A real pleasure to witness the 7hr restoration with live orchestration at La Seine Musicale in Paris, after previous (failed) attempts to sit throught the 5hr30 cut released in 2016 by BFI.
The film is probably the epitome of maximalist cinema. Gance swings for the fences with pretty much every scene, if not every shot, forsaking subtlety for cinematic canonization of Napoleon and his exploits leading up to his Italian campaign.
This maximalist approach translates into probably the most kinetic…
