During the third restoration film festival "Toute la mémoire du monde" (Toute la mémoire du monde) held at the French Film Archive (La Cinémathèque française ) in early 2015, the organizers formally met with Coppola. (Francis Ford Coppola) is in charge of American Zoetrope (American Zoetrope) signed a contract to start the latest, which may be called the ultimate restoration of "Napoleon" (Napoléon, 1927). At this point, the six-year preparation work will enter a new stage. The restoration is expected to be completed in 2017, which is the 90th anniversary of the film's premiere. It will surely become a major event in the film industry next year. Before the restoration of the
unbearable movie Waterloo
has not started, is there anything I need to say? There are plenty of articles to speak of. There is no doubt that this time the latest and final restoration work will be a thrilling adventure, but before that, since the birth of this undoubted movie masterpiece, there have been legendary journeys time and time again. From the time-consuming preparation and shooting for nearly five years, to the appearance of as many as 22 different versions in 70 years after the premiere, and the record-breaking five times of restoration. Such a prestigious and long-lost movie is so mysterious and untouchable. Many mysteries have not been solved even in recent years. Perhaps the biggest mystery can only be waited until the day when the ultimate restoration version is under daylight. This is a rare case in the history of film, and even French film historians refer to the piece of "Napoleon" and its aftermath collectively as "the giant baobab tree in the French classical garden" (baobabdans un jardin à lafrançaise).
Due to space limitations, in addition to the necessary plot, this article will focus on the story after the film was born and try to avoid narrating the complicated and amazing shooting work-that will be another theme, and this journey can not only explain The complex artistic dimension of film creation is like a labyrinth, and it can prove that generations of film restoration workers, and even fans, have a passionate and crazy love for film art and have made contributions to them. It must be noted that many of the contents described in this article are historical facts clarified by Mr. Georges Mourier, the person in charge of restoration work, after several years of research work. He himself also provided most of the information in the article. Thanks for the attached picture.
Why did Waterloo appear before "Napoleon" started? This stems from the paradoxical relationship between the historical character "Napoleon" and film history. Since the birth of film art, countless directors hope to bring this legendary figure in French history to the screen, with the help of this new art form's unparalleled ability to reproduce Restore the magnificent page that year. The strange thing is that the more ambitious the plan, the more it goes to waste, even short-lived. The most classic example of this is the "Napoleon Project" that Kubrick (Stanley Kubrick) prepared for more than a decade and finally hated it (a special book composed of documents and materials prepared by Kubrick for this project, published in recent years). More than a thousand pages thick). There are many films about Napoleon, but there are very few convincing biopics, and it may still be Abel Gance's best.
In the late 1910s and early 1920s, Guns demonstrated and proved his outstanding film talent through two films, "I Accuse" (J'accuse!, 1919) and "Reincarnation" (La roue, 1923). Leap into the ranks of France's most successful film directors. This success gave him the opportunity to shoot movies according to his own ideas, so he started his very ambitious "Napoleon Project." According to the original idea, he will shoot six films about the "Emperor of the French" in order to look back on Napoleon's magnificent life like a picture scroll. At that time, Guns was not only an explorer of film art, but also a pioneer of film technology. "Napoleon" was screened in "triptyques" (that is, three projectors were projected on three screens at the same time). The attempt was nearly thirty years earlier than the "Cinerama" (Cinerama). It is extremely rare for technological innovators and art explorers to concentrate on one person.
But the facts are not as good as imagined. The original six-part "Napoleon Project" finally completed only one, but even this only one, for Abel Guns, is still a waterloo. Guns loved Napoleon the character of his life, but "Napoleon" brought him not only the Waterloo in the movie, but even to a certain extent the waterloo in his directorial career. Although the film’s several small-scale releases have received double praise from the audience and reviews, the official public release has encountered various difficulties and failures for various reasons explained below. There are many reasons for this. On the one hand, one of them is quite meaningful: Guns’s most ambitious movie can be regarded as the final wailing of the silent film "When Dying", because six months after "Napoleon" premiered in Paris, the first " The birth of "The Jazz Singer" (The Jazz Singer, 1927) has brought a whole new era.
On the other hand, Guns, like all the most innovative directors, is willing to constantly challenge the new limits of the film and the endurance of the producers. In order to achieve satisfactory results regardless of the cost, the films that are already super-produced are still overrun. And such a production cannot "fail" in return. In short, Gans also went downhill with his own "untimely" peak. The most prestigious French director before the "World War II" affected Renoir (Jean Renoir) and Eisenstein (Sergei) to varying degrees. M. Eisenstein) and even Kurosawa’s artists were gradually ignored until forgotten: Roman Polanski recalled that he was even shocked when he met Guns at the Cannes Film Festival in 1957, because he thought The French movie legend is already dead. As for "Napoleon", it seems to have become a cursed movie, and in the rest of my life, I am constantly encountering "scissors hands" who are unknown.
