Page 9 - Leighton News October 2017
P. 9
9
Standard 4:3 Screen
masterpiece performed with a live orchestra (another BEETHOVEN & NAPOLEON
huge expense) playing specially commissioned music. Beethoven admired the ideals of the French Revolution, so
This time there was international recognition even he dedicated his 3rd Eroica symphony to Napoleon
though these performances are still rare occasions. Bonaparte… until Napoleon declared
himself emperor. Beethoven then
Gance realised that he would never be able to complete sprung into a rage, ripped the front
the trilogy so he finished the film with Napoleon’s page from his manuscript and
triumphant conquest of Italy and his ideals in the caption: scrubbed out Napoleon’s name. The
change of heart may also have been
A unified Europe under a single administration because Beethoven’s patron and
where citizens can travel and work freely between pupil was a member of the ruling elite
whose countries were under threat from the French.
countries without restriction… Having changed allegiances, he composed the Wellington’s
The spectacular panoramas finished the film with the three Victory piece — the tackiest of all his
screens blazing into colour with the blue white and red of works — strains of ‘Rule Britannia’ and
the French tricolour. If completed the trilogy would have ‘God Save the King’ interspersed with
finished with the defeat at Waterloo even though Wellington rifle shots ricocheting across the music
said it was a close run thing — a bit like our referendum! to represent the Waterloo battlefield.
In 2016 the BFI released the DVD after 50 years of
renovation — but everything has to fit on a single screen…
Standard 4:3 Screen
masterpiece performed with a live orchestra (another BEETHOVEN & NAPOLEON
huge expense) playing specially commissioned music. Beethoven admired the ideals of the French Revolution, so
This time there was international recognition even he dedicated his 3rd Eroica symphony to Napoleon
though these performances are still rare occasions. Bonaparte… until Napoleon declared
himself emperor. Beethoven then
Gance realised that he would never be able to complete sprung into a rage, ripped the front
the trilogy so he finished the film with Napoleon’s page from his manuscript and
triumphant conquest of Italy and his ideals in the caption: scrubbed out Napoleon’s name. The
change of heart may also have been
A unified Europe under a single administration because Beethoven’s patron and
where citizens can travel and work freely between pupil was a member of the ruling elite
whose countries were under threat from the French.
countries without restriction… Having changed allegiances, he composed the Wellington’s
The spectacular panoramas finished the film with the three Victory piece — the tackiest of all his
screens blazing into colour with the blue white and red of works — strains of ‘Rule Britannia’ and
the French tricolour. If completed the trilogy would have ‘God Save the King’ interspersed with
finished with the defeat at Waterloo even though Wellington rifle shots ricocheting across the music
said it was a close run thing — a bit like our referendum! to represent the Waterloo battlefield.
In 2016 the BFI released the DVD after 50 years of
renovation — but everything has to fit on a single screen…
