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Abel Gance’s Napoleon Screened at San Francisco Silent Film Festival Featuring US Premiere of Carl Davis’ Score

Mar. 27, 2012

Abel Gance’s Napoleon Screened at San Francisco Silent Film Festival Featuring US Premiere of Carl Davis’ Score

To introduce its 17th season, the San Francisco Silent Film Festival took thankful risk to present Abel Gance’s monumental 1927 film, Napoleon, in four screenings that featured Carl Davis’ venerable orchestral score alongside Kevin Brownlow’s magnificent restoration, completed in 2000. These screenings marked the American premieres for both Davis’ score as well as Brownlow’s 5 ½ hour restoration (which is complete with Gance’s epic three-screen “Polyvision” finale). All events took place at the historic Art Deco Paramount Theatre in Oakland, California and included live performance of the score by the Oakland East Bay Symphony conducted by the composer.

Though Gance’s film originally included incidental music by Arthur Honegger, two contemporary scores were prepared in conjunction with Brownlow’s original 1981 restoration. Carl Davis, commissioned by Thames Television, composed his score for performance in London, while Carmine Coppola, father to famed director Francis Ford, composed his version for the film’s famous New York premiere at Radio City Music Hall. Since Brownlow’s subsequent retrieval of additional footage, Davis expanded his score to the present version, which premiered in London in 2000 at Royal Festival Hall. Davis’ grand score suggests music of the French Revolution and draws from the music of Paisiello and Beethoven, the latter of whom initially dedicated his “Eroica” Symphony to Napoleon. Having composed more than 50 works for silent film, Davis has provided several scores for Brownlow restorations.

Of Davis and his score, Mick LaSalle for the San Francisco Chronicle writes:

for anyone who has seen the silent film restorations coming out of England for the past 30 or so years, he [Carl Davis] is what silent films sound like, a romantic tradition made modern. His score mixes familiar classical music and folk songs, but to anyone who knows Davis' music, his own original themes are unmistakable. No one in the world does this better.

Read Mick LaSalle’s complete review here. The four screenings, which took place on March 24, 25, 31, and April 1, were presented by the SF Silent Film Festival in association with American Zoetrope, The Film Preserve, Photoplay Productions, and the British Film Institute.

For information on the performances, visit www.silentfilm.org.

Details on the music of Carl Davis can be found at his composer profile on www.fabermusic.com.

For information on Davis’ film works, please go to www.carldaviscollection.com.

Carl Davis
Napoleon (1980)
for orchestra
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333'

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