Female infidelity leads a man, Jean, to commit suicide. When he is dead his brother, Jerôme, starts having an affair with the same woman, Mary. But… there is a photography left of her first brother, who the second is getting closer to finding – hence the title (6,5 X 11 – an film negative format).

Wonderfully photographed with moving camera, superimposed pictures and a contrast that leaves nothing to be desired. Interesting use of the close-up to emphasize the story as well. And notice the use of the mirror to show how the story is about to repeat itself. The mice-en-scene could, throughout the film, be though to have come directly from a display of state-of-the-art modernist interior design architecture – stunningly beautiful. The men in this film all wear lipstick, silk garments and nail-polish in their very chic upper-class fashion. Oscar Wilde would not be let down. Do not miss this film, should you ever get the chance to see it.

Six.et.demi.onze.1927.Henri.WEB-DL.1080p-MH.mkv

General
Container:  	Matroska
Runtime: 	1 h 24 min
Size: 	2.78 GiB
Video
Codec: 	x264
Resolution: 	1920x1080 
Aspect ratio:  	16:9
Frame rate: 	25.000 fps
Bit rate: 	4 511 kb/s
BPP: 	0.087
Audio
#1:  	French 2.0ch AAC LC @ 192 kb/s

https://nitro.download/view/00344EC44D3ABB6/Six.et.demi.onze.1927.Henri.WEB-DL.1080p-MH.mkv
https://nitro.download/view/C362559BA316F2D/six_onze_demi_Knappen_HD_version.srt

Language(s):Silent
Subtitles:English,French intertitles

The post Jean Epstein – Six et demi onze (1927) first appeared on Cinema of the World.

A monumental masterpiece of silent cinema, Abel Gance’s 1927 fresco has been reedited many times, to the point that for a long time it was impossible to determine its original form. Director and researcher Georges Mourier and his team have now completed the restoration after sixteen years of hard work. This unedited 7-hour version was presented as a world premiere in an exceptional two-part ciné-concert on July 4 and 5 at La Seine Musicale.

“A monster” is how Georges Mourier describes Abel Gance’s Napoleon, a monumental fresco dating from 1927, which traces the life of the future emperor from his childhood through to the first stirrings of the Italian campaign. Georges Mourier, director and researcher in charge of restoring the film for the Cinémathèque Française, had to battle for sixteen years to tame the “monster”. An unruly “monster” which, over time, became a veritable cinephilic sea serpent. Abel Gance himself, drowned by the excess he had orchestrated, seemed to have lost the thread of a film whose versions he multiplied (there are said to be 22 different versions!). The filmmaker, who died almost forty-three years ago, had made Bonaparte such a fixation that he signed up to a veritable personal body of work: no less than three additional feature-length films in addition to the multiple edits of his original Napoleon. Among those lucky enough to discover this Napoleon, who could be certain of having seen the version closest to the one secretly intended by Gance? Not many. And besides, did this “perfect” film really exist? If so, wasn’t the material scattered to the four winds, long since lost or even too damaged to be used? All these questions dogged Georges Mourier for almost a decade.

Napoleon vu par Abel Gance - Premiere partie - La jeunesse de Bonaparte.1927.1080p.WEB-DL-Threnodyy.mkv

General
Container:  	Matroska
Runtime: 	3 h 51 min
Size: 	8.14 GiB
Video
Codec: 	h264
Resolution: 	1920x1080 
Aspect ratio:  	16:9
Frame rate: 	25.000 fps
Bit rate: 	4 941 kb/s
BPP: 	0.095
Audio
#1:  	French 2.0ch AAC LC @ 96.0 kb/s

https://nitro.download/view/E6F9694ABC144C9/Napoleon_vu_par_Abel_Gance_-_Deuxieme_partie_-_Napoleon_et_la_Revolution_francaise.1927.1080p.WEB-DL-Threnodyy.mkv
https://nitro.download/view/F6591FE86CCF9EA/Napoleon_vu_par_Abel_Gance_-_Premiere_partie_-_La_jeunesse_de_Bonaparte.1927.1080p.WEB-DL-Threnodyy.mkv
https://nitro.download/view/2D1748EA0C119BC/Napoleon.1927.Part.1.RESTORED.1080p.WEB.H264-FW.srt
https://nitro.download/view/3F754DF9E8E509E/Napoleon.1927.Part.2.RESTORED.1080p.WEB.H264-FW.srt

Language(s):None (apart from one song sequence in french) (French intertitles)
Subtitles:English

The post Abel Gance – Napoleon vu par Abel Gance [2024 restoration] (1927) first appeared on Cinema of the World.

TCM Review :
The story behind Abel Gance’s Napoleon (1927) is as exciting as the film. A masterpiece adventure originally running nearly seven hours, it breaks new ground with practically every shot, was filmed with techniques twenty-five years ahead of its time, and was rescued from oblivion by an obsessed teenager.

French director Abel Gance conceived an ambitious plan to film the life of the famous French leader in the early 1920s and, during a trip to America, even sought out D.W. Griffith to get his blessing for the project. Six feature films were to have presented a comprehensive biography of Napoleon but after a two-year struggle, Gance only succeeded in completing the first film before he ran out of money and time.

A tireless inventor, Gance devised new ways of presenting his story. To show his hero’s rapidly calculating mind, Gance splashed on screen shots containing up to sixteen superimpositions. A pillow fight becomes a flurry of feathers and action as the screen divides itself into four, then nine, separate images. This was not achieved in the lab; for each effect the film had to be exposed and re-exposed in the camera by means of complex calculations.