"Scissor Hands" Abel Gances
premiered at the Opéra de Paris (Opéra de Paris) on April 7, 1927. The "Napoleon", which has not been completely completed in the strict sense, was premiered for about 4 hours (hereinafter referred to as the song). Theater version), several scenes adopted the “triple scene” that was a pioneering work at the time. The screening was a huge success, and it became a hot topic in the streets of Paris for a while, and it was screened for ten times. From May 8th to 11th, a 9-hour 30-minute version (hereinafter referred to as the Apollo version) was screened at the Apollon Cinemas. It is worth noting that the version screened these days It is a normal version that does not contain the "triple screen", and the screening is not open to the public, and is limited to publishers and media, which is equivalent to a warm-up before the official version appears. If part of the hot discussion and praise caused by the previous screening is due to the shock brought by the "triple screen", then most of the film critics who have seen the opera version were shocked by the artistic level of the Apollo version. They said in the media that the 9-hour 30-minute version is the masterpiece of the pinnacle of film art, far better than the half-time opera version. The only regret is that it does not have the shock of the "triple screen". During this period, Guns also announced that it would start in November of that year, and edit a final version of about 6 hours 30 minutes to 45 minutes. Of course, this version has never seen the light.
The editing work of Guns has not been actually carried out, and foreign publishers have edited different versions privately and performed ordinary screenings. The durations vary, but they are all about 2 hours. This is a major feature film shot using 400,000 meters of film, with 20 editors alone. The damage is self-evident, but most of these foreign releases have also failed. On the other hand, the "triple screen" not only requires a partial renovation of the movie hall, but also has extremely complicated debugging and synchronization problems. Most movie theaters do not have the conditions for screening at all, and it seems that abandoning the "triple screen" has lost a lot. Part of the commercial potential, so Guns hurriedly edited a version shorter than the opera house version. It was shown in a very few qualified cinemas in Paris with a "triple screen", while in other theaters the normal shortened version was shown. Audiences who were rumored to have their appetites completely stopped buying it, and the box office was a complete failure; American theaters on the other side of the ocean were being swept by sound films. "The scene" became interested, and the reconstruction plan that was originally prepared for "Napoleon" was also shelved.
In this way, "Napoleon" paradoxically became a masterpiece in the memory of some people, while in the minds of others, it was just a dispensable movie. Guns’s original six consecutive "Napoleon Projects" have also been broken since the first one. The tide of sound films hit, and silent films escaped into the dark. Although each country and even each director had different resistance times to sound films, the unchangeable fact is that they must either keep up with the times or be "eliminated" by the times, or something like " Like Napoleon, it was forgotten. But the debt owed will not be forgotten. During the transition period from silent to sound, in order to save the investment of silent films from the fate of completely losing their money, the solution that can usually be tried is to dub silent films/scores and put them on the market.
The commercial failure of "Napoleon" also made Guns think of a similar solution. Investors are also happy to see it. They think that after all Guns shot so much material, it is definitely not impossible to edit a version suitable for the moment. . Thus, in 1935, a movie called "Napoléon Bonaparte" was born. It is generally thought that it was a re-edited version of Guns from the previous shooting material of "Napoleon." But far from it, Guns actually used this opportunity to remake a movie, so it can almost be regarded as another almost irrelevant movie. Why is it almost? The reason is that he did use the 1927 movie, because all the flashbacks were taken from the original film that he hadn't finished editing before. What does this interception mean? It means that Guns has completely given up on the unfinished version of "Napoleon", because all directors who want to survive must "look forward". The past movies have completely passed away, and he has not considered his own. The consequence of this undifferentiated, unrecorded film source editing for "Napoleon". Yes, to some extent, Guns himself was the first person to "destroy" Napoleon.
Guns' own "hands and feet" of "Napoleon" is far from over. In 1971, with the help/production of his admirer Claude Lelouch (Claude Lelouch), Guns made his last film, "Bonaparte et la révolution" (Bonaparte et la révolution). ). In this film, Guns "replayed the old tricks". In addition to shooting new shots, he also added relevant clips from Napoleon's films in 1927 and 1935. These interceptions were also taken on demand like the last time. Screening. The contribution that Guns himself created for the "Napoleon Labyrinth" stopped here. We cannot blame Guns, because we cannot feel the difficulties he once had. When a director was unable to make a movie for more than ten years (1943-1954), he was in debt. When tired, he could not take into account the so-called full version of an old work far behind him...
a restored relay race
If "Napoleon" seems to be forgotten by history, it has been living in the memory of some people. This seems to be the beauty of the movie. It imprints vivid images in people's minds, and this One out of ten thousand people who can exactly be called "fans" are willing to join an adventure called "reappearance" at any time. "Napoleon" also benefits from this "living memory". The fact that it has been repaired five times in 50 years proves that the film is not only the art of the director but also the art of the fans; and the reason why this "memory" can be Survival often benefits from these great fans.
