Napoleon

what a feat of storytelling. i randomly woke up yesterday and impulsively started watching what i think is my favorite silent film so far that i’ve seen. immediately once you get into the film Gance cultivates and grows what i only could explain as a new language of filmmaking which layers a upon eachother in such genius way. symbolism and metaphors mesh within the image that curates an experience next to none. even in 2025 the shots are so creative and basically never seen at the time. the colors inverted and switch back and forth into new feels which gets you so caught up, you see past the black and white and feel the experience. sometimes it legit looked like it was in color because i was so locked in. the ending 20 minutes are insane, i was legit feeling chills in the ending minutes. during the infamous wide shots my jaw was dropped, there was one that almost had it perfect which really made me think and how he was actually achieving some of these things in post. the only issues i have with it was the scenes about Josephine and the women obsessed with Napoleon. these felt dragged too long which made it annoying sometimes to be off in the B plot for too long. I do understand why he had to put them in, not all 5 hours can be peak😂i think this will help me finally to dive more into the 1900-30s cuz i only have a handful under my belt. this isn’t a story your going to have to look insanely deep into during the watch to understand what’s happing and the message like most of these ‘filmbuff’ films, but it trades that for an experience next to none have did before, or after.