Napoléon (1927)
Napoléon (1927)
Plot.
Where to Watch.
Currently Napoléon is available for streaming online, rent, buy or watch for free on: Curzon Home Cinema, BFI Player
Streaming in:🇬🇧 United Kingdom
This Movie Is About.
Cast & Crew.
Albert Dieudonné
Napoléon Bonaparte
Vladimir Roudenko
Napoléon Bonaparte enfant
Edmond van Daële
Maximilien Robespierre
Alexandre Koubitzky
Georges-Jacques Danton
Antonin Artaud
Jean-Paul Marat
Abel Gance
Louis Saint-Just
Gina Manès
Joséphine de Beauharnais
Suzanne Bianchetti
La reine Marie-Antoinette
Marguerite Gance
Charlotte Corday
Yvette Dieudonné
Élisa Bonaparte
Nicolas Koline
Tristan Fleuri
Henri Baudin
Santo-Ricci - Corsican Shepherd
Carmine Coppola
Composer
Daniel Buiret
Augustin Robespierre
Georges Cahuzac
Alexandre, Viscount of Beauharnais
Carl Davis
Composer
Arthur Honegger
Composer
Adrien Caillard
Thomas Gasparin / Jean François Ricord
Roger Blum
François-Joseph Talma
Léonce-Henri Burel
Cinematographer
Max Maxudian
Paul François Jean Nicolas, Viscount of Barras
Jules Kruger
Cinematographer
Philippe Hériat
Antoine Christophe Saliceti
Joseph-Louis Mundwiller
Cinematographer
Pierre Batcheff
General Louis Lazare Hoche
Nikolai Toporkoff
Cinematographer
Eugénie Buffet
Laetizia Bonaparte / Letizia Bonaparte
Acho Chakatouny
Count Charles-André Pozzo of Borgo
Annabella
Violine Fleuri / Bernardine Eugénie Désirée Clary
Alex Bernard
General Jacques François Dugommier / Jean-Marie Collot d'Herbois
Carrie Carvalho
The Seer
Sylvio Cavicchia
Lucien Bonaparte (Adult)
Léon Courtois
General Jean François Carteaux
Pierre de Canolle
Auguste de Marmont
Gilbert Dacheux
Jean-Pierre du Teil
Damia
La Marseillaise
Pierre Danis
Colonel Jean-Baptiste Muiron / Assistant Director
W. Percy Day
Captain Louis Charles Antoine Desaix / Painter
Boris de Fast
The Green Eye / Makeup Artist
Guy Favières
Joseph Fouché
Serge Freddy-Karl
The Small Drum Marcellin Fleuri
Jean Gaudrey
Jean-Lambert Tallien
Simone Genevois
Pauline Bonaparte
Georges Hénin
Eugène Rose from Beauharnais
Jean Henry
Sergeant Jean-Andoche Junot
Henry Krauss
Moustache / Assistant Director
Harry Krimer
Claude Joseph Rouget de Lisle
Georges Lampin
Joseph Bonaparte / Assistant Director
Alexandre Mathillon
General Barthélemy Louis Joseph Schérer
Genica Missirio
Joachim Murat
Francine Mussey
Anne Lucile Philippe Laridon Duplessis
Jeanne Pen
Hortense Eugénie Cécile de Beauharnais
Roblin
Picot de Peccaduc
Jack Rye
Charles O'Hara
Louis Sance
King Louis XVI of France
Maurice Schutz
Filippo Antonio Pasquale di Paoli
Andrée Standart
Thérésa Cabarrus, Madame Tallien
Suzy Vernon
Madame Juliette Récamier
Petit Vidal
Pierre Philippeaux
Robert Vidalin
Camille Desmoulins
Louis Vonelly
Poet André Marie Chénier
Jean d'Yd
La Bussière
René Jeanne
Professor at Brienne
Eugen Schüfftan
Special Effects / Visual Effects Supervisor
Philippe Rolla
André Masséna
Pierre Schild
Art Direction
Eugène Lourié
Art Direction
Marguerite Beaugé
Assistant Editor
Roger Hubert
Additional Photography
Anatole Litvak
Assistant Director
Segundo de Chomón
Special Effects
Viktor Tourjansky
Assistant Director
Alexandre Volkoff
Assistant Director
Jean Mitry
Assistant Director
Henri Andréani
Assistant Director
Serge Piménoff
Assistant Art Director
Fédote Bourgasoff
Camera Operator
Constantin Geftman
Unit Manager
Nicolas Wilcke
Special Effects / Prop Maker
Alexandre Lochakoff
Art Direction
Vladimir Meingard
Assistant Art Director
Georges Jacouty
Art Direction
Jeanne Lanvin
Costume Design
Mario Nalpas
Assistant Director
Émile Pierre
Additional Photography
Monniot
Camera Operator
Noë Bloch
Production Manager
Henry de Cazotte
Producer
Hugo Stinnes
Producer
Wengeroff
Producer
Louis Osmont
Casting / Unit Production Manager
Alexandre Benois
Art Direction
Mme. Augris
Costume Design
Georges Charmy
Costume Design
Mme. Neminsky
Costume Design
Sauvageau
Costume Design
Wladimir Kwanine
Makeup Artist
Edouard de Bersaucourt
Production Manager
