I heard rumblings that there was a DVD being worked on for Abel
Gance's NAPOLEON in London. Does anyone know if this is true and how
long the running time will be? Is Kevin Brownlow involved? Will it
be the version that was rereleased in the early 80's?

Has anyone out there been lucky enough to have seen any of this new
footage??

"gasolinegus" <dondelafiesta@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:9d5b91f7-2799-46d9-85aa-637fadc95ecd@x19g2000prg.googlegroups.com...
I heard rumblings that there was a DVD being worked on for Abel
Gance's NAPOLEON in London. Does anyone know if this is true and how
long the running time will be? Is Kevin Brownlow involved? Will it
be the version that was rereleased in the early 80's?

Sorry to get your hopes up by responding, but last I heard Francis Ford
Coppola refused to give an inch on this. He apparently has the rights to
any US release of Napoleon. I know Photoplay has continued to add to
their restoration and it now runs something like 5 1/2 hrs, but apparently
nobody has ponied up the cash to put it out on DVD. Does Coppola have the
right to stop a non-US release as well?

Mike

Dennis Doros of Milestone said on AMS a few years ago that the BFI were
intending to get around to a NAPOLEON DVD some time. Some time.

He pointed out the main hold-up is putting up the serious money to record
Carl Davis' 5 1/2 hour orchestral score.

On the US rights, I believe, solely from contributions of others on this
newsgroup, that Coppola holds the rights only for the US. IIRC, it was
also suggested a while ago, here on AMS, that Brownlow had been to seen
Coppola about the rights issue, but received no joy.

[...]the version that was rereleased in the early 80's

gasolinegus wrote:

[...]the version that was rereleased in the early 80's

Further up the list of Usenet newsgroups is found the alt.binaries.*
hierarchy, and there, in alt.binaries.multimedia.vintage-film,
is a cobbed-together version of Napoleon posted by "SimonDelDesertio".
Part 1 was posted on April 6th and Part 2 on April 11th. Simon's notes:

:This version is a reconstruction of the Kevin Brownlow 5 1/2 hour 1983
:restoration, in two parts.
:
:The template for this is from a single TV showing of the work (in this
:form) from 1984 on UK C4 in the Thames Silents series with a score by
:Carl Davis. DVD footage from the Coppola release has been slowed from
:24fps to the correct 20fps, and replaces the majority of the vhs image.*
:However Coppola also cut many scenes from the film and that vhs footage
:is restored here in place.**
:
:*[80% of footage is from the DVD (Though Slowed)]
:
:**[It Came from The UK National Film & Tv School Library recorded from tv
:in 1984. The remarkable thing is that the sound/ score is reasonable
:quality for Vhs Recording of that time]
:
:Luckily (For 1984 the sound was recorded in picture, in high fidelity,
:but unfortunately not in stereo (Was there even Nicam broadcast in
:1984?).As the Coppola version was heavily tinted in various scenes,
:I have attempted to tint the remaining VHS scenes to fit.
:
:Kevin Brownlow has been restoring this film as his life's work, and at
:his first showing of the film (which had been lost) Francis Ford Coppola
:saw it and used his father to write a score, cut the film down
:considerably to 3 1/2 hours, and showed it at Keystone Cops speed 24fps
:instead of the intended 20 in 1981.
:
:Thames silents also commissioned a score from Carl Davis, and showed the
:then complete restoration in 1984 on TV using more reclaimed footage,
:and Brownlow continued to make additions showing his most complete print
:in 2000. This most complete restoration (100 mins longer than the
:Coppola one) was last shown with a live orchestra in 2004 under legal
:threats by Coppola and universal, who claim to have the rights to the
:film, and the definitive restoration (- though all restoration was done
:by Brownlow, and Coppola only cut it down)
:
:It is unlikely that the full restoration with the superior Carl Davis
:score will ever be released now in Coppola's lifetime, but this version
:comes fairly close.

:I have run into a couple of obstacles but should start the post in a few
days . The main issue is the
:triple screen ending section (3 projectors side by side). As the Carl
Davis VHS was for tv they had no choice
:but to avoid the 3 screen sections, which are one of the most well known
features of this legend.
:
:The trouble is that the tv versionis a totally different cut in the last
15 mins, and actually 10 mins shorter than the
:Coppola 3 screen version. There is only about 1 minutes footage in common
also.
:I have decided to use the video section (as is) with the Carl Davis score
as written for it.
:
:It is actually to me much more preferable, as the Coppola version ending
is a bit long and boring .
:
:I will tack on an extra on the [PAL] DVD with the Coppola version 3
screen ending as well.

While I am grateful for the info, I have to admit that I really can't make
hide nor hair of it. I can't tell who is saying what, nor what the source
material is. Sorry if I sound ungrateful, I am not. I just don't really
understand much of this due to the cut and past structure and fragmented
passages. Mike