The legal issues revolve around the soundtrack that the film is presented with.
This is from the London Times newspaper, dated 4th December 2004:
"Godfather to settle a score
IT WAS an offer the British Film Institute could refuse. But now the Coppola family are going to war in a dispute over a soundtrack to a legendary French silent film.
Napoléon, the 1927 five-hour classic made by Abel Gance, will have two screenings at the Royal Festival Hall this weekend. It will be accompanied by a score by Carl Davis, who has written music for more than a hundred films. But Francis Ford Coppola, director of the Godfather films, insists that his family own the rights to the film and is demanding that the BFI use a score by his father, Carmine.
The institute is sticking with Mr Davis’s 1980 work, believing that it is more appropriate. “They can stop us but we can’t stop them,” Mr Davis said. “Unless the Coppolas back down, this may be the last time anyone hears it.”"
I haven't heard the Coppola score, but I was at the RFH screening mentioned in the article and Carl Davis' score is stunning, and really complements the film well. It's a shame that the Coppola's lawyers and the BFI can't come to a happy settlement over which music can be heard with Napoleon, which will permit both soundtracks to be heard by those that want to hear them.
(Btw, the BFI version is actually longer than the Coppola/Zoetrope version, and that's still shorter than Gance's original cut of 6 hours.)
Cheers,
David
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markiparkinson87
19 years ago
They are still finding new scenes for napoleon in the archives. They found 3D footage and more portion's of the film. I don't no when Kevin Brownlow will add the new footage to the film but hopefully soon; it will be the longest version to date if released.
The main problem is with the score;now I have not seen the Carl Davis version of Napoleon, but i'm sure it will be better then the coppola score. Carl Davis has been scoring silent films for a long time know, and he has a knack for scoring for silent films.
I just wish like all other's that this film will eventually be released to DVD in the most complete form possible. Futhermore, I hope that Napoelon recieves more exposure to the masses, not just on this website, but all over the world; this film needs to be seen by film students and movie goers.
Tell your friends about the movie napoleon, hopefully with enough peopole we can start a partition that will have thousands of people on the list. If anyone want's to see snippets of this brillant film, go to YouTube.com and type in Abel gance, and you will see why you should view this film.
Lastly, I hope this film will be listed on the top 250 films of all time on this site. Abel gance was a brilliant visionist, and Napoleon was a massive epic that probably want be match. Napoleon is on a grand scale that stand the test of time just like later epics that came after,Star Wars,Lawrence of Arabia, Lord of the rings and more.
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afastest
18 years ago
Blu-Ray release with the resolution of 1920x480 for 4:1 part would be nice.
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