Napoleon
A biopic of Napoleon Bonaparte, tracing the Corsican’s career from his schooldays (where a snowball fight is staged like a military campaign) to his flight from Corsica, through the French Revolution (where a real storm is intercut with a political storm) and the Terror, culminating in his triumphant invasion of Italy in 1797. Originally intended to be the first of six films, director Abel Gance realized the full project would be nigh impossible, and never raised the money to complete the other five. The film’s legendary reputation is due to the astonishing range of techniques that Gance uses to tell his story, culminating in the final twenty-minute triptych sequence, which alternates widescreen panoramas with complex multiple- image montages projected simultaneously on three screens.
Director: Abel Gance, Alexandre Volkoff, Anatole Litvak, Georges Lampin, Henri Andréani, Henry Krauss, Jean Arroy, Jean Mitry, Mario Nalpas, Pierre Danis, Sacher Purnal, Simone Surdieux, Viktor Tourjansky
Actors: Abel Gance, Albert Dieudonné, Alexandre Koubitzky, Antonin Artaud, Edmond van Daële, Gina Manès, Marguerite Gance, Suzanne Bianchetti, Vladimir Roudenko, Yvette Dieudonné
