"We now find ourselves in one of the stages in the Billancourt studios" "But this is a special stage" "Right here Over 50 years ago" "One of the most fascinating Epics of the history of film was filmed," "The shooting of Napoleon by Abel Gance." "On its release in 1927 the film obtained an enormous success" "Then came silence, almost total oblivion" "The greatest visionary of the cinema as his friend Maeterlinck called him no doubt way ahead of his time finds himself obliged to toe the line" "Gance limits himself to make worthy films but none has the vision  brilliance of Napoleon 13 00:01:25,985 -- 00:01:29,550 The triple screen and Polyvision are soon a fading memory" "However in the 80s the Napoleon comet begins to shine again first at the Telluride festival then London, New York, Los Angeles, Rome," "Tokyo, and finally Paris are dazzled and rediscover an almost complete version of Napoleon by Abel Gance of over 5 hours patiently reconstructed in the UK by Kevin Brownlow with the collaboration of the British Film Institute and the Cinémathèque Française." "the public, in a state of trance, applauds for a long time," "It was an apotheosis!" "only one spectator was missing:" "Abel Gance." "he had died in 1981 in Paris, the night of the 10th of November." "What is the secret of this film?" "that 60 years later, still has such an extraordinary power?" "Of course there are the images but also what happens between the images" "Through exceptional documents of the period, we will relive some privileged moments of the filming of Napoleon which convey an enthusiasm and a creative joy rarely seen since." "But first let us go back to the 25th of June 1925 to listen to the voice of Abel Gance himself, his famous proclamation to the technicians  artists of the Studio de Billancourt." ""We have to ensure, and please understand the profound meaning I impart to the words that this film enables us to enter into the temple of the arts through the immense gate of history" "An indescribable anguish overcomes me at the thought that my will and the very gift of life are meaningless if you don't all give me your utmost devotion at all times" "Thanks to you we shall bring the Revolution  the Empire back to life the task is enormous." "You have to find in yourselves the fire, the madness, the power, the talent and the sacrifice of the soldiers of that time." "Personal initiative will be rewarded." "As I look at you, I want to feel that a hurricane can blow away all the barriers of criticism so that from a distance I will be unable to distinguish between your hearts and your red bonnets" "Hurried, mad, tumultuous gigantic cheeky, Homeric with pauses in the roaring music that make the silence even more intimidating" "You must live the revolution, that runaway stallion." "And then we have a man which faces it head-on, understands it and wishes to use it for the good of France and suddenly mounts it, pulls it by the reins  and slowly but surely appeases it to transform it into the most miraculous instrument of glory:" "The revolution with its cry of agony" "The Empire with its looming shadows" "The great army with its suns" "You have the duty to recreate these immortal figures" "My friends all the screens in the Universe are awaiting you" "To all you collaborators" "To all of you who are part of this operators, painters electricians, technicians" "To all of you and especially to you humble extras who will bear the burden of recreating the spirit of your ancestors and with your hearts joined together paint 80 00:04:44,130 -- 00:04:48,430 the fearful portrait of France between 1792  1815," "I ask you, or rather I demand that you tforget your petty personal problems and give me your complete commitment only thus will you piously serve the already illustrious cause of the most beautiful art of the future through the most wonderful of the pages of history"" "But let us go back a few years." "Since 1921, Abel Gance has been interested in Napoleon, he reads everything he can about him the works of Élie Faure are a great influence" ""Thanks to your Napoleon" he writes to him" ""it's fire I bring back from the depths of history"" "From 1924," "Abel Gance works non stop on his script." "He makes Sainte-Beuve's Maxim his own:" ""Reach the truth of the whole through the inaccuracy of the details"" "A Titanic endeavour where nothing is easy as his diary reveals." "1924, Napoleon journal:" "16 November, Sunday." "Working on Napoleon this morning" "Great difficulties" "In the afternoon, I'm exhausted." "My lumbago is killing me" "I can't manage to pick up a pen until 6 o'clock." "Cendrars is coming to dinner" "Our misanthropy knows no limits." "From the 4th to the 1th of December, I work non stop, night  day and I finish the third scenario." "I am very satisfied, no doubt:" "it will be a triumph" "But how I see so many traps ahead of me." "For the final Project keep the