MovieChat Forums > Napoléon vu par Abel Gance (1929) Discussion > Blu-ray

Blu-ray

posted 8 years ago by prd-10
3 replies | jump to latest

Just watched the BFI-released Blu-ray, all five and half hours of it. It's been restored very well and looks excellent on my TV. Not as good as seeing it in a large auditorium with a live orchestra, which is how I've seen it in the past. (Went to one of the first London screenings back in 1981 and seen it many times in London since.)

The only downside is that for the triptych sequence, you ideally need a very big TV, bigger than I could comfortably get in my house. I ended up watching it from about a metre away from the screen, wearing my reading glasses.

[–] lubin-freddy 8 years ago

My only complaint is that while the commentary was good, I wish he didn't talk when the intertitles were shown.

What can be asserted without evidence can also be dismissed without evidence.

[–] prd-10 8 years ago

Haven't had time to watch it with the commentaries switched on.

[–] lubin-freddy 8 years ago

I usually don't watch films with the commentary, at least not the first time, but here it helped. Then I rewatched it with only the Carl Davis music.

The last 15 minutes had me in tears, both for the beauty of the tripatch (albeit on one screen), and for the sense of loss, not only that we got only two-thirds of a sixth of what was planned, but also for Gance's unfinished La fin du monde. A sense of mourning for what could have been, in the same way I think of the Orson Welles films never made, or made as compromised works.

What can be asserted without evidence can also be dismissed without evidence.