Napoleon

France 1927, 226 minutes
Dir. Abel Gance
Rating: [PG]
Genres: Classics / Silent Cinema, War

Aroview: Renowned silent epic treats the life of the French general and emperor as a melodramatic spectacle of the highest order, with a still-astounding array of cinematic inventions.

Originally shown on three screens, this famous version restored by Kevin Brownlow in 1981, serviceably translates all of the outstanding scenes, including some of the best battle stagings ever put on film. Albert Dieudonne plays the diminutive Napoleon with a particular intensity as he fights off school bullies, survives ‘The Terror’ to become the ‘man of destiny’ who later conquered most of Europe. Score by Carmine Coppola.