following book for reference:" "Mémoires d'Outre-Tombe, Arthur Levy, Mémorial de Sainte-Hélène by Esparbès, Marco Saint-Hilaire, Stendhal, Hugo, Balzac" "First  foremost:" "before any other reflection maintain the popular image people have of Napoleon" "Don't loose it in library research." "Stay along the lines of Raffet et de Charlet." "The people learn their history and they choose not Masson but the prints of Raffet  Esparbès to understand their hero" "I ask for money 1500 francs" "On the 24th or 25th of January an advance on February" "Monsieur de Bé answers :" ""we shall see"" "What a devil of a man" "He leaves me with unspeakable problems" "See more films." "Learn more from them." "Imperative maintain radioactivity during the making of Napoleon." "Write only during those moments." "Imperative: for the first time the public must not be a mere spectators as it is when looking at a painting." "It must be an actor as in life itself suffering with the wounded, fighting with the soldiers and leading the troops with the generals" "It must involve itself so completely with the drama so that inspiration becomes a collective process." "The moment has come to choose the actors" "For the most delicate one of all:" "Napoleon" "Gance hesitates for a long time." ""I was interested in the character because he was larger than life in his time which was also an exceptional moment in history"." "He shoots some scenes with the director Lupu Pick, of some classics like La Nuit de la Saint-Sylvestre  Le Rail" "Lupu Pick had also starred in Spione by Fritz Lang." "For all his qualities, Lupu Pick doesn't create a character the way Abel Gance sees it." "However their meeting is not in vain." "A few years later" "Lupu Pick will film the script Gance would never realise" "Napoleon à Sainte-Hélène." "Then comes the screen test for Edmond van Daële." "They are negative for Napoleon, but he inherits the part of Robespierre." "Then René Fauchois, the author of Boudu sauvé des eaux" "Then the great Russian actor:" "Ivan Mosjoukine." "And another actor:" "Albert Dieudonné," "Who has already played in two of Gance's films" "Le Fou de la Falaise L'HéroïsmedePaddy" "Dieudonné is desperate for the part!" "He wants it with all his heart!" "But Gance is not completely convinced" "So to force his luck," "Dieudonné decides to enact a strange scene:" "Dressed as Bonaparte, he appears in the middle of the night at Fontainebleau castle, where Gance is working on the script" "He asks the guard, who is visibly terrified to call the director." "The old man obeys and stuttering tells Gance that the phantom of Napoleon is at the gate !" "Intrigued, Gance walks out and in a décor of the period lit by ghostly candles, he finds what seems to be a reincarnation of Bonaparte" "Dieudonne gets the part!" "The part of young Bonaparte is given without second thoughts to a Russian actor:" "Vladimir Roudenko." "The part of Danton, to the famous singer:" "Alexandre Koubitzky." "As to Marat, he will be brought to life throuch the gaunt features of Antonin Artaud." "Antonin Artaud who will live in Napoleon some hours as passionate as the life of Héliogabale." "Gina Manès will play Joséphine." "And a beginner, Suzanne Charpentier, will play Violine, a young woman who falls in love with Bonaparte but will never declare her love." "Suzanne Charpentier that Gance renames Annabella, as a homage to Annabel Lee by Edgar Alan Poe, whom he deeply admires" "Then Gance gives...." "Gance the part of Saint-Just." "never forgetting the "Gancien axiom :" ""Take everything tragically but never seriously""" "In early 1925, the crew move to Briançon to shoot the sequences of Bonaparte's youth in the Military School of Brienne." "Simple title:" "Napoleon as seen by Abel Gance." "A cinematographic epic in 6 parts" "Anothe title:" "Abel Gance, author and presenter." "Another title:" "I pushed back the boundaries Of Glory:" "Napoleon." "Brienne, 1783" "Bonaparte is 14 years old" "The camera iris opens to white" "Snow everywhere." "Facing us a wall of snow." "Gance picks his extras from a school in the neighbourhood" "In the Brienne prologue Gance sketches with successive strokes the destiny of his hero.." "His strategic genius, his pride, his solitude..." "The irrational hate he provokes in mediocre people" "From all these images he releases a frenzy, a joy of creating rarely reached since." "I was trying to make the screen explode by all possible means" "I demanded from my operators to use the camera to create all the imaginable pyrotechnics" "I wanted the camera to walk with man and run with the horse slide with the sledge, climb, descend, turn around, trip at all times" "Nowadays this seems banal, but at that time the cinema wasn't used to jumps  starts" "Gance asks the engineer Simon Feldman to construct a camera capable of making a 360º turn" "And that can be controlled at a distance." "Here we