In 1949, Guns, whose life was a little struggling, had a debt that was about to expire. He was obviously unable to repay it. The 40 original films of "Napoleon" mortgaged by him were likely to be sold. Gance told the news to Henri Langlois, the founder of the French Film Archive, and expressed his hope for debt conversion, that is, Langlois would obtain the ownership of these films through debt repayment. He told this man who had his life-long mission to save the film and kept his good memories of "Napoleon". Among the 40 films, there are both the Opera version and the Apollo version. Therefore, once obtained, the reorganization of "Napoleon" is not a problem. Langlois tried his best in half a year and finally saved these films. He immediately started a film reorganization plan with Marie Epstein, the sister of director Jean Epstein. . But they were disappointed to find that in these films, there was neither a complete Opera version nor a complete Apollo version. Even in a letter to Guns, Langlois complained, "Maybe it is impossible to organize a complete movie like it was in all the material." But despite this, Langlois and the French Film Archive re-printed and preserved all the materials in the next ten years, and screened the preliminary edited version at the Venice Film Festival in 1953, and the number afterwards Continue to add to the previous version during the year, hoping to get the most complete "Napoleon". Langlois must not know that his principle of "preserving everything" like a prophet makes it possible to fully reproduce "Napoleon" now.
In 1969, the director and film researcher Kevin Brownlow from across the English Channel started his own restoration plan for Napoleon. The shocking experience of watching movies in his youth and his admiration for Guns made him determined to be a "companion" with this movie for life, and he would never give up unless he restores a full version. In 1973, he reorganized a relatively complete Napoleon of 4 hours and 50 minutes with the materials he could collect. It should be noted that the completion of this version of the French Film Archive did not participate, which means that the latter did not. Open your collection so that the former can be repaired. But after the restoration was completed, no one cared about it, because the concept of film restoration has not been as deeply rooted as it is now, and there are few people who care about it. On the other hand, everyone is also lacking in interest in this film, which is somewhat in the shadow of film history. It was not until 1979 that the first screening was held at the Telluride Film Festival (but it was precisely this screening that accidentally opened the legendary story of "Napoleon" in the Americas that will be told below). As of 1983, after more than ten years of continuous research and excavation, Kevin Brownlow believed that the time for a new restoration had arrived. This time, the archive opened its doors to him. He claimed that when he saw the material stored in the archive, he was shocked to think that he had seen a new movie. He compared and edited these newly discovered materials with his previous version, and completed a brand new 5 hours and 15 minutes version.
If "Napoleon" is like a giant scroll-like masterpiece, its overly disorganized or even disintegrated state is doomed to be a long journey of twists and turns in the restoration process. Nearly ten years later, in 1992, under the leadership of the French Film Archive, Bambi Ballard performed a brand new restoration on the newly collected material, giving a 5 hours and 30 minutes The left and right version. Basically in this version, Kevin Brownlow carried out his third restoration in 2000. So far, "Napoleon" has undergone five restorations. It is worth noting that the digital age of film is coming in the future. All these five restorations are film restorations. Although the durations are different, they are basically repaired. A brand new editing led by the person in charge, which means that the restorer added the newly discovered material to the previous version based on his own knowledge of the film to perform the restoration. They tried their best to get back to the original state, but the personal color is inevitably heavier. Although the small-scale screenings after these five restorations have achieved great success, they have not been publicly re-released and can only be screened through different film festivals or very few special occasions.
Research work to restore the restoration to its original state
After 2000, the research work on "Napoleon" and Guns has not stopped, and a brand new restoration is about to come out. This restoration does not seem difficult, because as the restoration workers usually think, "according to the last restoration as the basis" is enough. However, in the careful study of the previous version, the staff discovered an important problem: that is, the source of all the materials cannot be determined. They are all pieced together from fragments scattered everywhere, and if this continues, there will be no end to the restoration of "Napoleon", which means that the so-called restoration of the original state of the year will never be realized, and more importantly Then, if you continue to repair in this way, how can you ensure that the so-called new version is truly "new" and better than the previous version? Therefore, the most urgent task is to find a possible standard.
This is why the French Film Archive decided in 2008 to stop all the restoration work and loan exchange procedures related to "Napoleon", and to restart the identification and investigation and research work from scratch. First, a request for searching and integrating the resources of Napoleon was issued to various agencies throughout the law, and a search request was issued to film archives worldwide through the World Film Archive Union (La Fédération Internationale des Archives du Film). They again found 400 reels of film that had never been used in the previous restoration work. In the end, the "monster Napoleon" they faced was a film with a total of more than 1,000 reels and a total length of nearly 100,000 meters. How to deal with it? In the end, George Mourier and his assistant chose the most primitive method, which was to open these films box by box and register each lens one by one; at the same time, with the help of the latest technology that was not available for the previous five restorations, it was to combine all the films. The material found is subjected to the simplest digitization process, and then compared with the previously registered database, and all digitized materials related to the same lens are played at the same time for comparison.
