When Kevin Brownlow's first restoration of Abel Gance's epic silent film,
Napoleon (1927),
played at the 6000 seat Radio City Music Hall in New York City in 1981, it sold out. As a
matter of fact, it sold out again and again and again as additional
screenings were hastily added for what was then described as the "movie
event of the year."
Now, Brownlow's second major restoration of Napoleon is set
to play in Oakland, California in what is being described as the "cinema
event of a lifetime." Hyperbole? Not really. Bigger and better than
ever before? Decidedly yes.
The
San Francisco Silent Film Festival is
presenting Gance's masterpiece – unseen in the United States for nearly
30 years – for four performances only on March 24, 25, 31 and April 1.
This exclusive engagement marks not only the U.S. premiere of what is
being billed as a complete restoration by Brownlow – an Academy
Award honoree in 2011 – but as well the U.S. premiere of an original score by
acclaimed composer Carl Davis, who is coming over from England to
conduct the Oakland East Bay Symphony.
According to Brownlow and those involved in putting together this
monumental undertaking, there are no plans for the film to show anywhere
else in the United States – due in part to the extraordinary costs and
technical challenges of mounting this "live cinema experience." And,
should you be wondering, there are no plans for many of the same reasons
for the film to be shown on television or to be released on DVD or
Blu-ray. In other words, this really is a "cinema event of a lifetime."
If you love silent film, or if you love the movies in general, and if you are not yet convinced that you need to see this rarely screened masterpiece, here are ten reasons why you shouldn't miss Napoleon.
10) BACKGROUND: For Brownlow,
it’s personal.
The English film historian, who will be on hand for the event, first
came across a fragment of Gance's 1927 masterpiece as a film-obsessed
teenager more than 50 years ago. He was wowed. Since then, he has spent
much of his life piecing together this lost masterpiece which had been
dismissed, neglected, cut up, reworked, and scattered by the winds of
time.
9) KEVIN BROWNLOW: In 2010, this author, documentary filmmaker, and
preservationist became the first film historian to win an Academy Award.
In an industry which is always looking forward and very seldom
backward, that is something special. Brownlow's reputation is legendary. He has authored a handful of classic texts including
The Parade's Gone By (1968), a book which helped shape a
generation of film scholars and film buffs. [It includes a note of thanks to Louise Brooks and acknowledgement of a debt to the actress "for acting as a prime mover in this book's publication."]
The Parade's Gone By is still in print after
more than forty years. Brownlow has also made more than a dozen extraordinary
documentaries including the
13-part television series,
Hollywood (1979),
which aired to great acclaim on both the BBC and PBS. It set the
standard for every serious film documentary which followed. [It too includes footage of Louise Brooks.] Brownlow
has, as well, been involved in the restoration of a number of other
landmark films, among them
The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (1921),
The Thief of Bagdad (1924), King Vidor's
The Crowd (1928), and nearly two dozen others including the first film to win an Oscar,
Wings (1928). In the
March issue of Vanity Fair, Martin Scorsese wrote "If you love silent movies, Kevin Brownlow should be your hero."
8) SETTING: It's said that a theater can enhance a film experience.
That’s true for the Oakland Paramount, a 1931 Art Deco movie palace
designed by the celebrated Timothy L. Pflueger. Still gorgeous after all
these years, the 3,000 seat
Oakland Paramount
has gone through its own restoration and is today entered into the
National Register of Historic Places. Thanks in part to this historic
venue – a temple to the motion picture experience, movie-goers who
attend
Napoleon should expect to find themselves spellbound in
darkness, as were those who attended the film's premiere at the Paris Opera
in 1927.
7) MUSIC: The eminent British composer and conductor
Carl Davis will lead the Oakland East Bay Symphony (whose home is the Oakland Paramount) in Davis' own score for
Napoleon.
Written over 30 years ago, it is a marathon and masterful work of film
scoring which has twice been expanded to keep up with newly found
footage.
6) CARL DAVIS: Since 1961, this American born artist has made his
home in the UK, where he serves as a conductor with the London
Philharmonic Orchestra while regularly conducting the Royal Liverpool
Philharmonic Orchestra.
Carl Davis
has written music for more than 100 television programs and feature
films, but is best known for creating music to accompany silent films,
including key Brownlow restorations. Davis has also assisted in the
orchestration of the symphonic works of Paul McCartney, been given a
Honorary CBE from Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, and won a BAFTA Award
for Best Film Music.
5) BIGGER AND BETTER: This current and perhaps final restoration,
completed in 2000 but not previously seen outside Europe, reclaims more
than 30 minutes of additional footage discovered since the earlier
restorations while visually upgrading much of the film. This unique 35mm print, made at the laboratory of the BFI’s National Archive,
uses traditional dye-bath techniques to recreate the color tints and
tones that enhanced the film on its original release, giving a vividness
to the image as never before experienced in this country.
4) GREATEST FILM EVER MADE: Over the years, many films have been
said to be the greatest film ever made. For reasons of film history, for
reasons having to do with its own history, and for reasons of artistic
achievement, this may be the one film most deserving of the claim. Here
is what Vincent Canby had to say in 1981 in the pages of the
New York Times. "As one watches
Napoleon,
one suddenly realizes that there once was a film that justified all of
the adjectives that have subsequently been debased by critics as well as
advertising copywriters.
Napoleon sweeps; it takes the breath away; it moves (itself as well as the spectator); it dazzles."
3) POLYVISION: There are few movies so innovative, so daring and so hugely ambitious as
Napoleon.
In a way, it is a cinematographer's textbook, and what's more, Gance
repeatedly broke new ground in this seminal film. To involve the viewer
with the drama on the screen, Gance employed rapid cutting and swirling
camera movements and put the camera where it had not gone before – like
freely hanging from a balloon or handheld on horseback. And suddenly,
you are there in history. One of Gance's great innovations was
Polyvision. For thefinale, the screen expands to three times its normal
width – a kind of triptych – while showing panoramic views and montages
of images. There really hasn't been anything else like it, not even
Cinerama, which was developed 30 years later. To present Polyvision at
the Oakland Paramount, three projection booths equipped with three
perfectly-synchronized projectors will be specially installed, along
with a purpose-built three-panel screen which will fill the width of the
auditorium.
2) VALUE: As movie tickets go, these are expensive tickets. They
range between $45.00 and $120.00 dollars per person. However, for a five
and a half hour movie (the length of three contemporary films)
accompanied by a live symphony orchestra (a concert ticket too), the
ticket prices to
Napoleon are – when everything is added up – rather inexpensive.
1) EXPERIENCE: This presentation of
Napoleon is likely the
closest we will ever come to experiencing Gance's masterpiece as the
director intended it. According to on-line message
boards, film goers are flying in from all over the United States and
Europe. In ten or twenty or thirty years, when this screening of
Napoleon is only a memory, film lovers will ask – were you there? "Did you see the
Napoleon at the Paramount in 2012?"
Kevin Brownlow’s restoration of Abel Gance's
Napoleon is being presented by the San Francisco Silent Film Festival in association with American Zoetrope, The Film Preserve,
Photoplay Productions,
and BFI (British Film Institute). Each screening of the 5 1/2-hour epic
will begin at 1:30 in the afternoon and will be shown in four parts
with three intermissions, including a dinner break. Local restaurants
are creating special Napoleon-themed menus for the event, which is
expected to end by 9:30 pm. Further information and ticket availability
here and at
http://www.silentfilm.org