have, directly inspired by Doctor Guillotin, the camera lift, ancestor of the very sophisticated Dolly of nowadays" "31st of January:" "Volkof makes a good impression." "I Start shooting on Wednesday, at 4 h 52 the camera starts rolling" "Technique: all of Brienne In layers of shades of white like the winter day in which it takes place, clear, lucid, nervous, sharp and funny." "There are two kinds of music the music of sound and the music of light and that is cinema." "There is noise and there is music." "There is cinema and the art of cinema which has yet to create its neologism" "He is inside a little fort, he gives some orders and then he orders someone who holds a stick to lift and lower the hat as if someone was under it." "But already some visionary discoverers of light go to work and the good fight between the black and the white is about to start on all the screens of the world." "The floodgates of the new art have been opened." "A multitude of images knock each other about and offer themselves to us in their multiplicity." "Everything is or becomes possible." "The vertiginous vision of the 4th dimension of life was accelerating and slowing down." "The cinema becomes the work of an alchemist from which we can expect the transmutation of all the other arts." "If we are able the touch the heart, the metronome of cinema is like the formal tragedies of the XVIIth century" "Indeed we will have to apply strict rules to the cinema of the future" "It is only by being trapped in a corset of technical difficulties 00:14:39,610 -- 00:14:42,773 that the geniuses will be born." "Then there will a style." "And style has to follow laws" "Our art needs a tough and demanding law which rejects the pleasant and the original at all costs ignoring virtuosity and easy pictorial movement not to please the eye but to rush straight to the heart of the spectator." "Another thing:" "Reality is not enough" "Cervantes says this admirable phrase to Sancho through the words of Don Quixote:" ""Alas here is life my friend, only it's not half as interesting as the one we see in the theatre"" "What a sublime defence of art in general and particularly of our art." "Just as reflections of fire on a copper pot is more beautiful than the fire itself, the image of a mountain more beautiful in its reflection on ice, the image of life is more beautiful on screen than life itself." "Values affirm and sharpen themselves simultaneously by the frame which isolates and thus selects them." "262 00:15:34,720 -- 00:15:36,452 Cinema doesn't want to evolve." "It wants acts by evolved heroes." "It wants the 6th act of a tragedy and the book which would appear after the demise of the psychological novel." "I often used overprints in my most intense scenes." "I found some negatives of Napoleon where there are up to 16 overprints." "I knew you wouldn't be able to see past the 5th image but they were there and as long as they were there.." "their potential was there as well." "Just like in music when you have 50 instruments playing and you can't distinguish the sound of the individual instruments it is the organisation of sound that counts." "Those overprints were also organised." "In this sequence the cook Tristan Fleury appears placed by Nicolas Koline." "Totally devoted to the young Bonaparte, his destiny will be intertwined with Napoleon's from the Terror in Paris to the siege in Toulon 281 00:16:29,057 -- 00:16:31,893 and even in the Italian army of which he was part." "Tristan shouts to Bonaparte :" ""Philipeaux et Peccaduc Are loading the cannons" "Bonaparte leaps towards them" "punches and hits them" "It's time to get back to class" "The extras no doubt feeling they still have a little fight left in them start running around" "Pichegru goes towards the child "what is your name"" ""Napoleone." "What did you say?" "pole honey?"" ""Napoleone Buonaparte!"" ""Well my little Bonaparte, You'll go far"" ""Remember the words of Pichegru !"" "A geography lesson, but a very special one" "For Gance everything is already written, providence or fate." "So it will be a small island in the middle of the ocean." "The schoolboys write:" "Climatology of the islands:" "Corsica, Malta Cyprus, Madera, Madagascar." "Ah !" said the teacher, I was forgetting a little Piece of land of no importance lost in the middle of the ocean, write "Saint-Helena, small island"." "He no long responds to the children stamping their feet but seems lost in a dream" "Mysterious conversations take place every night between Bonaparte and uncle Joseph, who hunts Eagles in Corsica." "The mythical eagle which will follow Napoleon everywhere" "And which we find again in Toulon, then flying over the Italian army." "Philipeaux and Peccaduc, the immortal enemies of Bonaparte never disarm." "While shooting a scene in a dormitory," "Gance yet again tries something new.." ""The image only exists as a representation of the strength