Abel Gance's Napoleon makes TV debut in the states? (1 Viewer)

[Patrick McCart]

Turner Classic Movies is showing the excellent 1927 film, Napoleon.

It's the 1981 reconstructed version with all the tints and tones added.

It also has the Carmine Coppola score.

Is this the first time this movie has made a TV showing? I doubt any other channel would dare to air a 4 hour long silent!

 

[Bill McA]

PBS has shown this film several times...that's where I first saw it...and yes, it was the 1981 restored version.

 

[Sam Graves]

I was surprised and happy to see Napoleon on TCM last night. I was interested in how the "widescreen" scenes would be handled, as I have never seen Napoleon on television. It appeared that the three parts were placed in a 2:35:1 ratio. Will someone please comment on this (the ratio)?

 

[Mark Zimmer]

One wonders if Coppola will ever see fit to release this on DVD, or even better yet, release Brownlow's further restorations, which have added another hour to the running time (still about an hour missing last I heard--including all of the other polyvision segments). I still remember seeing this on the 1981 release and the great feeling when the tricolor end segment started up and the curtains opened to reveal the full wide screen. Quite thrilling.

 

[Patrick McCart]

The Polyvision finale is presented in a 3:1 ratio (Supposed to be 4:1, so the picture has a 1/3 squeeze)

Clips of the finale without squeeze can be seen in Kevin Brownlow's excellent Cinema Europe: The Other Hollywood. A DVD could show the 4:1 picture fine if it were 16x9 enhanced.