8mm Forum: Pics from Napolean screening

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Posted by Akshay Nanjangud (Member # 2828) on March 25, 2012, 02:42 AM:

Paramount projectionists permitted photography. Here are all the snaps I could get from today's screening of Abel Gance's Napolean at the Oakland Paramount Theater.

Posted by Michael O'Regan (Member # 938) on March 25, 2012, 03:12 AM:

Excellent pics, Akshay.
Thanks for posting those.

Posted by Hugh Thompson Scott (Member # 2922) on March 25, 2012, 05:01 AM:

Well done Akshay,not so much a screening as an event!
I t amuses me that Abel Gance made this film for Napolean,
just think of the epic he'd had have to make for Wellington!

Posted by Gerald Santana (Member # 2362) on March 25, 2012, 12:24 PM:

Great pics Akshay, glad you got a chance to see the booth and the film -- I wish I was there. I'll have to wait until my kids are grown to take them, hopefully they will want to come with me then! [Wink]

Posted by Douglas Meltzer (Member # 28) on March 25, 2012, 07:47 PM:

Akshay,

Thanks for the pictures! I went to the Radio City Music Hall screening back in 1981 and it was thrilling. I understand there are quite a few differences (in addition to a new score) with this version.

Doug

Posted by Akshay Nanjangud (Member # 2828) on March 25, 2012, 08:34 PM:

Doug, did you like the feature when you watched it?

Posted by Douglas Meltzer (Member # 28) on March 26, 2012, 10:47 PM:

Akshay,

I did. I was very impressed with Gance's editing, his camera technique and of course the Polyvision triptych sequences. I also liked Carmine Coppola's score.

What did you think of the film and of the new score by Carl Davis?

Doug

Posted by Akshay Nanjangud (Member # 2828) on March 27, 2012, 01:33 AM:

Doug,

I have been thinking about the feature since yesterday. Some thoughts:

1. I loved the first and final acts. The first thirty-five minutes, with Napolean in school, were very good, then Napolean lost at sea is good, and the final Polyvision fifty minutes is brilliant.
2. The second and third acts were okay. While the second act was action packed (battles in the rain), the third is a sappy romance. Both acts didn't really involve me at the time of viewing.
3. The Polyvision was fantastic! Cliched observation but how can I convince everyone? Napolean's speech to a rapturous audience has to seen in Polyvision to be believed.
4. The music is hard for me to judge. To the credit of the orchestra, I can say that not once did I feel there was live orchestra. This is a huge compliment because the musicians didn't try to rise above the feature. The musical accompaniment was complimentary to the images and sounded like the music I have heard in other silent features.
5. The camera's fluidity felt much like a modern movie. For example, when Napolean rode a horse, the camera put me on a horse!
6. After all the recent special-effects features, it was refreshing to watch a feature completely on location or on real-looking sets. For example, in one rain drenched battle it felt like a real battlefield struck by real-rain.
7. The impact of color tinted film is unmatched. There is a sequence in the first act where Napolean is following the revolution from his window. A bloody, raging mob is on the streets. Great scene, right? Now, imagine this on film tinted red!

As I am writing this, I realize there is a lot to like about the feature. Yet as the feature finished and the applause started, I wasn't completely overwhelmed. Perhaps I expect a feature to have an involving narrative, more than what Napolean had to offer. So, my opinion is that while Abel Gance succeeded in his technical excursions, his story-telling (he is the credited writer too!) was not the best.

On a final note, I did enjoy the feature. My wife enjoyed it more than I did. If I could afford it, I'd probably go again next week. If it ever screens in future, I'd like to watch it. If one watches only one feature in a theater, it has to be this.

Posted by Claus Harding (Member # 702) on March 27, 2012, 01:04 PM:

Back from a long week-end in SF, tired but with amazing memories.
"Napoleon" in its longer version is just...better, with Carl Davis' score, to my ear, more emotional and less rigid than Carmine Coppola's.
I walked out of the theatre with the thought: "well, it couldn't really be any shorter, could it? What would you take out?"

The Paramount Theatre is overwhelming in its period design; simply the most astounding movie palace I have ever set foot in:

Here is but one detail from inside (my cellphone is old, so..):

Boston Light and Sound did an excellent job with the difficult projection task; when the Triptych was showing, they would discreetly do frame-height adjustments on the wing projectors to help the horizons in the images align as well as they could.