of its creator, that is the secret that no critic seems to have understood." "There lies the wonderful psychic aspect of the cinema that is being born." "The flame the artist has in him the moment the scene starts is even clearer on screen than the flame one tries to steal from the sun"" "Bonaparte, shaking with rage returns to the dormitory." "What better way to inspire an actor than directing with gun shots" "Bonaparte and the camera tremble together in anger." "Here again the camera is tightly strapped to the operator's chest, the steadycam points its nose, pushed by Simon Feldman." "Under the hilarious looks of the crew, the cameraman Mundwiller`s eyes seem as angry as Bonaparte's." ""Who has stolen my eaglet?" ""No one?" Nobody answers" ""Then you are all guilty"" ""And you shall be punished" He slaps everybody" "Fighting ensues." "For the memory of a film to become indelible in memory, not only must the images be linked vertically, one after the other but they must also be associated horizontally in the same fraction of a second in order to obtain a synthesis," "a whole where all the elements are interdependent." "If the role of the image is important, the one of many associated images is vital." "Never has a work of art better demonstrated its omnipotence in space and time." "An inclined platform is built to enable the camera to descend the staircase." "At which moment will people cry?" "I specified this in the script in large coloured letters." "in all the scenes so that they evoke one, any or all of these three sensations" ""M" :" "Magnificence, "P" :" "Pathos "M" :" "Movement." "It is said that to make real tears flow from the eyes of young Roudenko," "Gance made an orchestra come to the set to perform Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata." "In April 1925, the crew land in Corsica" "Their arrival causes a sensation." "Not surprisingly." "Napoleon!" ""Their" Napoleon has returned!" "Gance insists on shooting in the authentic historical locations be it the family home of Bonaparte, in the streets of Ajaccio, the maquis or the famous Capitello tower from which Naopleon escaped from the horsemen of the Paoli militia," "led by his mortal enemy Pozzo di Borgo." "A Corsican militia composed of, one has to add, authentic Djigit Cossacks hired for the occasion." "The onlookers, curious and filled with passion, follow the crew everywhere and complicate the shooting conditions even more," "Dieudonné deserves a special treatment, and in each change of set he has a delirious escort which never stops shouting:" ""Long live Bonaparte !"." "Finding Paoli unworthy of bearing the French flag because of his leaning towards the English cause," "Bonaparte grabs it and shouts:" ""I'm taking it !" "It's too big for you !"" "And he flees with the help of the shepherds." "Then begins the famous chase where Bonaparte is wanted not only by the Militia, but also by part of the population that Pozzo di Borgo has turned against him" "Shooting is not easy going." "And now, the great cameraman Kruger presents his unique travelling cycle shot act!" "Here is Simon Feldman, controlling his dynamo... or supervising the use of a new "Gancienne" discovery which is similar to the present day Louma." "Bonaparte faces the hostile crowd and the fierce shepherds." "In an anxious and friendly letter, Élie Faure writes to Gance :" ""I beg of you !" "Don't make Bonaparte jump on to his horse Douglas Fairbanks style!"" "Does Gance follow his advice ?" "From what we see, It seems not!" "." "And then in his scripts we often find these mysterious initials :" "NSAI..." ""Accepts no influence"." "The work in Corsica has not gone too badly according to his notes" "The weather was against us, an average of one sunny day out of three." "Upon arriving I caught the Flu followed by a nervous depression." "Then Dieudonné's accident and the horse's mishap, the delays due to the late arrival of the Cossacks." "I wasted the first three weeks." "On the other hand, the fact that Dieudonné was a bad horsemen influenced me." "And naturally, Gance demands, requires, obtains that a camera be fixed on a horses back." "As his friend Jean Epstein writes:" ""Gance always wants more than what he can get, but can always get what he wants"" "I am dangerous and interesting in all ways depending on whether my pistol is loaded." "The horse accident of which Pozzo di Borgo, played by Chakatouny, is the victim, causes a halt in the shooting Schedule." "A strange interlude:" "The visit by Gance with part of his crew to the fearsome Corsican bandit, Romanetti, in his headquarters deep in the countryside." "A secret visit, where however, no one forgot to bring a camera." "A strange character this Romanetti." "He loves giving an audience to journalists, pretty women and people from show business, in between committing some more or less bloody crime." "The embraces seem to go on