New Trailer for Abel Gance’s ‘Napoléon’ Full 7-Hour-Long Restoration
by Alex Billington
July 3, 2024
Source: YouTube
Pathe in France has unveiled a brand new official trailer for the epic 7 hour complete restoration of cinema classic Napoléon, better known as Abel Gance’s Napoléon. Everyone who studies cinema knows about this film – it’s widely considered one of the greatest historical epics in all of cinema history. This most recent restoration brings together the “Grande Version” – the Napoleonic epic of Abel Gance in its new & definitive version. Here’s the full intro: “After 16 years of an unprecedented collective adventure in the history of La Cinémathèque Française, the public is finally invited to come and judge a film that no one has ever seen since 1927. An exemplary reconstruction led by Georges Mourier, and featuring a new score due to the talent of Simon Cloquet-Lafollye, recorded by musicians from the Radio France orchestras.” Starring Albert Dieudonné as the French icon Napoléon Bonaparte, this latest version was screened at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival and it will play in French cinemas this month. No US release is set as far as we know yet. The $3 million restoration took more than a decade to finish. Described as “a mixture of detective work, digital wizardry, and extraordinary dedication,” the new restoration utilizes Gance’s production notes & recovered footage, creating a new HD “print that promises to maintain the ‘soul & feel’ of the celluloid original.” Enjoy.
Here’s the new trailer (+ poster) for the 4K restoration of Abel Gance’s original Napoléon, from YouTube:
Official synopsis via Cannes as a proper introduction: “From his beginnings at the Ecole Militaire de Brienne (1783) to the start of the Italian Campaign (1796), Napoleon vu par Abel Gance is conceived as a picture book in which the historical figures of the time (Bonaparte, Danton, Robespierre, Marat, Joséphine de Beauharnais, Charlotte Corday, etc.) stand side by side with fictional characters (Tristan Fleury and his daughter Violine), as well as the numerous extras who symbolize the people and the army. Brienne, the Club des Cordeliers, Corsica, the siege of Toulon, the Convention, the Paris of the Revolution and the Terror, and Italy are all places that mark Napoleon’s ascent to the heights of glory and power.” Reconstructed and restored by the Cinémathèque française, with the support of the CNC (French Ministry of Culture), under the direction of Georges Mourier, with the Éclair Classics/L’Image Retrouvée laboratory. Musical setting by Simon Cloquet-Lafollye, performed by Benjamin Bernheim, tenor, the Orchestre National de France, the Orchestre Philharmonique and the Chœur de Radio France, conducted by Fabien Gabel. 🇫🇷 📽
Napoléon, also known as Abel Gance’s Napoleon or Napoléon vu par Abel Gance or Napoleon as seen by Abel Gance, is written and directed by the acclaimed French filmmaker Abel Gance, following his other two silent film hits J’accuse (1919) and La Roue (1923), plus many, many other silent films and projects. It originally premiered in April of 1927 as a 4-hour version screening at the Paris Opera, with a 9 hour version being screened in May that year. It was sent to the US as the “Version Définitive” at 6 hours, 43 minutes in 1928, before debuting in US cinemas cut down to 2 hours in January 1929. This most recent restoration premiered at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival this summer. Pathe will re-release this epic Napoléon “Grande Version” in French cinemas only starting on July 10th, 2024 this month. Anyone want to watch all of it?