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March 15, 1980: Abel Gance is reintroduced to contemporary audiences when his film “Napoleon” is reconstructed from various prints. The film was a sensation when it was screened at Telluride in 1979. |
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"Sometimes he loses a thought in the middle. It's part of his charm." –Mary Ann Wollner on Abel Gance |
ladailymirror.com 
Gance’s “Napoleon” was screened in Los Angeles, too, in the 1980s. I saw it and it was great. As I remember, it was shown at the Shrine Auditorium. Francis Ford Copolla’s brother wrote an original musical score for it.
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I caught the Napoleon when it was screened at Filmex in Century City. From my single viewing, certain images are still memorable. Gance cast a very thin, tall, angular actor as Napoleon, who struck me as not looking at all like the one we know best as the rounder, chubbier little man.
The effects of the 3 cinerama-type screens that filled one’s viewing perspective were, as written, revolutionary in that they presaged the device of using several bits of the action at once in blocks of varying sizes, on either side of the middle screen, showing multiple points of view of the same hectic event at the same time.
The 5-hr film was, surprisingly, only about his early life. It ended in a battle scene midway thru the Revolution when he just began to realize his potential to accomplish anything he wanted thru force of war (hubris!).
One of a few historical facts i have not forgotten from the film was the accent of his native Corsica, from which we read onscreen the pronunciation of his name, phonetically, “Na-PIE-on-ee”.
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