for ever, under the vigilant eyes of Romanetti's bodyguards." "Here is Pierre Bonardi, a close collaborator of Gance, he has no doubt setup this "royal audience"." "Marguerite Gance, without Charlotte Corday's dagger...," "Madame Jean Chiappe, wife of the famous police prefect of Paris," "Napoleon Bonaparte in the flesh..." "And of course, Abel Gance." "Abel Gance who although visibly touched doesn't forget to give the order to cut." "The party is over and filming resumes" "The sea was looking rough, at 2 o'clock I decided to go to the Sanguinaires." "We shot 2 or 3 lovely scenes which made me think of St Helena." "Not in the script but aesthetically they'll find their place." "We are drenched and Dieudonné, after an hour's work refuses to continue and leaves grumbling, saying he won't shoot water scenes in such awful weather." ""I think the scenes are beautiful but I'm going to catch a cold" "And I feel at nightfall the start of a sore throat , a particularly severe one"" "The 9th, 10th  11th in bed..." "Fever, intoxication, tonsillitis." "This is where we shot the famous scene where Bonaparte, flees Corsica in a boat without oars and unfurls the French flag, grabbed from Paoli, to make a sail, thus managing to escape." ""I will return the flag says Bonaparte to Pozzo di Borgo who, seething with rage, watches him drift away.." "And while in Paris, Montagnards and Girondins furiously fight, another huge storm breaks over Bonaparte's boat." "Whirlwinds of water pummel the fugitive." "The boat looks as though it will sink, stays afloat and goes down again." "It seems to be made of straw." "The effect is even more impressive when one discovers that this scene as superb as any other, was shot, in the pool of the Billancourt studios." "And now miraculously saved by another ship that Gance christens "Fate", and where by coincidence, his brothers Joseph and Lucien are," "Bonaparte slowly pulls himself together... under the attentive gaze of the "Master"." "Meanwhile, in the Corsican scrub the rest of the family flees exhausted, towards the beach at Aspretto, where Bonaparte has arranged to meet them." "The shepherds are there to defend them as danger is still close." "The population of Aspretto, hostile to Bonaparte, could attack at any moment" "Orders are precise." "At the first gunshot Pretend to be hysterical at the second one, cry..." "At the third one the fugitives run towards the sea to reach the boat" ""Cesar and his Fortune", writes Gance in the script." ""a future Emperor, three Kings and a Queen, in a few square metres between heaven and the sea"." "On the now becalmed sea, the sailboat glides silently taking Bonaparte towards his destiny." ""An eagle is perched at the top of the huge mast."" "Upon returning to Paris the skies fill with clouds." "Despite the indisputable energy and magnetism of Abel Gance" "And the exceptional quality of the filmed sequences, the film requires such a huge investment that Napoleon is in an ailing state." "One by one, the investors pull out, the diary shows little optimism" "" 21th June 1925, the situation of Napoleon is extremely serious:" ""Crash of the Stinnes bank, Edmond and Hugo are now rivals," ""Becker drowned by the circumstances and thrown overboard." "there was something shifty about his left eye!"." "Shooting is interrupted for several months 8 000 costumes, 4 000 rifles, 60 cannons, weapons, tents, flags, are gradually covered in dust." "People whisper that shooting will never resume." "Little do they know Abel Gance and his motto borrowed from Léonard da Vinci :" ""Hostinato Rigore"" "At the end of 1925, Napoleon rises again, but at the price of many concessions ." "Abel Gance no longer has financial control, but he is at the height of his creative genius and shoots feverishly in the studio the scenes of the siege of Toulon, and the birth of La Marseillaise, the double storm of the Convention." "Every day people come from Everywhere, curious to see the studio where Napoleon is being filmed." "They arrive with a smile on their lips And chatting as though at the music-hall, but leave more often than not pensive and serious even meditative at times, as though a hidden god suddenly opened the Golden gates for them." "They have witnessed close-up how drama is created, with more sadness and suffering than reality itself 504 00:45:25,125 -- 00:45:28,125 can bring into our lives and how with faith" "one can transform a studio into a real church of light." "It's in the scenes of the Terror that Gance lays bare his personal vision of Napoleon." "A man in perpetual conflict between the revolutionary who wants a peaceful revolution and who has to wage war with the fallacious hope of establishing a long lasting peace.." "Bonaparte, is the French Revolution forming its personality finding its way and direction, trading the guillotine for the sword ." "Then Gance adds, prudently:" ""In this film I