Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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18 of 18 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
Demand to see the newly-restored version--don't buy this one!, 16 Oct 2008
Over here in Canada, we are at an even greater disadvantage than you lucky, lucky Brits. You have, on occasion, the opportunity to see the newly-restored version of Abel Gance's phenomenal epic, Napoleon, in as close a version as possible to what audiences would have seen in 1927--some 50 minutes of footage are perhaps lost forever, but that certainly beats this now-outdated version that will probably be the only way to experience Napoleon at home, thanks to the pig-headedness of American director Francis Ford Coppola.
Contrary to what the product description here tells you, Coppola did NOT oversee the restoration--that was a fifteen-year labour of love by film historian Kevin Brownlow, who was single-handedly responsible for resurrecting this film after even the Cinema Francaise had relegated it to the storage bins. Coppola somehow acquired the distribution rights to the film in the US, commissioned his father, Carmine, to compose a score, and then re-edited the film--losing about half an hour from the BFA version--to fit his father's music. That was in 1980--since then, Brownlow and others have found about 90 minutes of new footage, and have found superior 35mm prints that can replace some of the poorer-quality shots that Brownlow had to work with at the time. Coppola also reworked the tinting to make it more consistent, whether or not that squared with Gance's intentions.
It is now universally acknowledged that the version that played in Britain in 2004, running at something like 330 minutes, with a score by silent-film-score specialist Carl Davis, is perhaps the best version we will ever see--but Coppola claims to own the copyright to the film, and refuses to allow a DVD version of the 2004 version, or even to incorporate the new footage or re-edit his now-deceased father's soundtrack to bring the new version of Napoleon to a wider audience. This is an outrage, and anyone who cares about cinema history should raise a hue-and-cry against Coppola for claiming ownership of something he really had very little to do with. If this film belongs to anyone, it's Kevin Brownlow--there's more of him in this film than anyone else living, and the story of his determination to bring this amazing cinematic experience to life after its untimely death in 1927 is nothing short of inspiring. Remember--it was Americans who killed wider viewership of Napoleon in 1927, by editing it down to 72 minutes and removing all of Gance's revolutionary cinematic techniques; it's an American now who wants to force you to see his version of the film. The Coppola version is still worthwhile, of course, but we can--and deserve--to do so much better.
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4 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
SILENT CLASSIC ! , 19 Jan 2008
CAST LIST
Albert Dieudonné as Napoléon Bonaparte
Vladimir Roudenko as Napoléon Bonaparte (child)
Edmond Van Daële as Maximilien Robespierre
Alexandre Koubitzky as Georges Danton
Antonin Artaud as Jean-Paul Marat
Abel Gance as Louis de Saint-Just
Gina Manès as Joséphine de Beauharnais
Suzanne Bianchetti as Marie Antoinette
Marguerite Gance as Charlotte Corday
Yvette Dieudonné as Élisa Bonaparte
Philippe Hériat as Antonio Salicetti
Annabella as Violine Fleuri (and Désirée Clary)
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