'Napoleon': Silent Film To Screen At The Paramount Theater in Oakland

Posted: 03/20/2012 9:00 am Updated: 03/20/2012 6:41 pm

Napoleon Silent Film

It appears everyone is attempting to cash in on the silent film craze.

After "The Artist" took home the Academy Award for Best Picture at the Oscars, the San Francisco Silent Film Festival plans on doing something a little different at this year's event: screen the 1927 epic, "Napoleon."

However, as the Los Angeles Times states, the movie won't be played in San Francisco. Due to the film's widescreen format -- known as Polyvision -- the event will instead take place across the bridge, at the Paramount Theater in Oakland.

On top of the lengthy five-and-a-half-hour runtime, ticket prices will range from $45 to $120. Each of the four screenings -- to be held on March 24, 25 and 31, and April 1 -- will have three intermissions, including a dinner break.

Clocking in at an astounding five-and-a-half hours, "Napoleon" tells the story of the early years of the legendary French military leader. The last successful screening took place at Radio City Music Hall in 1981.

Tickets to the "Napoleon" screening and the 17th Annual San Francisco Silent Film Festival -- if you're into these sorts of things -- can be purchased here.

[via LAT]

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It appears everyone is attempting to cash in on the silent film craze. After "The Artist" took home the Academy Award for Best Picture at the Oscars, the San Francisco Silent Film Festival plans on...
It appears everyone is attempting to cash in on the silent film craze. After "The Artist" took home the Academy Award for Best Picture at the Oscars, the San Francisco Silent Film Festival plans on...
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06:05 AM on 03/21/2012
I guess "Birth of a Nation" should go for $ 250.00? How about $600 for all the "Titanic" movies ( "It happened one Night", Titanic", Old middle and New. And the most famous "She went Down!")

Enjoy
05:43 AM on 03/21/2012
are they donating that money to Obama's superpac??, bazinga!
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PashaRu
Век живи - век учись.
03:46 AM on 03/21/2012
What a cool experience! I wish I could be there. I saw the 4-hour version of this film at a theatre with a small orchestra about 15 years ago. Thanks to Kevin Brownlow's tireless efforts to restore and reconstruct the film, we have it today, 85 years later. It is truly a spectacular film, worth the investment of time & money, and an event you'll not soon forget.

Abel Gance was a very innovative filmmaker, and some of the scenes and cinematography are quite impressive. Early in the film is a sequence where Napoleon, as a young boy, leads a snowball fight at school. It's filmed with a hand-held camera, and the rhythmic editing builds to such a crescendo that is perfectly breathtaking. And when the screen opens up to the tryptych - sometimes all three panels showing a single scene in "widescreen," sometimes three different scenes on the screen at once - well, you've probably never seen anything quite like it.
03:35 AM on 03/21/2012
hey people,
dont go see movie for a 120 currency,
not worth it,
it is a big RIPOFF,
stay home and watch cable movie, dvd, blue ray, vhs tape
This user has chosen to opt out of the Badges program
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02:51 AM on 03/21/2012
For 49cents at blockbuster not only can you rent Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure where you can see a fine portrayal of Napoleon, but you can also see exquisite portrayals of the Greek philosopher So Crates, Beeth oven, & Genghis Khunt.
HUFFPOST SUPER USER
fixitguy331
The beatings will continue until morale improves.
05:16 AM on 03/21/2012
As well as "Beeth-oven"....and that Frood-dude.
HUFFPOST SUPER USER
fixitguy331
The beatings will continue until morale improves.
05:16 AM on 03/21/2012
Opps...Missed your beeth-oven reference.
HUFFPOST SUPER USER
anitafeeney
no matter where you go there you are
02:49 AM on 03/21/2012
$45 to $120 for a movie ticket does that include dinner and a drink popcorn? if you hate it can you get your money back sorry too rich for my blood and you cant even smoke a cigg? forget about it
HUFFPOST SUPER USER
lesaltatum
01:21 AM on 03/21/2012
Can I wait until it's on Netflicks?
01:21 AM on 03/21/2012
This seems as fun as watching paint dry
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
eragan
Keep the "Change"
01:07 AM on 03/21/2012
That's us, the new U.S. Dumb is the new smart.
01:00 AM on 03/21/2012
Not me it won't.
12:38 AM on 03/21/2012
Although I suppose any publicity can be construed as good publicity, this smarmy blurb hardly begins to suggest the wonder of NAPOLEON, which will be performed live with a 48-piece orchestra and which is regarded by many as the apogee of the silent screen. It is the U.S. premiere of a film which caused a sensation on its national tour in a 4-hour version in 1980. And by the way, the San Francisco Silent Film Festival has been performing beautiful prints of silent films with live music for 15 years -- hardly is it "cashing in" on "The Artist."
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
jacknab
You can flog a dead horse, but it ain't gonna plow
01:25 AM on 03/21/2012
I first read about Napoleon in a history of silent films, 'The Big Parade', in the late sixties, then had the privilege of see it at the Fox Theater in Boulder, Co. in the early '80's.It was the most innovative movie of its time and had lost nothing of the magic when I finally got to see it. I would give anything to be able to see this presentation, an incredible once-in-a-lifetime experience.
03:02 AM on 03/21/2012
Doesn't matter how great you think the film is. I wouldn't pay no $120 to sit with a bunch of strangers in a stuffy theater just to see it. there are far better films I wouldn't pay that price to see. Nothing more then a Nostalgic rip off.
10:40 AM on 03/21/2012
Thank your for pointing out the absurdity of this article. I can tell you that this has been in the planning stages for a VERY long time, even before The Artist was released. It took years just to get Coppola and Brownlow to agree on the terms to show this film in the U.S.

As many have already pointed out, once you see it, nothing can equal it. This isn't seeing Batman in 3D, the is a singular event worthy of its hype and, yes, cost. (The $120 is the top price for a ticket, by the way.)
HUFFPOST SUPER USER
mccann25
12:16 AM on 03/21/2012
I had to pay $60.00 to see Green Lantern 3D for three adults, tub of popcorn, bottle of water, 2 large pops, and a box of candy at AMC in Livonia, Michigan the very one being sued and it was the last movie I have seen at a theater and most likely will be for a while, cause $60.00 is going way overboard. SO no $120.00 I wouldn't even have to think about it, not with $1.24 rental Redbox.
12:37 AM on 03/21/2012
Yeah........somehow I don't think that Redbox will be making this film available through its rental kiosks. (Most TV series put about 4 hour-long episodes on a single disc, for a runtime of about 3 hours--if you count the little bonus features, you might get about 4 hours on 1 DVD. This is a FIVE-AND-A-HALF-HOUR movie--for just the bare bones film. No bonus material, no commentary. This means for a DVD release, the film will have to be split onto two discs--it might can make it onto 1 as a Blu-Ray disc.)
11:55 PM on 03/20/2012
For just a flick with a French actor, I don't understand why it's so expensive. I wouldn't be surprised in just 10 years all movies costed that much.
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CommonSensible
Common Sense cannot be taught...or bought.
11:51 PM on 03/20/2012
For $120, it better be the real Napoleon up there on the screen.
11:54 PM on 03/20/2012
Are you kidding? People pay 7 times that to see today's pop stars front row. For a historical man that nearly conquered Europe, should be more.
12:58 AM on 03/21/2012
I'm with you CommonSensible!! Napoleon really wouldn't be my cup of tea no matter what.
11:41 PM on 03/20/2012
thats crazy you could feed a poor family for a week with that kind of money