![\"napoleon.jpg\"](\"https:\/\/www.johncoulthart.com\/feuilleton\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/napoleon.jpg\")
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Painting by Alex Tavoularis.<\/em><\/p>\n \u2022 There are silent films, and then there is Abel Gance’s Napoleon<\/em> (1927), a five-and-a-half hour historical drama following the emperor’s life from boyhood to the invasion of Italy. The word “epic” is overused but Gance’s film demands the description: in addition to the recreation of huge battles and scenes from the French Revolution, cinema screening required three projectors for sequences which are either multi-screen or three times the width of the Academy ratio. The film was revived in the early 1980s after an extensive restoration by Kevin Brownlow, but Napoleon<\/em> is still more talked about than seen so news of a forthcoming digital release by the BFI<\/a> is very welcome indeed. The poster above is from this collection<\/a> which includes more information about the film and its troubled history. Related: a trailer<\/a> for a 2012 screening at the San Francisco Silent Film Festival.<\/p>\n \u2022 “His films broke with traditional production methods, having virtually no shooting script and capturing the freshness of their genesis.” RIP Jacques Rivette<\/a>. In 1998 Fr\u00e9d\u00e9ric Bonnaud<\/a> talked to Rivette about the director’s cinematic likes and dislikes. Elsewhere, Jonathan Romney<\/a> speculates that Rivette’s C\u00e9line and Julie Go Boating<\/em> (1974) “might be the only film in which the story is dreamed by a passing cat”.<\/p>\n \u2022 Strange Flowers<\/a>‘ selects 16 books for (what\u2019s left of) 2016. Stand-out for me is Aubrey Beardsley: A Catalogue Raisonn\u00e9<\/em><\/a> by Linda Gertner Zatlin which will be published in May. Two cased volumes, a total of 1104 pages, and a price tag of $300.<\/p>\n It\u2019s a powerful trope, but it also risks trading one stigma for another: \u2018\u2018Phobia\u2019\u2019 is now so embedded in our language that it\u2019s easy to forget that it is a metaphor comparing bigots to the mentally ill. The comparison also has the effect of excusing those Americans\u2014like certain presidential candidates in the 2016 race\u2014who wield prejudices strategically. It\u2019s not your fault if you get sick. But hating people is a choice.<\/p>\n Amanda Hess<\/a> on how “-phobic” became a weapon in the identity wars<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n \u2022 Delving into the shadowy world of occult art: Priscilla Frank<\/a> talks to Pam Grossman about her Language of the Birds<\/em> exhibition. Related: “The occult never quite goes away,” says Kenneth Anger<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u2022 “It was a magic day in our happy, young lives.” A proposal for a monument in Baltimore<\/a> celebrating the final scene of John Waters’ Pink Flamingos<\/em>.<\/p>\n \u2022 Mixes of the week: Wrap Up Warm Mix by Moon Wiring Club<\/a>, Secret Thirteen Mix 175 by Inner8<\/a>, and\u00a0FACT mix 533 by Roly Porter<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u2022 “He was less an architect than a Busby Berkeley with a penchant for Black Masses.” Jonathan Meades<\/a> on Albert Speer.<\/p>\n \u2022 More film posters: Benjamin Lee<\/a> on the compromises that have made contemporary posters “drab and uninspiring”.<\/p>\n \u2022 The vast and ghostly landscape of “Britain\u2019s only desert”: photographs by Robert Walker<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u2022 Wyrd Daze<\/em>, Lvl2 Issue 5<\/a>, is free and brimming with the weird.<\/p>\n \u2022 The films of Michael Mann<\/a> in 44 shots.<\/p>\n \u2022 Laurie Anderson<\/a>‘s favourite films.<\/p>\n \u2022 Flamingo<\/a><\/em> (1959) by Henry Mancini | Moon Occults The Sun<\/a><\/em> (2006) by Espers | The Moon Occults Saturn at Dawn<\/a><\/em> (2015) by Steve Moore<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Painting by Alex Tavoularis. \u2022 There are silent films, and then there is Abel Gance’s Napoleon (1927), a five-and-a-half hour historical drama following the emperor’s life from boyhood to the invasion of Italy. The word “epic” is overused but Gance’s film demands the description: in addition to the recreation of huge battles and scenes from … Continue reading “Weekend links 294”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[8,2,42,4,29,7,3,16,12,14],"tags":[5442,3380,7981,7984,94,7986,3517,1844,7983,7513,7985,7232,1812,4059,6708,401,5440,1606,7982,2848,1019,3552,6360,7987,2890,1429,7988,2419,5379],"class_list":["post-17694","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-architecture","category-art","category-books","category-design","category-electronica","category-film","category-music","category-occult","category-photography","category-politics","tag-abel-gance","tag-albert-speer","tag-alex-tavoularis","tag-amanda-hess","tag-aubrey-beardsley","tag-benjamin-lee","tag-bfi","tag-espers","tag-frederic-bonnaud","tag-henry-mancini","tag-inner8","tag-jacques-rivette","tag-john-waters","tag-jonathan-meades","tag-jonathan-romney","tag-kenneth-anger","tag-kevin-brownlow","tag-laurie-anderson","tag-linda-gertner-zatlin","tag-michael-mann","tag-moon-wiring-club","tag-pam-grossman","tag-priscilla-frank","tag-robert-walker","tag-roly-porter","tag-steve-moore","tag-steve-moore-musician","tag-strange-flowers","tag-wyrd-daze"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pq7rV-4Bo","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.johncoulthart.com\/feuilleton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17694","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.johncoulthart.com\/feuilleton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.johncoulthart.com\/feuilleton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.johncoulthart.com\/feuilleton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.johncoulthart.com\/feuilleton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17694"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.johncoulthart.com\/feuilleton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17694\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.johncoulthart.com\/feuilleton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17694"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.johncoulthart.com\/feuilleton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17694"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.johncoulthart.com\/feuilleton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17694"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}