NAPOLEAN(1927) 5.5 hour restoration touring USA. OAKLAND

[MrBern]

http://www.silentfilm.org/napoleon-home.php

Abel Gance’s epic NAPOLEON is the Holy Grail of silent masterpieces. In the early 1980s, Francis Ford Coppola toured a 4-hour road show version that many still consider their most unforgettable movie experience ever. Now, over 30 years later, the San Francisco Silent Film Festival is finally presenting legendary film historian Kevin Brownlow’s complete 5 1/2 hour restoration in the United States, along with the American premiere of the magnificent score by Carl Davis, at the Art Deco Paramount Theatre, Oakland. Mr. Davis will conduct 48 members of the Oakland East Bay Symphony for these four unique screenings, which also feature the original “Polyvision” three-screen finale. Due to the expense, technical challenges, and complicated rights issues involved, no screenings are planned for any other American city. This monumental event is being presented by the San Francisco Silent Film Festival, in association with American Zoetrope, The Film Preserve, Photoplay Productions and BFI.

March 24, 25, 31, April 1
Paramount Theatre, Oakland

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/18/movies/the-many-lives-of-abel-gances-napoleon.html

For American cinephiles there’s an indisputable reason to see “Napoleon” now: film. “This print will probably never be seen again in the United States,” Mr. Harris said, given that a digital restoration is under way. (Version 21?) “Projectors are going away,” he said and, alas, so too is film.

 

[DrDialtone]

This is a once in a lifetime opportunity. Not only is it not likely that Napoleon will not be shown again in the U.S., but not at the glorious Paramount Theater as well. If you have not been to the Paramount, it alone is reason enough to go. This
deco movie palace is the reason to see ANY movie shown there. http://www.paramounttheatre.com/ This theater built by Timothy Pfleuger, the architect responsible for the Pacific Stock Exchange, The Castro and several other opulent theaters. The Paramount is THE theater to see this magnificent movie in, a shrine to the movie experience with the Oakland Symphony promises to be incredible!!! Several years ago I saw a rare screening of the Lon Chaney "Phantom Of The Opera" there with the score played on their Wurlitzer pipe organ and it was like time travel. Napoleon, the Oakland Orchestra and the restoration AND shown in Polyvision? WOW...