will not judge or comment on the evolution of Bonaparte after the Italian campaign." "After the 18 brumaire, I could even be one of his detractors." "My Bonaparte remains in the ranks of idealistic republicans of which Christ was the first example." "Thus as an idealist, he speaks up against the hideous massacres of the hostages in Toulon"" "Of this sequence, one the most extraordinary of the film, only a few photographs remain.." "The reels where lost and to this day have never been found." "Thankfully this is not the case of the scenes in the prison of Carmes, shot in the studio, with the same sets, which would also be used for the scene of "The victims ball"." "By dint of playing with fire, a serious accident will considerably upset the shooting schedule." "The explosion of a case of magnesium causes Abel Gance severe burns as well as to two of his collaborators" "A few weeks later still in fighting spirit" "Gance welcomes Arthur Honegger to the studio" "He is to compose the Film´s soundtrack." "Then comes the shooting of the Club des Cordelier scenes, the birth of the La Marseillaise and the Convention." "Gance is everywhere... worrying about the smallest prop, about every technical detail, the precise gestures of his actors, for which he mimes the very scene." "The singer Damia gives life to the spirit of La Marseillaise." "The writer Jean Harois, who is following the shooting, describes in a passionate book the director's working methods:" ""Gance takes the stand and in his slightly veiled, soft and convincing voice says:" ""I am experimenting with a new technique, it's rather complex." "Could you sing La Marseillaise 12 times in a row in crescendo"" "So a thousand extras, most of them hired from the strikers of the Renault factory nearby, fascinated and enchanted, sing La Marseillaise 12, 15, 20 times." "Finally, the director himself, in the part of Saint-Just." "When a few years later Gance makes a sound version of Napoleon, he'll dub himself and so will all the other actors." "As, by a remarkable feat of intuition, in 1925 he made his actors read the dialogue exactly as it appeared in the script." "We may have caused victims!" "but isn't the revolution a lighthouse which illuminates the graves?" "The terror, will in its way cause the revolution to lose its meaning." "But in the end it is thanks to us that freedom exists in the World!" "Yes I confess to our weaknesses." "but have you forgotten that during this time, we have forged a new France" "Which ready to live." "12 000 decrees, of which two thirds were humanitarian !" "And we did all this with the vultures of the Vendée at our flanks." "And weighing on our shoulders..." "The kings !" ""Ah !" "my little Louis XVI !" "Come this way !"" ""Are you aware that I, Saint-Just, Will have your head cut off ?"" "July 1926. "The Gance army" descends on the South of France to shoot the famous scenes of the departure of the Italian army" "Don't slow down after the speech." "Two hours later the army is on its way." "Bonaparte gallops by the beggars of glory." "Meanwhile Bonaparte, the first to arrive in the Apennine mountains already anticipates the coming battles." "High upon the mountain." "Italy !" "Italy !" "The battles." "The eagle." "The end.." "Gance feels uncomfortable, as though his hands are tied and he'd like to break free of the constraints that surround him." "And suddenly, an idea enters his head :" "If he had a screen to the right and another to the left, expanding the visual field, that is to say making the image three times wider, he could then play with a panoramic view which would be so much more powerful" "that a receding single image." "Three cameras, Three projectors." "Cinerama is the same concept" "He asks and obtains from the engineer André Debrie the construction and delivery in record time of the synchronised cameras needed." "Finding no doubt that he could go even further," "Gance decides to shoot the same scenes with another device using the Berthon method, which also gives colour and depth through a stereoscopic projector." "The result is satisfying but Gance fears the picturesque effect of depth and colour will work against the aesthetic impact of the panoramic screen.." "He drops the idea.." "However it is interesting to note that since 1926" "Gance uses the wide screen, depth and colour!" "Then Gance says to himself:" ""Why not showimages to the right and left of the central screen, be they different or identical, but inverted ?"" "The possibilities of Polyvision are endless." "And among them, inverting the image responds to the sense of rhyme in poetry." "The inverting of images has the magic power of taking us back to a transcendental form of mathematics:" "the open gates of poetry that necessarily fill any work of art." "These movements of movements create a sensory euphoria in the measure that the physical, physiological, psychological and