Instrumentation
2(I+II=picc).2(II=ca).2(I=basset horn+cl in A.II=Ebcl+bcl+cl in A).2(II=cbsn) - 4.2.3.0 - timp(=perc) - perc(2): cyms/2susp.cym/BD+cym/tam-t/high gong/field drum/SD/tgl/tubeanvil/tamb/2 wdbl/whip/t.bells/cast/crot/TD - organ(=pno) - hurdy-gurdy - strings (8.6.4.4.2)
Availability
Full score and parts for hire
Programme Notes
Starring: Albert Dieudonné, Antonin Artaud, Gina Manès
Director: Abel Gance
Production Company: Société Générale de Films, France, 1927
Film Print: 35mm print of new restoration (2000) available from Photoplay Productions (Film Speed: 18-20 frames per second)
Since Napoléon was first restored, close to its original length and with a new score, no praise for Gance's film has been too high. It has been performed all over the world at major film festivals, forcing a general reappraisal of silent cinema. Gance's panoply of innovative techniques range from attaching a camera to a horse, to the triptych where three projectors run simultaneously. The result is a gripping, emotional and vivid evocation of Bonaparte's early years leading up to the Italian campaign of 1797. The new version (2000) restores to the film its original colour tints with improved picture quality and some newly discovered footage. Carl Davis's score is based on the classical and popular music of Napoleon's period, drawing in particular on Beethoven and French Revolutionary songs. Two striking themes recur throughout the film and bind the score together as a whole: 'The Eagle of Destiny' and 'Josephine'.