Although worthwhile restorations are unveiled on a semi-regular basis, some — such as Out 1, perhaps the greatest thing cinema offered last year — are in a league of their own. The most recent case in point is another hard-to-find, epic-length title of staggering ambition: Napoleon, Abel Gance‘s five-and-a-half-hour, 1927 silent epic whose most recent restoration has been a decades-in-the-making endeavor. It’ll be heavily credited to the BFI, yet historian Kevin Brownlow “spent over 50 years tracking down surviving prints from archives around the world since he first saw a 9.5mm version as a schoolboy in 1954.”
The fruits of that labor will be enjoyed soon: BFI National Archive, Brownlow’s Photoplay Productions, and Dragon Di have restored the film — funding for 35mm elements came in 2000 — while Philharmonia Orchestra recorded the entirety of Carl Davis‘ score, both of which are forming a U.K.-wide release that will roll out in 2016. When this will come to the U.
The fruits of that labor will be enjoyed soon: BFI National Archive, Brownlow’s Photoplay Productions, and Dragon Di have restored the film — funding for 35mm elements came in 2000 — while Philharmonia Orchestra recorded the entirety of Carl Davis‘ score, both of which are forming a U.K.-wide release that will roll out in 2016. When this will come to the U.
- 1/28/2016
- by Nick Newman
- The Film Stage
(Rupert Julian, 1925; BFI, PG)
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A few years ago it seemed that TV was helping to revive a public interest in early cinema by broadcasting classic pre-talkies and backing the cinematic presentation of restored silent movies accompanied by live orchestras. Sadly this trend has been largely discontinued despite the success of Michel Hazanavicius's The Artist and Martin Scorsese's Hugo. The peak of that great silent revival was Kevin Brownlow's restoration of Abel Gance's Napoleon, but other major successes include this handsome version of the 1925 Phantom of the Opera with a new score by Carl Davis that Brownlow, David Gill and Patrick Stanbury's Photoplay Productions put on in 1998.
Its conventional hero and heroine are rather dull, but Lon Chaney's Phantom, the mad, disfigured, lovelorn musician manipulating the world from the cellars and dungeons beneath the Opera House in fin-de-siècle Paris,...
Reading this on mobile? Click here to view video
A few years ago it seemed that TV was helping to revive a public interest in early cinema by broadcasting classic pre-talkies and backing the cinematic presentation of restored silent movies accompanied by live orchestras. Sadly this trend has been largely discontinued despite the success of Michel Hazanavicius's The Artist and Martin Scorsese's Hugo. The peak of that great silent revival was Kevin Brownlow's restoration of Abel Gance's Napoleon, but other major successes include this handsome version of the 1925 Phantom of the Opera with a new score by Carl Davis that Brownlow, David Gill and Patrick Stanbury's Photoplay Productions put on in 1998.
Its conventional hero and heroine are rather dull, but Lon Chaney's Phantom, the mad, disfigured, lovelorn musician manipulating the world from the cellars and dungeons beneath the Opera House in fin-de-siècle Paris,...
- 1/5/2014
- by Philip French
- The Guardian - Film News
There are silent films, there are epics, and then there is Napoleon. After thirty years, the unique French production is primed to make a comeback on this side of the Atlantic, in the longest version ever screened since its premiere at the Paris Opéra in 1927. The announcement was made on opening night of this weekend’s San Francisco Silent Film Festival. Albert Dieudonné as Napoleon (all photos courtesy of Photoplay Productions)The news: Kevin Brownlow will present his five-and-a-half hour restoration, produced with Patrick Stanbury, his partner in Photoplay Productions, and the British Film Institute (BFI), at the enormous Paramount Theatre…...
- 7/15/2011
- Leonard Maltin's Movie Crazy
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