psychic relation between the images will harmoniously blend in a moment in time." "The divining rod is present In every camera and the eye of Merlin the sorcerer is inside every lens." "Copy reality?" "What for?" "Those who don't believe in the immortality of their soul punish themselves", said Robespierre" "Thus those who don't believe in cinema will never see what they are capable of seeing, and will dispute the evidence of a great film." "Preacher of the future," "Bridge of dreams spanning Across centuries," "An alchimist's axe, Great works for the heavens!" "In truth, the time of the image has arrived" ""Application for a patent:" "Procedure to obtain artistic effects in cinematographic projections." "Signed:" "M. Abel-Alexandre-Eugène Gance, resident in France, 20th of august 1926, 14 h 42 m in Paris."" "Then the thirteenth labour of Hercules begins for Gance:" "editing the film to reasonable proportions ." "But what does Gance mean, by "reasonable"?" "." "Indeed he has an infallible sense of editing , but how to choose between so many scenes which all appear indispensable." "This will take several months." "This is what he writes:" ""The 8th of February 1927, having finished a long cut of Napoleon" "I'm aware that for its presentation at the Opera," "I need to make some drastic cuts, leaving only the lyrical scenes:" ""the ones where my strength lies:" "the battle in the snow, the Cordeliers, the Corsican storm, the Convention," "Toulon, the shadow of the Convention, the speech to the Italian army:" "soul of Napoleon, Beggars for glory."" "I continue this diary until the end of my work, the 8th of march 1927." "I've finished the long version:" "Napoleon in 37 reels." "And I have to reduce it to 13 or 14 reels" "The critics are as follows The Duc d'Ayen :" ""If I were you I'd delete the Prologue and Josephine," "As to the storm and the storm triptychs" "It is really unbearable And everyone agrees!"" "And this is the answer of the Shepherd to the shepherdess:" ""Don't touch my script in any manner." "Don't listen to any outside suggestions"" "Napoleon was presented at the Opera in April 1927 with the triptychs." "The success was beyond my wildest dreams." "I thought the future of the big screen was assured." "In response to the public's enthusiasm, Napoleon is projected ten times, with the triptychs, in a version reduced to 3 h 15 m." "A month later, a longer version but without the triptychs, is presented in Paris in two parts." "Other versions follow, with or without triptychs, each of different length." "Gance cuts, adds, cuts again..." "A big American company buys the film, makes a new cut and it becomes incoherent..." "The results are catastrophic." "Gance protests, rages, tries to take them to court... in vain." "Having lost control of the production he is unable to stop the massacre" "Thus, this immense effort invested in the creation of a masterpiece comes to a dead end.." "Then from the depth of his energy and sensitivity a string seems to break." "If I so desire..." "I have the possibilities in my art, that of the magician, of the transmutation of all values." "Which means that tomorrow I could be Shakespeare, Perrault or Dante" "Why should I remain smiling letting useless flowers fall from my hands?" "Am I afraid of the consequences if I awaken my animal nature?" "Abel Gance." "Saint-Moritz." "January 1928" "We are in 1928." "And then ?" "During half a Century While making films" ""not to live, but so as not to die", are his words," "Gance never ceases to retouch his Napoleon." "Be it in 1934, in 1955, in 1970, he can't stop himself from re-editing his film, adding new scenes shot for that purpose each time." "At the instance of the Unknown Masterpiece by Balzac:" ""retouching a sublime painting so many times, leaves it unrecognizable"," "Gance constantly returns to his first work, to denaturalise it even more." "One morning he even... burns some of the triptychs." "If I had to start my life again, I wouldn't make films." "I wouldn't make films." "I wouldn't make films." "Why does he act so?" "Mutilating the film which was his most brilliant creature." "Does he want to punish the world for its incomprehension?" "and the depth of despair cinema has led him to?" "Or like a sad child who destroys his favourite toy to find the mystery which has vanished from his life?" "We will probably never know." "What we do know, however, is what Gance had in him:" "fabulous creative resources that after 1927 he never put to full use." "But apart from the personal tragedy of the artist, which is immense, men ask Prometheus for fire and think little of the state of his liver !" "Gance, with his Napoleon has brought us fire from the pages of history." "a16 00:59:06,446 -- 00:59:09,424 for some artists are like stars :" "whose light will shine long after they have disappeared from our galaxy" "Go see for yourself if you don't believe me!"