On Saturday March 24th (and the day after, and the following weekend) The Paramount Theatre in Uptown Oakland will be presenting an epic screening of Abel Gance's Napoleon. This film is beyond legend in the silent film world; it's one of those fabled long-lost-but-finally-found-and-lovingly-restored tales that we film-history nerds love. And aside from the story of its restoration, it's supposed to be an amazing movie in its own right, and it will be screened with live accompaniment by the Oakland East Bay Symphony. The entire event will be eight hours long, including two intermissions and a two-hour dinner break.
There are often lots of exclamation marks associated with the discussion of this movie. In the next two weeks I'm going to try & learn a little more about it - both to prepare for my experience (I'm attending the March 24th performance) and to just generally be able to appreciate the love and work that went into both the making of the movie and bringing it to the big screen again.
