the first part of Abel Gance’s “Napoleon”, finally restored, will be screened on May 14

A monument of the 7th art, this film-opera, filmed a century ago, has undergone a long restoration. Its first part, 3 hours 40 minutes long (out of 7 hours in total), will be presented at the opening of Cannes Classics.

The first part of the restored version of the film Napoleon by Abel Gance, a legendary work of silent cinema, will be screened on May 14 at the 77th Cannes Film Festival. A version highly anticipated by moviegoers which required sixteen years of hard work and cost between 2 and 2.5 million euros.

A century after its filming, it is the first of two parts of the film, lasting 3h40 over 7 hours, which will be presented at the opening of Cannes Classics, a selection dedicated to heritage cinema.

Major and unclassifiable piece, Napoleon is revered by a number of film buffs and filmmakers, first and foremost Francis Ford Coppola, who is also making his comeback at Cannes in competition with Megalopolis.

Under the leadership of the Cinémathèque française, and with the support of the CNC, a small team led by Georges Mourier collected nearly 100 kilometers of film scattered all over the world, from New York to Italy via Denmark and Corsica, to reconstruct the work frame by frame.

Epic Breath

Abel Gance’s editing notes and discussions with his editor, found at the BNF, then made it possible to re-edit the film in a version that aims to be the most as faithful as possible to the original work.

Recounting Napoleon’s youth, up to the beginnings of the Italian campaign, the film is carried by an epic breath, full of visual and narrative innovations, including a famous triptych ending, on three screens simultaneously. During its first screening at the Paris Opera in 1927, in the presence of the President of the Republic Gaston Doumergue, it shocked the spectators.

After Cannes, the film must be screened “in its entirety as an exceptional symphonic film concert, with 250 musicians from Radio France“, at the Seine musicale in Paris on 4 and 5 July, as well as at the Radio festival France in Montpellier, then at the Cinémathèque française and in summer festivals.

“It will be released later in French cinemas and will be broadcast on France Télévisions and on Netflix”specifies the press release.