It tells you something about the power of the film that several folks came two nights in a row.... [Smile]

At the end of the screening, I finally got to say hello to Professor Brownlow and he graciously autographed my commemorative booklet.

It put quite a pinch in my wallet, but I wouldn't have missed this week-end for anything.

Claus.

[ March 27, 2012, 04:23 PM: Message edited by: Claus Harding ]

Posted by Michael O'Regan (Member # 938) on March 27, 2012, 01:59 PM:

Excellent pictures also, Claus. Great that you got KB's signature on the programme.
[Smile]

Posted by Paul Adsett (Member # 25) on March 27, 2012, 03:26 PM:

Well done Claus, it must have been an amazing experience, which I am sure you will remember for a lifetime.
Incidentally did you know that Napolean was released on 9.5mm film?

Posted by Hugh Thompson Scott (Member # 2922) on March 27, 2012, 03:43 PM:

This film of Abel Gances "Napoleon" was available many years ago
on 9.5mm for sale on individual reels.

Posted by Claus Harding (Member # 702) on March 27, 2012, 06:24 PM:

I wonder if Dino has any of it.... [Big Grin]

Posted by Paul Adsett (Member # 25) on March 27, 2012, 06:30 PM:

I wonder if you need three 9.5mm projectors to show it! [Big Grin]

Posted by Claus Harding (Member # 702) on March 27, 2012, 07:11 PM:

I wonder if Dino will read this and start getting ideas.... [Big Grin]

Posted by Dino Everette (Member # 1378) on March 28, 2012, 01:00 AM:

hehe...I have been reading as Napoleon is a particular obsession of mine....
First a few questions...

Doug - The Davis Score is not entirely new, as this was the original score before Coppola stole the film out from under Kevin Brownlow, and slightly edited the film to fit his cousins score..

Gerald - I fear you will never get the chance to take your kids to see this version of napoleon since it has taken Kevin Brownlow 30 years to be allowed this. You still have one more chance next weekend, as I will be there April 1st as you know.

Paul and Claus - I do have some of napoleon on 9.5 but not nearly enough...Did you know that if you put all of the sections that were released from Pathe / Pathescope / Film Office together you get nearly a 4 hour version on 9,5? I wish I could set up a little Baby triptych, that would be awesome...

I actually do have the Coppola version on 16mm and have been waiting my lifetime to finally get to see the version reconstructed by the person who did all of the work, rather than the person who recognized someone did not secure the United States rights...

OK while I agree that being able to see any version of Napoleon is worth it, I personally believe that one should measure the Brownlow w/ Davis score as the definitive one.... I would suggest anyone who has interest in the film read Mr. Brownlow's book about the struggles he had making the reconstruction of napoleon a reality...

Posted by Ken Finch (Member # 2768) on March 28, 2012, 02:27 PM:

Hi everyone, I also saw te Kevin Brownlow version of "Napoleon" about 12 years ago at the National Film Theatre with live orchestra conducted by Carl Davis. I think the version you have seen has had added footage to it since then which Kevin has found, just as the version I saw had footage discovered since an earlier screening here in the U.K. some years previously. I admired the stamina of the Orchestra playing for over 3 hours with only a very short break! Kevin came to our last Group 9.5 Get together and gave a very interesting talk about his life. Yes he also first discovered the film on 9.5mm. and wrote articles about the 9.5mm silents in Amateur Cine World as a teenager many years ago resulting in a sharp rise in prices of second hand prints to film collectors and dealers who previously showed little interest in 9.5mm. The Pathescope version was issued as 3 seperate episodes of 2 or 3 300ft reels each. They disapeared from their cataloge in 1939. I know nothing of any Film Office version. There was a 35mm sound version distibuted some time in the early thirties. Some of the scenes from this were in the version I saw at the N.F.T. Ken Finch.

Posted by Michael O'Regan (Member # 938) on March 29, 2012, 01:32 AM:

Well, it would appear that we will get to see the new live presentation with the Carl Davis score here in the UK in November 2013.
I'm not certain why the long wait although I do know it is expensive to put on.

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