Abel Gance’s Napoleon is long (6 hours!) but is for the most part worth it, and in general is pretty spectacular. It’s at its best when dealing with a young Napoleon making his mark (commanding a snowball fight at boarding school, standing up to the British who want to take over Corsica, the Battle of Toulon) and also does a pretty good job of dealing with French Revolution politics. It does misstep quite significantly near the end when taking an hour to deal with Napoleon’s relationship and marriage to a woman who comes across as a complete uncaring bitch, but it makes up for it with the big ‘Triptych’ finale where three screens are projected side by side as Napoleon marches into Rome. A big strength of the film, as is usually the case with the late silent period is the fast paced camera movements and exciting editing, which includes super fast cross cutting, split screens, and ongoing dissolves where up to four images are overlayed. I was also pleased by the tinting used which neatly colour codes scenes and emphasises emotions, and the score by Carl Davis which uses elements of Beethoven and other composers, plus original music, to great effect.
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