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“The destiny of an entire empire often hangs upon a single man.”

Synopsis:
Napoleon Buonaparte (Albert Dieudonné) rises from humble obscurity to emerge as France’s greatest military leader.

Genres:

• Biopic
• French Films
• Historical Drama
• Military
• Silent Films

Response to Peary’s Review:
In his review of Napoléon , Peary asserts that no other silent films are as “visually spectacular” as those of director Abel Gance — and he’s right. While I ultimately found this film overlong and full of too many confusing battle scenes (see my review of Kagemusha, 1980), I was nonetheless literally mesmerized by the continual brilliance of the camerawork. As Peary notes, Gance’s prodigious experimental techniques included “split-screen photography, hand-held cameras, super-impositions, rapid-fire editing, color tinting, and a mobile camera” — all in a movie made decades before The New Wave movement of the 1960s.

My favorite scenes occur at the very beginning of the film, as a willful young Napoleon (Vladimir Roudenko) engages in a snowball fight with his peers, and the seeds of this infamous leader’s insecurity, fury, and diligence are clearly laid out. Later, I was enchanted by Napoleon’s nervous wooing of divorcee Joséphine de Beauharnais (Gina Manès) and her two children. In other words, the scenes I found most interesting were those in which Gance attempted to show the nuances of Napoleon’s character, rather than simply presenting him as a heroic symbol.

Apparently Gance was stymied in his original desire to depict the entire arc of Napoleon’s life, so the resulting “truncated” film simply shows one man’s rise to power without the inevitable balance of his fall. Nonetheless, this is actually oddly effective as a rhetorical technique — by the end of the film, as split-screen cinematography shows a close-up of Napoleon’s face surrounded on either side by triumphant battle scenes, we understand that this was a man who was all too human, but simultaneously larger than life.

Redeeming Qualities and Moments:

• Carmine Coppola’s rousing score
• Prodigious use of clever camera techniques, including split-screen images
  
• Effective rapidfire editing
  
• The “snowball scene” at the very beginning of the movie, as Napoleon begins to show his strategic brilliance
  
• Vladimir Roudenko as young Napoleon, with a willful, steely gaze constantly fixed upon his face

Must See?
Yes. This massive French epic will take some time to get through, but is worth watching at least once.

Categories

• Historically Relevant

(Listed in 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die)

• IMDb entry
• MRQE (Movie Review Query Engine)
• Movie Reviews UK
• Decent Films Guide Review
• Cinematic Threads Capsule Review