MovieChat Forums > Napoléon vu par Abel Gance (1929) Discussion > Not in the restoration. How come?

Not in the restoration. How come?


If you watch the dvd of Napoleon, you'll notice the scene where the cook who follows Napoleon indirectly throughout his life announces he knows him and will speak with him while standing at attention on to be rebuked and unrecognized leading to a hurt reaction from the cook. The same scene has a drummer boy with an oversized hat also wanting attention from Napoleon (who also shown affection by him earlier) only to have his hat snatched from his head and flung to the ground. The boy, crying, falls into his drum.
The scene shows Napoleon's becoming more aloof and commander-like at the expense of his own humanity BUT it's not the triptych presentation. However, if you go under Extras and watch the single screen version of the ending, it's there. Why would BFI, claiming "restoration," omit that short fragment of a scene and relegate it to a dvd extra I had zero intention of watching? I just watched the single screen to fulfill curiosity and, viola, there it was! Weird. Any explanations?



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If I recall correctly, Gance never wanted to include it in the Triptych ending, only the single-screen one, probably because it didn't quite fit in with the super-wide-canvass triumphalism of the three-screen finale, as it's such a small, human moment. It wasn't really 'omitted' by the BFI; the single screen and three-screen endings were always intended to be two distinct endings by Gance for different cinemas.

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