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Napoleon is in the news, again! For four performances only on March 24, 25, 31 and April 1, the San Francisco Silent Film Festival presents Kevin Brownlow’s restoration of Abel Gance’s epic masterpiece. This special event is set to take place in Oakland, California at the historic Oakland Paramount theater. Carl Davis will conduct the Oakland East Bay Symphony in a performance of his original score.

Yesterday, both the San Francisco Chronicle and New York Times ran articles on the upcoming event. Check out the prior blog for links to those two articles.

And today, Kristin M. Jones penned an article in the Wall Street Journal which looked at the history of the film and Kevin Brownlow’s current restoration. Jones spoke with the British film historian. “Is Napoleon still for Mr. Brownlow the greatest film ever made? Reached by phone at his home in London, he said: ‘Yes, because it is the most innovative film that I’ve ever seen. It even exceeds Citizen Kane in the number of ideas it comes up with, and yet it can be remarkably simple if it needs to be.” Jones article, “The Restoration of a Dictator,” can be found here.

Today’s Los Angeles Times also ran a short article on the film.”Like the great man himself, returning in triumph from exile in Elba, the legendary 1927 silent motion picture Napoleon is coming back. But it’s not returning to New York, the site of its previous success in 1981 — instead, it will make landfall right here in the great state of California.” Kenneth Turan’s article, “Widescreen silent 1927 epic Napoleon to be shown in Oakland,” can be found here.

And over at The Evening Class blog, Michael Guillen has an interview with Charles Tabesh, Senior Vice President of Programming for Turner Classic Movies (TCM), Napoleon’s Official Media Sponsor.

Silent London, a popular silent film blog out of England, today ran a long post about the upcoming San Francisco Silent Film Festival presentation of Kevin Brownlow’s restoration of Abel Gance’s Napoleon. That post, “How to beat the Napoléon blues,” details some of media and web coverage given the upcoming event (including a shout out to this blog). The film, director Gance, and film historian Brownlow are all included. 

Another two blog entries, by Sean Axmaker, can be found here (about the film) and here (about Carl Davis’ score). Other media which gave coverage to the event include Oakland Local and gobayview.com. More are expected.