Cannes reclaims Napoleon for France with ‘rebirth’ of Abel Gance epic

Cannes Film FestivalThe 77th Cannes Film Festival kicked off Tuesday with a historic screening of Abel Gance’s restored 1927 masterpiece “Napoleon”, months after French critics heaped scorn on Ridley Scott’s “Anglo-Saxon” take on the French emperor.The final scene in Abel Gance\'s "Napoleon", which pioneered the use of split screens requiring three projectors in the cinema.Advertising Read moreA few steps from the Palais des Festivals in Cannes, home to the annual film gathering, an eagle-shaped stone carving marks the spot where Napoleon camped for a night after his flight from Elba – the starting point of a heady 100-day cavalcade that ended with his final defeat at Waterloo.More than two centuries after Bonaparte’s 1815 landing, Cannes played host to another spectacular comeback with a screening of the epic “Napoleon by Abel Gance”, a work so dazzling, flamboyant and ambitious it elicits comparison with the emperor’s own achievements.Tuesday’s screening in the vast Debussy Theatre opened the Cannes Classics segment, the festival’s sidebar dedicated to restored seminal works from the past. It preceded the red-carpet premiere of Quentin Dupieux’s star-studded “The Second Act”, Cannes’ official curtain raiser.An “exceptional moment”, in the words of festival director Thierry Frémaux, it also marked the first time Gance’s original cut was shown since 1927, the year it opened at the Opéra Garnier in Paris with a live orchestra performance, in front of the French president and the army’s top brass.A still from Abel Gance\'s "Napoleon". © Cinémathèque françaiseThe world’s most prestigious film festival has justifiably proclaimed its “pride at being the venue for the rebirth of ‘Napoleon by Abel Gance’, a monument of the Seventh Art, almost 100 years after its creation”.A monument of cinema is precisely what Gance had in mind when he embarked on the gargantuan project. The film, he

famously told the crew on the eve of shooting in 1924, “must allow us to enter the Temple of Art through the giant gates of History”.Cinema’s ‘Waterloo’The rebirth of Gance’s epic comes just months after Ridley Scott’s “Napoleon” triggered a flurry of protests in the emperor’s home country. Starring Joaquin Phoenix in Napoleon’s role, it was widely dismissed as a dud – or worse, an Anglo-American smear plot.Le Figaro newspaper described the movie as “Barbie and Ken under the Empire”, while Napoleon biographer Patrice Gueniffey told Le Point it was “very anti-Fren

ch and very pro-British". Le Canard enchaîné, the satirical weekly, dubbed it a “Waterloo for cinema”.Others suggested the 150-minute film was simply too short to encompass the career of a larger-than-life figure whose legacy continues to dazzle and divide.Read more‘Glory of arms and art’: Napoleonic plunder and the birth of national museumsNo such accusation can be levelled at Gance.His seven-hour extravaganza, which begins with Napoleon’s childhood at a boarding school and ends with his first Italian campaign, was intended as the first in a six-part series of films he never completed. It required several dozen stars, hundreds of technicians and thousands of extras.The film’s reputation stems in large part from its pioneering technical exploits, including rapid cutting, hand-held and horse-mounted camera shots, and a famous final sequence featuring three split screens requiring three projectors in the cinema.‘The world’s screens await you’Gance is said to have read every available book about Napoleon before the shooting but his film is better known for visionary cinematography than historical accuracy. Unashamedly patriotic, it is as politically problematic as it is aesthetically beguiling.In his 1924 address to the crew, the director urged his “unsung extras” to “find in (their) hearts the unity and fearlessness that was France between 1792 and 1815”. He added: “Only in this way will you serve and revere the already illustrious cause of the first art-form of the future, through the most formidable lesson in history.”Gance’s masterpiece “is not a biopic”, director Costa-Gavras, the former head of the Cinémathèque française, said at Tuesday’s screening in Cannes. “It is more of lyrical poem, a testament of one man’s passion for another,” he added.On the set of "Napoleon by Abel Gance". © Cinémathèque française“I would like to be my own posterity, to witness what a poet would have me think, feel, and say,” presages Napoleon in the film’s opening epigraph, thus introducing Gance as his bard.The legendary filmmaker was hardly alone in acting as though he were Bonaparte himself. His lead actor Albert Dieudonné reportedly won the part when he showed up unannounced at Fontainebleau palace in full Napoleonic gear, stating that the emperor had come to see Gance about his part.However, thei