Napoléon: Abel Gance

Abel Gance's Napoléon is quite an endurance test for modern viewers raised on 90 minute films. Clocking in at almost 4 hours, Napoléon is a film a herculean proportions. Originally envisioned as the first of a series of six films about the life of Napoleon I of France, Napoléon follows his early days as a youth in school to his 1797 invasion of Italy. The film watches as he narrowly survives the French Revolution, falls in love and marries his beloved Josephine, and rises through the ranks of the army. It is a film of staggering scope, but then, couldn't the same be said about Napoleon himself? It is fascinating to watch Gance rationalize Napoleon's lust for conquest and power. To Gance, Napoleon's territorial conquests were inspired by a desire to spread the Enlightenment and virtues of the French Revolution to the rest of Europe. This is portrayed in a fascinating scene where Napoleon is visited by the specters of the victims of the French Revolution, such as Georges Danton, and told that they will support him as long as he upholds the values that so many died for. The scene makes great use of double exposures and rapid editing, displaying Gance's eye for cinematic technique and form. Indeed, the entire movie is a masterpiece of cinematic innovation. In addition to editing techniques that would intimidate the likes of Sergei Eisenstein and Dziga Vertov, Gance helped pioneer the use of handheld cameras in a time when most cameras were clunky monstrosities. But the true coup de grace is the film's final sequence where Napoleon rallies his disenchanted troops and marches on Italy. Gance shot this sequence with three cameras simultaneously. He then had the three reels projected next to each other, creating a 4:1 (1.33×3:1) aspect ratio. By doing so, he created a cinematic triptych for his grand finale. Does it work? Not perfectly. The three reels never seem to perfectly synch up with each other. But Gance's courage and audacity in attempting such an effect is astonishing. And really, "astonishing" is the best way to describe Napoléon. It is a film of epic scope, both in terms of human drama and cinematic innovation. Truly, Napoléon joins the ranks of other legendary silent epics such as Birth of a Nation, Intolerance, and Cabiria.

10/10