Rotten
There is in this edition of the picture an effort to cover too many historical incidents and the consequence is that quite a number of the passages are confused.
Mordaunt Hall, New York Times
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Napoleon
Overview
A biopic of former Emperor of France, Napoleon Bonaparte, tracing the Corsican's career from his schooldays (where a snowball fight is staged like a military campaign) to his flight from Corsica, through the French Revolution (where a real storm is intercut with a political storm) and the Terror, culminating in his triumphant 1797 invasion of Italy.
Director and cast
- Abel Gance Director
- Albert Dieudonné as Napoléon Bonaparte
- Nicolas Roudenko as Napoléon Bonaparte (Child)
- Edmond van Daële as Maximilien Robespierre
- Alexandre Koubitzky as Georges Jacques Danton
- Antonin Artaud as Marat
- Abel Gance as Louis Saint-Just
- Gina Manès as Joséphine de Beauharnais
- Nicolas Koline Cast
- Annabella Cast
- Marguerite Gance Cast
Critics on Rotten Tomatoes
Top critics, in their words
87%
Tomatometer
Fresh
Like D.W. Griffith, Orson Welles, Steven Spielberg, and George Lucas, but mostly James Cameron, Gance understood the thrill of the cinematic event and had the hubris to bring it off.
Wesley Morris, Boston Globe
Fresh
Napoleon is the last great silent epic. We will not see its like again.
Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times
Fresh
Gance uses techniques not much associated with silent film, like a hand-held camera, multiple superimpositions, split split screen, rapid-fire editing and flashbacks to rivet the audience's attention and bring history to vivid life.
Lou Lumenick, New York Post
Fresh
The experience it provides - at times, akin to taking a drug - is unlike anything I've ever experienced in a movie theater.
Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle
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