Napoléon (Abel Gance, 1927)

[Number Forty-Eight]

The soft edges are to emulate the original film showings back in 1927. BFI are cropped. Here you get the full images.
All the older versions of this films on video are now instantly obsolete. Or rather, they make for some nice fan edits.
This is the real deal.

English localised versions will appear, just be patient.

[ryannichols7]

I remain curious if BFI will be interested in bringing this out...

[andyli]

BFI are cropped. Here you get the full images.

The screenshot comparison seems to indicate the opposite.

[Saturnome]

The soft edges are to emulate the original film showings back in 1927. BFI are cropped. Here you get the full images.
All the older versions of this films on video are now instantly obsolete. Or rather, they make for some nice fan edits.
This is the real deal.

English localised versions will appear, just be patient.

The screenshot shown in this topic doesn't show how the new restoration is less cropped. Looks the same, except the new digital blur.

I wish there was a way a fan edit would include Carl Davis music over some definitive version. One would need to adjust the framerate and insert something in the one new scene this new version include.

[yoloswegmaster]

For anyone who doesn't know how to get access to the new restoration, just shoot me a DM and I will send you a link

[Dazed & Confused]

For anyone who doesn't know how to get access to the new restoration, just shoot me a DM and I will send you a link

Hi.

I’m new here so it doesn’t seem to let me send a DM. Are you able to DM me?

Many thanks.

[Number Forty-Eight]

You can't add Carl Davis music because the shots and editing are completely different. It could work, but only for a few moments I guess.

They took the trouble of going back to the original projectors used in 1927, so the rounded edges exactly duplicate how the films was projected back then.

[MichaelB]

Even Carl Davis had to extensively revise his score between versions of the Brownlow restoration - the version that I have on off-air VHS (Channel 4, 1989) is at times strikingly different from the version on the BFI Blu-ray.

So Number Forty-Eight is right; it simply wouldn't work, and certainly not as intended - the Davis score was very precisely designed to sync up to a particular version of the film.

[Number Forty-Eight]

Oh yes, sorry about that, I meant the BFI version has a modern framing where the edges are square. The new ultimate restoration is sightly cropped with rounded edges, to match the exact framing when shown in cinemas 100 years ago. I asked Mourier before seeing footage, if he was going to actually do that, because I knew that projection was different then. I don't like old, mute films to be shown with a framing that match current modern tastes. To my astonishment, he said he would, and showed me right away what you have now.

I was astounded because only nerds would actually ask for that for purity sake, and he was one step ahead all the time.

However, I wouldn't give 100% credit to the "cropping", because as you know, films back then were shot with 10 to 15 cameras lined up at the same time. So your "crop" might just be that the final Gance negative used a different negative (ie camera) than the one right beside it that was used for the BFI reconstruction.

Now, though this is definitive, I actually think the new restoration gives more values to the old ones, because they are now interesting variations, like fan edits, of the actual film.

[tenia]

All I hope is that future video releases won't be presented as it was on French TV, which felt like a square ratio (1.20 I suppose) but in a 1.85 container. I almost wanted to zoom in with my TV to compensate for that.

[yoloswegmaster]

I'm just hoping that we get a Region A release soon.

[The Fanciful Norwegian]

Netflix was one of the main backers of the restoration and I have to think they have at least some distribution rights outside of France. If that includes the U.S. it doesn't bode well for a Region A release, assuming my theory (that Netflix will only license their titles to Criterion if the director pushes for it, which would account for the continued neglect of The Other Side of the Wind) is accurate. There are ghost pages for the film on a few of Netflix's European sites—Malta and the four continental Nordic countries—but those were all I could find. The ideal situation would be if the Cinémathèque negotiated a carveout for physical media rights.

[MichaelB]

Might there not also be Coppola-related complications with regard to Region A? Although I've long since lost track of the various rights shenanigans there.

[The Fanciful Norwegian]

The film itself entered the public domain in the U.S. last year, so whatever rights Coppola might still have, he doesn't have a blanket claim to every possible release. He might have exclusive U.S. rights to Brownlow's restoration(s), but from what I can tell Brownlow wasn't involved with the Cinémathèque restoration in any capacity, though obviously it did build upon his work (along with every other previous restoration/reconstruction). One upshot of Netflix's involvement is that their army of lawyers is probably more than up to working through the potential legal entanglements, assuming the U.S. is among their territories for this.

[MichaelB]

This is potentially very messy legally, because the 95-year public domain rule technically only applies to versions of the film known for certain to have been exhibited 95 years ago, which in theory won't apply to any of the various versions of Napoléon currently in circulation. Someone will definitely have a valid legal claim to the Brownlow restoration, for instance (whether it's Brownlow, the British Film Institute or Francis Coppola), as it's much less than 95 years old, and ditto the recut version of the Brownlow restoration that Coppola released. And of course all subsequent revisions of the Brownlow version.

But, as you say, Netflix should be thoroughly lawyered up.

[Number Forty-Eight]

There won't be complications, all of this was cleared years back. The Apollo version is the definitive one. There is still one option which is to release the Opera version, (shorter version), but as I had the luck of being able to hold the negative in my hands, and compare some scenes, the Opera is really inferior, and is mostly parts of the older versions we have seen before. For me, the Opera would be OK as a bonus variation. It lacks a lot of the visual audacity and inventivity of the Apollo version. It was a wiser version made for commercial reasons.

Now, as it's a mute film, probably we will get different soundtracks down the road (of the Apollo version). Which is all good.