3.78GB | 5h 12m | 640×480 | avi

https://nitro.download/view/2AC46B0E0130EEC/Abel.Gance.1927.Napoleon.D1.DVDRip.XViD-KG.avi https://nitro.download/view/28712DCFAA37F77/Abel.Gance.1927.Napoleon.D2.DVDRip.XViD-KG.avi https://nitro.download/view/8FBA415813FB57F/Napoleon.1927.Alternate.Ending.DVDRip.XViD-KG.avi

Language:Silent / Carl Davis Score
Subtitles:English Intertitles

The post Abel Gance – Napoleon [Brownlow restoration, +Extras] (1927) first appeared on Cinema of the World.

Quote:
Female infidelity leads a man, Jean, to commit suicide. When he is dead his brother, Jerôme, starts having an affair with the same woman, Mary. But… there is a photography left of her first brother, who the second is getting closer to finding – hence the title (6,5 X 11 – an film negative format).

Wonderfully photographed with moving camera, superimposed pictures and a contrast that leaves nothing to be desired. Interesting use of the close-up to emphasize the story as well. And notice the use of the mirror to show how the story is about to repeat itself. The mice-en-scene could, throughout the film, be though to have come directly from a display of state-of-the-art modernist interior design architecture – stunningly beautiful. The men in this film all wear lipstick, silk garments and nail-polish in their very chic upper-class fashion. Oscar Wilde would not be let down. Do not miss this film, should you ever get the chance to see it.

1.29GB | 1h 24mn | 757×568 | mkv

https://nitro.download/view/526BA44174BF364/Jean_Epstein_-_(1927)_Six_et_demi_onze.mkv

Language:French
Subtitles:English

The post Jean Epstein – Six et demi onze (1927) first appeared on Cinema of the World.

Quote:
In Coeur Fidèle’s accompanying 44-page booklet, Jean Epstein, at a 1924 address, argues his film as “romantic” rather than”realist”, the label with which Italian poet Ricciotto Canudo assigned it before his death. The truth is that Epstein’s largely unknown masterpiece provides a fascinating agreement of the two styles, oscillating with seamless precision between reverie and sincerity. Marie (Gina Manès) is in love with Jean (Léon Mathot), a kind-hearted man who works on the Marseille docklands, but Marie’s adoptive parents want to marry her off to the obnoxious and unemployed drunk Petit Paul (Edmond Van Daële), and the scene is set for a sensational melodrama to unfold.Epstein said, in the same address, that he wanted to create a melodrama “stripped bare of all the typical artifices attached to the genre – one so sober, so simple, that it would have the chance of approaching the noble genre ‘par excellence’: tragedy”, and his claims to romanticism are greatly supported by early scenes in which we cut to Marie and Jean, each time by way of a dreamy dissolve, as if to suggest some resolute happiness, and always poised against the optimistic sparkle of the ocean. Later, after Jean fights with Marie’s parents, the waves become rougher. The film accomplishes par excellence, tragedy, as Marie’s ghostly visage paints itself across the violent swell. The film is an almost sensory experience, with emotions often delivered via visual motifs and incredible close-ups, again, almost dreamlike in their appearance. There’s an intensity to them that I’ve never seen in the cinema before, and will likely never see again. Epstein’s other intent was that the film be “symbolic.” He’s entirely successful.

The film’s most famed sequence takes place at a carnival, and its reputation is deserved. The scene, now presented in crisp 1080p resolution, is absolutely stunning, and a masterclass in visual storytelling. Marie is taken to the carnival by Petit Paul, who plans to marry her on a carousel. What emerges here is something approaching horror cinema; frenzied camerawork, a rapid increase in editing speed, harsh close-ups on characters faces and also the simple use of confetti, which adds further confusion to the scenario. The only word I can think of to describe the scene is intoxicating, for it defies description. To analyse and explain such a visceral sequence would be akin to detailing the thrill of skydiving to somebody, and then expecting them to share the feeling of having done that activity for themself. As a cinematic construction the sequence is fascinating, and the mise-en-scène staggeringly ahead of its time. But the beauty lies in Epstein’s storytelling abilities and how we are allowed to become lost in that moment. What I will highlight is the quality of the performances in this scene. Acting often gets overlooked in the silent era, and criminally so. Van Daële is terrific here, overpowering the frame with his leering Paul, but his portrayal caters to the camera and proves physically enlarged (yet given the nature of his character, he’s admirably restrained). Manès, however, is an incredibly sedate screen presence and bravely allows her eyes to express emotion. Silent cinema normally allows for expression via gesture; open arms or hunchbacked monsters (Nosferatu, Murnau, 1922), but Manès expresses entirely within the delicate perimeters of her eyes, and they’re utterly captivating. This is also why Epstein’s employment of close-up is so effective.

Honestly, I can’t emphasize enough how brilliant the close-ups are. The deep, sorrowful despair writ across a mothers face as she kisses the hand of her child achieves a profound sadness. Epstein’s camera is intensely still, and in this moment, as with Jean’s bar-side introspection, he achieves that level of realism which Canudo recognised almost 90 years ago. But the greatest shot, and the greatest truth, comes from the point of view of a baby, staring up into the profoundly sad eyes of his mother, Marie, as a tear forms in her eye. The camera stares into them, pensively, and I was left with the feeling of catching my breath. When I did, I came to a realization. Coeur Fidèle is cinema par excellence, and one of the greatest films of the silent era.

http://nitroflare.com/view/A935BC3799EB070/Jean_Epstein_-_%281923%29_The_Faithful_Heart.mkv

Language(s):French intertitles
Subtitles:English

The post Jean Epstein – Coeur fidèle AKA The Faithful Heart (1923) first appeared on Cinema of the World.