Abel Gance et son Napoléon
1984 · 59 MIN · IMDB 6.9 · 20 VOTES · DIR. Nelly Kaplan
Overview
This documentary focuses on the making of the 235-minute, silent epic Napoleon, the masterpiece of French director/writer/actor Abel Gance. Napoleon showcased Gance's talents with the camera, his use of multiple-images (like a split screen), and his handling of crowded action scenes -- all brought forward in this documentary by his later assistant, Nelly Kaplan. While Gance was shooting Napoleon in 1925-26, he and his crew were also being filmed for a documentary titled Autour de Napoleon. The only extant reels from that documentary are included in this film, as well as views of Gance's unique "triptychs" -- three different scenes lined up side-by-side across a super-wide screen to convey the effect of a panorama, or of three separate interludes. Nelly Kaplan put together this documentary using old footage, such as Gance filming the famous snowball fight at the Brienne military school and still photographs and excerpts from Gance's production diaries.
Dialogue Timeline — 706 lines
A SAMPLE ACROSS THE RUNTIME — EVERY LINE IS SEARCHABLE
00:00:52 We now find ourselves in one of the stages in the Billancourt studios
00:02:30 rarely seen since.
00:03:58 and suddenly mounts it, pulls it by the reins >
00:05:32 A Titanic endeavour where nothing is easy
00:07:04 suffering with the wounded, fighting with the soldiers
00:08:46 Dressed as Bonaparte, he appears in the middle of the night
00:10:38 Bonaparte is 14 years old
00:13:19 There are two kinds of music
00:14:59 Another thing: Reality is not enough
00:16:29 and even in the Italian army of which he was part.
00:21:40 Gance yet again tries something new..
00:24:00 its omnipotence in space and time.
00:28:20 Then begins the famous chase where Bonaparte is wanted
00:32:42 but can always get what he wants”
00:37:03 refuses to continue and leaves grumbling
00:42:17 The population of Aspretto, hostile to Bonaparte
00:44:56 the double storm of the Convention.
00:46:25 Thankfully this is not the case of the scenes in the prison of Carmes
00:50:32 but isn’t the revolution a lighthouse
00:52:48 that a receding single image.
00:54:25 Copy reality? What for?
00:56:12 And this is the answer of the Shepherd to the shepherdess:
00:57:51 Gance never ceases to retouch his Napoleon.
00:59:15 Go see for yourself if you don’t believe me!