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San Francisco Silent Film Festival

San Francisco Silent Film Festival

The San Francisco Silent Film Festival is a nonprofit organization dedicated to educating the public about silent film as an art form and as a culturally valuable historical record.

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  • Program Notes
  • Napoleon 2012

Napoleon

Program Notes by San Francisco Silent Film Festival

Presented March 24, 25, 31, April 1 2012 at the Paramount, Oakland with live music by Carl Davis conducting the Oakland East Bay Symphony

“A MAJOR EVENT! Don’t wait for it to come to a theater near you — getting Gance’s magnum opus on the screen is a Herculean task!” — Martin Scorsese, Vanity Fair (March 2012)

The American Premiere of the BFI/Photoplay restoration by Kevin Brownlow and the musical score by Carl Davis was presented at Oakland’s glorious Paramount Theatre March 24, 25, 31 and April 1, 2012.

Abel Gance’s epic NAPOLEON is the Holy Grail of silent masterpieces. In March 2012, over 30 years after Francis Ford Coppola toured a four-hour road show version of the film, the San Francisco Silent Film Festival finally presented legendary film historian Kevin Brownlow’s complete five-and-a-half-hour restoration of Napoleon in the United States, along with the American premiere of the magnificent score by Carl Davis, at the Art Deco Paramount Theatre, Oakland. Mr. Davis conducted 48 members of the Oakland East Bay Symphony for these four unique screenings, which also featured the original “Polyvision” three-screen finale. Over the four performance days, more than 10,000 people packed the Paramount Theatre for this landmark presentation — it was truly the cinema event of a lifetime!

Due to the expense, technical challenges, and complicated rights issues involved, no screenings are planned for any other American city. This monumental event was presented by the San Francisco Silent Film Festival, in association with American Zoetrope, The Film Preserve, Photoplay Productions, and BFI.

Details

DirectorAbel Gance
CountryFrance
Year1927
CastAlbert Dieudonné, Vladimir Roudenko, Alexandre Koubitsky, Antonin Artaud, Edmond Van Daële, Maryse Damia, Gina Manès
Print SourcePhotoplay Productions, Ltd.

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