and interpret the era. This film is never a history book. Its task is not to lay out the information, but to express the artist’s vision and emotions. Therefore, the most exciting part of this film is actually the parts that are not marked as “historical”.
Image source: Stills from the movie “Napoleon”
Napoleon is described in the play as the “Chosen One”, a natural war genius and a national hero. The black bicorn hat is the symbol of Napoleon. In this “Napoleon”, the audience sees the protagonist’s hat before seeing his face. In the public impression and Lennie. In Scott’s new version, even if Napoleon became king, he would wear a military cap more than a crown, and he would continue to drive and conquer personally, which is why he won the hearts of the people. Gance’s Napoleon starts from his childhood, where he took his classmates to snowball fights before anyone saw him, and defeated many with less, showing his military genius. But he was an aloof child, ostracized by everyone, and had to keep company with eagles. The eagle has also become a totem throughout the film, like Napoleon’s doppelgänger.
Unexpectedly, children’s snowball fights can be so brutal. Napoleon’s opponent actually used snowballs to wrap rocks. In the end, both sides lost their teeth and “exploded”. In this scene, the young Napoleon stands in the snow, commanding calmly. Director Gance expressed Napoleon’s general style of “eighty at the age of three”, using cross-cutting and multiple exposure techniques to create multiple overlapping images of close-ups and half-body postures of his face and other children’s scuffles. The hand-cranked camera was used to follow the children on the “battlefield” for shots and cuts. As the battle heated up, the camera swayed more dramatically, creating a “wind-fighting” scene, while Napoleon in the close-up became increasingly excited.