Rene Rufly
Unit Manager
William Delafontaine
Unit Manager
Albinet
Gaffer
Doublon
Gaffer
Graza
Gaffer
Paul Briquet
Camera Operator
Lee Planskoy
Camera Operator
Henri Berryer
Electrician
Marcel Eywinger
Camera Operator / Additional Photography
Henriette Pinson
Assistant Editor
Galvin
Shoe Design
Paul Minine
Special Effects
Edward Scholl
Special Effects
Jean Arroy
Assistant Director
Sacher Purnal
Assistant Director
Simon Feldman
Technical Supervisor
Simone Surdieux
Script Supervisor
Lemirt
Armorer
Georges Lucas
Additional Photography
Media.
Details.
Release DateApril 7, 1927
StatusReleased
Running Time5h 33m
Box Office$39,448
Genres
Wiki.
Napoléon is a 1927 French silent epic historical film, produced, and directed by Abel Gance that tells the story of Napoleon's early years. It is also the only film to use Polyvision (for the finale). On screen, the title is Napoléon vu par Abel Gance, meaning "Napoleon as seen by Abel Gance". The film is recognised as a masterwork of fluid camera motion, produced in a time when most camera shots were static. Many innovative techniques were used to make the film, including fast cutting, extensive close-ups, a wide variety of hand-held camera shots, location shooting, point of view shots, multiple-camera setups, multiple exposure, superimposition, underwater camera, kaleidoscopic images, film tinting, split screen and mosaic shots, multi-screen projection, and other visual effects. A revival of Napoléon in the mid-1950s influenced the filmmakers of the French New Wave. The film used the Keller-Dorian cinematography for its color sequences.
The film begins in Brienne-le-Château with youthful Napoleon attending military school where he manages a snowball fight like a military campaign, yet he suffers the insults of other boys. It continues a decade later with scenes of the French Revolution and Napoleon's presence at the periphery as a young army lieutenant. He returns to visit his family home in Corsica but politics shift against him and put him in mortal danger. He flees, taking his family to France. Serving as an officer of artillery in the Siege of Toulon, Napoleon's genius for leadership is rewarded with a promotion to brigadier general. Jealous revolutionaries imprison Napoleon but then the political tide turns against the Revolution's own leaders. Napoleon leaves prison, forming plans to invade Italy. He falls in love with the beautiful Joséphine de Beauharnais. The emergency government charges him with the task of protecting the National Assembly. Succeeding in this he is promoted to Commander-in-Chief of the Army of the Interior, and he marries Joséphine. He takes control of the army which protects the French–Italian border and propels it to victory in an invasion of Italy.
Gance planned for Napoléon to be the first of six films about Napoleon's career, a chronology of great triumph and defeat ending in Napoleon's death in exile on the island of Saint Helena. After the difficulties encountered in making the first film, Gance realised that the costs involved would make the full project impossible.
Napoléon was first released in a gala at the Palais Garnier (then the home of the Paris Opera) on 7 April 1927. Napoléon had been screened in only eight European cities when Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer bought the rights to it, but after screening it in London, it was cut drastically in length, and only the central panel of the three-screen Polyvision sequences was retained before it was put on limited release in the United States. There, the film was indifferently received at a time when talkies were just starting to appear. The film was restored in 1981 after twenty years' work by silent film historian Kevin Brownlow, with further restoration done under his supervision in 2016. A new restoration of the film supervised by Georges Mourier is expected to premiere in France in 2023.