Word: napoleons
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...epic exile, but a man with a vision of the Universal Republic, schooled in politics by the French Revolution, in military art by genius. Studying the Corsican Eagle from military school to the first Italian campaign, Gance places the man opposite a tableau of the Revolution. And Napoleon watches it, as the convention destroys the constitutional monarchy and then itself, and the Reign of Terror seizes France. Amid the confusion, he is isolated, detached, observant...
...Napoleon is no documentary, no history lesson. Gance merely puts the man on the threshold of history and lets destiny take over. Yet, there is nothing mystical in what he films: Napoleon is simply the story of a man who knows what he wants and waits for it to come...
Gance deliberately chooses as Napoleon a man abjectly lacking in charm or good looks. He does not want a Napoleon God-sent to save France in her hour of desperation, but a man of flesh and intellect. The protagonist, played by Albert Dieudonne, is a short, unimpressive young man. His long hair hangs listlessly about his shoulders, his arms clasped tightly behind him. But for his eyes, his face is hard and ex- pressionless, the face of a bandit or a martyr. His eyes are sharp, black. They scrutinize, and they attack...
...they understand. As the Terror erupts, Napoleon works in his small apartment. From time to time, he glances at the Delcaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen on his wall. In the street below, the crowd is rioting; he ignores it. Suddenly, an anguished face passes along the level of his balcony. He rushes to see what has happened: The head is impaled on a pole. The throngs flow under him and the head moves on. He returns to his desk. His eyes see something we cannot--the anguish of France. But we see his tears...
...watch Napoleon as Gance did, the perpetual outsider dissecting the world before him with his eyes. "To make oneself understood to people, one must first speak to their eyes." When the film ends, on the eve of his first great victory, he stands above the Italian plains, all the world before him, and we have understood what he sees. His vision lies at his feet. And his eyes are the eyes of France...