Abel Gance and His Napoléon

This documentary focuses on the making of the 235-minute, silent epic Napoléon, by director/writer/actor Abel Gance. The silent epic showcased Gance’s talents with the camera, his use of multiple-images (like a split screen), and his handling of crowded action scenes – are all brought to the fore in this documentary by Nelly Kaplan, who became his assistant. 

Kaplan used vintage footage, such as Gance filming the famous snowball fight at the Brienne military school and still photographs and excerpts from Gance’s production diaries. 

Napoléon (the first part) was restored most recently for screening at this year’s 77th Cannes Film Festival and the “new” version is showing in its entirety in various festivals with music by 250 musicians from Radio France.