Philippe Hériat Movies

Using materials from 1927 and 1936 versions of his classic film Napoleon vu par Abel Gance (hence the presence of several individuals in the cast and credits who had since died), director Gance was able to restore and reconstruct it for modern audiences. This four-hour-long version was made possible through the efforts of Claude Lelouche and the Centre Du Cinema of the French government. It contains scenes which were newly shot for this release, and has an introduction in which Gance explains what his original intentions were for the film, and why the silent version was unavailable for so long. One of the cinematic innovations remaining from those earlier versions is the use of a triply split screen. Gance originally shot at higher film speeds (20 frames per second) than most of his contemporaries. The higher film speed yielded smoother-looking movement (acceptable to modern viewers) and aided in studio dubbing. Among the legendary actors appearing in the film are Koubitzky, Antonin Artaud and Annabella. The story of the film covers the rise of Napoleon during the French Revolution through to the Italian Campaign, which propelled him to power. The full terror of the Revolution is shown, with a menacing performance by Antonin Artaud as Marat. Gance himself appears as the revolutionary apologist, St. Just. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

Adapted from the novel by Paul Lafitte, Rothchild is not, as might be assumed, the story of the famed European banking family. Harry Baur stars as a hobo who happens to share the same name as the eminent Rothchilds. By claiming a familial relationship to the legendary financiers, Baur is able to enjoy privileges and luxuries which he might otherwise be denied. Even so, Baur is far more honest than some of the people he's fleecing, and by film's end he has exposed the shady business activities of the "respectable" Monsieur Barsac (Pauley). Unfortunately, filmclips from Rothchild were later used out of context by Nazi propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels as examples of "Jewish decadence." ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Based on Victory, a novel by Joseph Conrad, Dans Une ile Perdue (Desert Island) is the French-language version of the 1930 Paramount production Dangerous Paradise. Running far afield from the Conrad original, the plot finds heroine Alma, a violinist, fleeing from the lecherous advances of the villainous Schomberg and Wilson. She stows away on a skiff owned by the handsome Heyst, who then embarks on a gold-finding expedition. Alma's pursuers catch up with Heyst, leading to a round-robin of greed, treachery and murder. The stars of Dangerous Paradise were Nancy Carroll as Alma and Richard Arlen as Heyst; filling these roles in Dans une ile Perdue are Daniele Parola and Enrique Rivero. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Napoleon auf St. Helena was the next-to-last film of director Lupu-Pick, who died by his own hand in 1931. Werner Krauss is a physically inappropriate choice for the role of Napoleon, though he plays the part with his usual consummate skill. This study of Napoleon's last days in exile doesn't offer much in the way of action, but is more interesting as a "chamber piece." Especially well handled is the curious relationship between the Little Corporal and his "host," the British governor of St. Helena (played by Albert Basserman). The screenplay was by Abel Gance, whose own 1927 filmization of the life of Napoleon remains one of the unchallenged masterpieces of the silent cinema. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The chef d'ouevre of legendary French filmmaker Abel Gance, the 235-minute Napoleon was supposed to have been the first installment in a multipart film study of the French military hero. Each of the film's set pieces is treated like a movie in itself: the opening pillow fights and snowball battles, staged while Napoleon is still a schoolboy (played by Russian youth Vladimir Roudenko), are choreographed on a scale worthy of D.W. Griffith. The plot proper begins with Napoleon's adult years. From home island of Corsica, Lt. Napoleon (played as an adult by Albert Dieudonné, and old friend of Gance's) decides to side with the Republic during the French Revolution. He quickly proves his mettle in a preliminary skirmish with the British. Offered the office of commander of Paris, Napoleon declines: he does not subscribe to Reign of Terror, nor does he believe in doing battle against Frenchmen. He is thrown in prison, where he meets his wife-to-be Josephine; thanks to a series of governmental upheavals, both are set free. For the next few years, France's bureaucratic bean-counters and pencil-pushers constantly thwart Napoleon's dreams of glory. The film's climax is Napoleon's rallying of the dispirited French troops and his subsequent advance into Italy.
Beyond its patriotic content, Napoléon was largely designed as a showcase for the revolutionary "Polyvision" process. Simply put, Polyvision utilized multiple images for dramatic effect. Sometimes this was accomplished in a fragmentary manner similar to the multiscreen techniques utilized in such 1960s films as The Thomas Crown Affair and The Boston Strangler. Polyvision could also manifest itself into a Cinerama-like "triptych": three screens, side by side, sometimes offering a panorama, sometimes displaying three separate but thematically linked images. Napoleon's spectacular triptych finale was the crowning touch to the remarkable camera pyrotechnics seen throughout the film; Gance hated static scenes, so he mounted his camera on pendulums, horses, gyroscopes, et al., masterfully placing the spectator in the thick of the action. The film also boasts some of the silent era's best color tinting, with special emphasis on the red, white, and blue of the French flag. Except for limited European showings, Napoleon has not been displayed in its original form since its 1927 Paris premiere. At least 19 different versions of the film exist, some horribly mutilated (cut from 17 reels to eight) and scrambled, others haphazardly reedited by Gance himself. Filmmaker/historian Kevin Brownlow's 1968 book The Parade's Gone By renewed public interest in Gance's lost masterpiece, sparking a 15-year campaign to restore Napoleon, spearheaded by Brownlow and American director Francis Ford Coppola. The resultant restoration job is not perfect -- the triptych scenes had to be reduced to postage-stamp size because no existing screen can accommodate them -- but this Napoleon is probably the closest we'll get ever get to the original. The music for the restored version was composed by Francis Ford Coppola's father Carmine Coppola. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Originally released in 1924 as Le Miracle des Loups, this French costume adventures finally made it to the States in 1930. Set during the 15th century, the film boils down to an "Uncle Tom's Cabin" chase across a frozen lake. The pursuers are a battalion comprised of the enemies of France: the pursue-ee is the patriotic heroine. The "miracle" comes to pass when the girl manages to negotiate her way through a pack of hungry wolves without suffering a single injury -- a scene that plays far more convincingly than it reads. Highly praised by the intelligentsia in France, Miracle of the Wolves was treated derisively by American critics. This assessment was grossly unfair: One of the most spectacular French productions of its era, the film was also brilliantly edited, anticipating the breathless cross-cutting of Abel Gance's Napoleon." ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide