Phonearl Good start, but then it gets ruined

Beanbioca As Good As It Gets

AutCuddly Great movie! If you want to be entertained and have a few good laughs, see this movie. The music is also very good,

AnhartLinkin This story has more twists and turns than a second-rate soap opera.

mlink-36-9815 I saw it in 1978 Shrine Auditorium & it was great. Then later on I got a bootleg off British TV with Carl Davis. Finally the DVD from BFI. The photographic quality has improved immensely and there are many differences between the two Carl Davis versions. It seems like a new movie. I'm halfway thru the DVD Act 3. I'm wondering how or if the triptych footage comes out. The 3 giant screens live cannot be beat.I'm in a unique position to talk about Napoleon as I own all 3 versions. Kevin Brownlow reformatted the titles making new more accurate translations from French. The original french titles took for granted you knew the facts of the revolution & the new titles explain it more. + some of the titles where handwritten but replaced in translation by typewritten titles. in the DVD the handwritten titles are replaced by handwritten translations. in the British TV version scenes are tinted and in the DVD they are b/w? Its quite possible they received original footage and the tinting was not accurate.Brownlow also was able to get 1st generation footage of export negatives where it shows a different angle & distance but the clarity is increased by a lot. I did not listen to Davis' music (hard to believe) but I watched at night to as not to annoy neighbors.On the British TV bootleg, the triptych was missing but on the DVD it was there. There was triptych footage early in the film and you could see the edges of the screen. It was decided to save all the triptych until the end. The TV bootleg is very important and valuable to have as students of the film to find out how all this is done m234link@gmail.com and it can be got thru a trade.

Tim Kidner Whilst the on-going scandal rages on about the rights of ownership of this supposed Masterpiece and without a proper DVD release available, there seems to be few options.Firstly, I'd never seen either the film, nor extracts from it, even. It is often cited as the best film made at that point (1927) and is truly Napoleonic in scale and ambition, using cutting edge film techniques that only a few Russian directors employed - and a bit later at that.There's an imported (Korean/Chinese) DVD that apparently is heavily compressed in order to fit 3.5 hours all onto one disc and so, subsequently, quality is rubbish. Or so reviewers have said - in fact the legalities and the quality (or lack of) is all they seem to carp on about.Having not being able to find even a Korean DVD, I found a secondhand NTSC video on a well-known auction site, which comes in two cassettes, each being just under 2 hrs and housed in an outer case. My old JVC VHS recorder, long disconnected, just so happens to play the U.S format NTSC videos as well as VHS, and so, I thought my bidding, whilst a gamble, might be worth it, if my machine could play it.It does. The picture quality is OK, never exactly sharp in detail but with good contrast and not as muddy as many Silent era film DVDs. You just see slight magenta and green bands where the tinting of the film is sepia, but that is well controlled and easily gotten used to. The stereo realisation of Caarmine Coppolla's new score sounds surprisingly good and full-bodied, for a video.So, this 'solution' may not be favourable or even possible for many but my £15 winning bid was worthwhile, in a roundabout way! And, of course, I get to see the Masterpiece in about the best from currently available. Better that than not at all, surely?

rdjeffers March 24, 25, 31 and April 1, 1:30pm, The Paramount, Oakland The Eagle of Destiny The life of Napoléon Bonaparte as the heroic savior of France is revealed from age ten to twenty-seven. Beginning with his boyhood at military school in Brienne, Boneparte is viewed as an outcast and a leader. Emerging as a young officer during the Revolution, the adult Boneparte (Albert Dieudonné) is first seen in Paris at the Club des Cordeliers where Danton introduces La Marseillaise to the mob as their national anthem. Bonaparte then attempts to unify his native Corsica, survives The Terror, becomes the hero of Toulon and embarks on his conquest of Italy.Directed by Abel Gance, Napoleon (1927) was initially conceived as the first of six chapters on the life of Bonaparte. Cut by MGM from an original 29 reels to eight for its 1929 American release (with von Stroheim's Greed a fresh memory), restoration of Napoleon became the life work of film preservationist Kevin Brownlow in 1954.

GManfred Sometimes it's hard to separate the best film you've seen from your favorite. There are many I liked, but Napoleon is the best, using as my sole criterion emotional impact. The scene I feel was especially moving was the one in which the Costitutional Conventioneers are handed the lyrics to the Marseilles and begin to sing it for the first time. The pride they felt and the tears they shed as they sang were palpable and made the scene unforgettable. It was duplicated in CASABLANCA years later but the imitation was pale in comparison. There are other memorable scenes but space is limited and a synopsis of the film has already been provided on a previous page.It is the only film I have ever seen directed by Abel Gance but he was years ahead of his time. I imagine it is difficult to revive due to the triple-screen episode and to copyright squabbles but if it ever comes to a location near you , try not to miss it. See if you feel it is one of the greatest ever.