Films like Napoleon are ones that take dedication to see, given their nature. With many alternate versions available, although officially listed on the IMDb as 4 hours, the version currently available on the BFI Channel runs to 5-and-a-half hours, even with onscreen acknowledgement that one scene is missing.
An epic work that shows the various machinations of fate that placed Napoleon into various positions and kept him alive against the odds, many of the scenarios are signified with the bracketed term "historical" to illustrate that they reference real words or descriptions recorded at the time. Perhaps the weakest section comes in Act 3, which focuses on Napoleon's relationship with Josephine, and contains a drop in "historical" notifications, settling instead for speculation and a greater focus on whimsy that the rest of the film only flirts with.
Many films such as these were perhaps brought to the attention of mainstream audiences with books like 1988's "John Kobal Presents the Top 100 Movies". 81 film critics and film makers were polled for their 10 favourite pictures, and then the final 100 (or 103, as some entries had more than one film counted, such as the Apu Trilogy) were drawn up from the answers.
Such a work naturally contains some films which are dated past the point of pure subjective enjoyment, and must be regarded as historical documents in their own right; admired, if not quite enjoyed, for the artistry of film alone. Yet others still have the power to compel, and Napoleon - a silent film experience lasting 331 minutes - surprisingly leans towards the latter camp.
Ranked 52nd in the Kobal book, its release date in cinema came just under 106 years after Napoleon's real-life death. At date of writing it's almost 93 years since that release date, meaning the film is almost as much of an historical document today as the events depicted were then. Accordingly, for every innovation the film possesses, it has to be worked at, where the silent nature doesn't perhaps lend artistic merit to a film that relies on dialogue but is unable to voice it. This is not a detraction of silent cinema, just the suggestion that the silent experience wasn't the best technical method for this particular entry. Thankfully it's also visually spectacular, and surprisingly brisk considering the runtime.
Perhaps the only real detraction comes with the finale. While it is indeed impressive, and experiments with a three screen experience, it also brings with it the realisation that the film will end in 1797, some 18 years before Napoleon would meet his Waterloo. Reputedly director Abel Gance had intended for it to be the first of six films on the subject, and, while visually intoxicating, as the stand alone film that it became, it can feel a little like viewers are narratively short-changed if they don't know what to expect.
The disadvantage such films have in being relatively obscure to mainstream cinema goers is that they're unlikely to ever see the IMDb's Top 250 as they fall foul of the rule whereby films require a minimum of 25,000 votes to be eligible for inclusion. At date of writing 25 of the Kobal movies are in the Top 250, and others have entered in previous years, meaning that 51 of them have seen the Top 250 over the years. In fact, it appears that only nine currently eligible films - including Hiroshima Mon Amour - have yet to receive the honour.
Altogether 40 of the films have yet to reach the 25,000 vote limit, though intriguingly the highly-rated La Règle du Jeu is on the verge of eligibility, being just 81 votes shy of the vote minimum. Napoleon, sadly, will take many more years before it can achieve such a feat. Although highly rated as 8.1/10, it's still still a good 18,500 votes away from being able to compete for that target.
An epic work that shows the various machinations of fate that placed Napoleon into various positions and kept him alive against the odds, many of the scenarios are signified with the bracketed term "historical" to illustrate that they reference real words or descriptions recorded at the time. Perhaps the weakest section comes in Act 3, which focuses on Napoleon's relationship with Josephine, and contains a drop in "historical" notifications, settling instead for speculation and a greater focus on whimsy that the rest of the film only flirts with.
Many films such as these were perhaps brought to the attention of mainstream audiences with books like 1988's "John Kobal Presents the Top 100 Movies". 81 film critics and film makers were polled for their 10 favourite pictures, and then the final 100 (or 103, as some entries had more than one film counted, such as the Apu Trilogy) were drawn up from the answers.
Such a work naturally contains some films which are dated past the point of pure subjective enjoyment, and must be regarded as historical documents in their own right; admired, if not quite enjoyed, for the artistry of film alone. Yet others still have the power to compel, and Napoleon - a silent film experience lasting 331 minutes - surprisingly leans towards the latter camp.
Ranked 52nd in the Kobal book, its release date in cinema came just under 106 years after Napoleon's real-life death. At date of writing it's almost 93 years since that release date, meaning the film is almost as much of an historical document today as the events depicted were then. Accordingly, for every innovation the film possesses, it has to be worked at, where the silent nature doesn't perhaps lend artistic merit to a film that relies on dialogue but is unable to voice it. This is not a detraction of silent cinema, just the suggestion that the silent experience wasn't the best technical method for this particular entry. Thankfully it's also visually spectacular, and surprisingly brisk considering the runtime.
Perhaps the only real detraction comes with the finale. While it is indeed impressive, and experiments with a three screen experience, it also brings with it the realisation that the film will end in 1797, some 18 years before Napoleon would meet his Waterloo. Reputedly director Abel Gance had intended for it to be the first of six films on the subject, and, while visually intoxicating, as the stand alone film that it became, it can feel a little like viewers are narratively short-changed if they don't know what to expect.
The disadvantage such films have in being relatively obscure to mainstream cinema goers is that they're unlikely to ever see the IMDb's Top 250 as they fall foul of the rule whereby films require a minimum of 25,000 votes to be eligible for inclusion. At date of writing 25 of the Kobal movies are in the Top 250, and others have entered in previous years, meaning that 51 of them have seen the Top 250 over the years. In fact, it appears that only nine currently eligible films - including Hiroshima Mon Amour - have yet to receive the honour.
Altogether 40 of the films have yet to reach the 25,000 vote limit, though intriguingly the highly-rated La Règle du Jeu is on the verge of eligibility, being just 81 votes shy of the vote minimum. Napoleon, sadly, will take many more years before it can achieve such a feat. Although highly rated as 8.1/10, it's still still a good 18,500 votes away from being able to compete for that target.