This work, which was originally intended to collect all the material, gave them the first key to interpreting "Napoleon": the difference between the original opera house version and the Apollo version is not only in the length of time, they have always originated from the simultaneous shooting of two cameras. Edited separately from the different materials below! Using two cameras to shoot at the same time was the usual method at the time, one for printing for the domestic market and one for foreign markets. For this purpose, the content of the two cameras should also be roughly the same. But Guns did different shooting attempts with these two cameras, and then cut out the Opera version and the Apollo version with these two materials from different sources (the evidence is that Guns made his own work in the newly discovered film. Mark). Therefore, although it cannot be said that these are two different movies, they are indeed two "Napoleon" with different artistic choices! On the one hand, this discovery overturned all previous repairs, because they used the material from the two versions indiscriminately (of course, the previous repairers cannot be blamed for this, because they are completely unaware of this fact. What's more, Guns himself first used these materials indiscriminately in subsequent films about Napoleon); on the other hand, it also verified the feedback from the time of the release, that is, the Apollo version is better than the Opera version. For excellent. Therefore, the first task of the restoration work has become to reorganize this better Apollo version to fulfil Guns’s long-cherished wish, and due to the crossover over the decades, these two versions have become like two completely twisted ones. To disassemble the thread balls together requires not only the patience of tearing and peeling, but also the carefulness of walking on thin ice.
The previous restorers mixed the two versions without exception. In fact, they first reorganized the film from their own perspective as an editor, and then completed the restoration. And this latest restoration is determined to restore the higher quality Apollo version. This is a choice that may cause controversy, because this version has not actually appeared before Guns's hands. What's more, the greater difficulty lies in how future generations can better restore Guns' original intentions through editing? Restorers can only choose to look for traces in the files. In fact, as early as 2002, the staff of the film database of the archive began to sort out the vast Guns files in their collection. This work did not completely end until 2010. They paid no attention to unraveling "Napoleon". The other key is in the file. The staff found a sub-shot table compiled by Langlois and Mary Epstein during the restoration in the 1950s. These 40 films have now been proved that most of them belonged to the Apollo version, and this was sorted out in turn. The shot table was personally reviewed and annotated by Guns himself, that is to say, Guns wrote his intent that he failed to achieve on film in detail on these eight pages, leaving the last trace of loneliness for future generations. Clues.
At this point, the problems that the final repair version needs to face have been answered, and the repair team has also made their choice, which is to restore and repair the Apollo version, but it will also retain the history of the Opera version. The “triple scene” in order to keep a historical memory while respecting the original author’s creative intentions.
Coppola and his son's "Napoleon" love
Back to the beginning of this article, why this time the final restored version of "Napoleon" will be jointly launched by the French Film Archive and Coppola? This has to be said that "Napoleon" has a relationship with the United States. Coppola, who was the first to devote himself to drama, was shocked by Eisenstein's "October" (1928) and turned to film. In the early 1980s, he accidentally saw "Napoleon" restored by Kevin Brownlow in the United States. , This movie surprised him and found the feeling of watching "October" at the beginning of the year. He recalled his father's good impression of having an entire band accompany the movie in American movie theaters in the 1920s, and he sprouted the idea of "Napoleon" supplemented by band accompaniment for the tour. He handed over the task of scoring to his father, Carmine Coppola, a flute player who wanted to be a band conductor all his life. As everyone knows, the soundtrack version of "Napoleon", which has completed the dream of father and son, achieved great success as soon as it premiered. It has added extra shows and rounds of tours, and "Napoleon" that has traveled all over the United States has gone to London, Rome...and even Cuba. . Coppola also used this to buy from the film copyright holder Claude Leroche the world copyright except France, and the "Napoleon" piece was regarded as a French cultural heritage by Claude Leroche. The only remaining French copyright was given to the Film Archive.
The restoration work of "Napoleon" co-hosted by the Film Archive and Coppola has begun and is expected to be completed in 2017. In addition to Paris and the United States, it will also premiere at the same time in Corsica, Napoleon's hometown. Venus, who once had a broken arm, will also welcome people all over the world with open arms. It will tour the world and even China as it did thirty years ago. Georges Mourier told the author that when Guns visited China in the early 1960s, he was so honored that he was even known as the "De Gaulle" of the French film industry. In recent years, relevant Chinese film institutions have been conveying to the French side the "De Gaulle". The wishes of Napoleon. Guns and his "Napoleon" revisit China, which is really exciting.
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