Austerlitz (1960)

Director:

Abel Gance

Writers:

Abel Gance (writer)
Nelly Kaplan (writer)

Release Date:

1960 (Yugoslavia)

Genre:

Drama | History

Plot:

Another of Napoleon's adventures in this epic reconstruction of the battle of Austerlitz, where he had the greatest victory of his career...

Plot Keywords:

Based On Historical Events | Napoleon Bonaparte | Emperor | Battle | Europe

Cast

Pierre Mondy	...	Napoléon Bonaparte
Martine Carol	...	Joséphine de Beauharnais
Claudia Cardinale	...	Pauline Bonaparte
Leslie Caron	...	Mlle de Vaudey
Vittorio De Sica	...	Pope Pius VII
Elvire Popesco	...	Laetitia Bonaparte
Jean Marais	...	Carnot
Michel Simon	...	Alboise
Orson Welles	...	Robert Fulton
Georges Marchal	...	Le maréchal Jean Lannes
Jack Palance	...	General Weirother
Jean-Louis Trintignant	...	Ségur fils
Rossano Brazzi	...	Lucien Bonaparte
Jean Mercure	...	Talleyrand
Anna-Maria Ferrero	...	Elisa Bonaparte

Also Known As:

Battaglia di Austerlitz, La (Italy)
Napoleone ad Austerlitz (Italy)
The Battle of Austerlitz (USA)

Runtime:

Argentina:166 min | France:166 min | USA:122 min

Country:

France | Italy | Yugoslavia | Liechtenstein

Language:

French

Color:

Color (Eastmancolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Argentina:16 | Finland:K-16 | Iceland:L

Company:

Compagnie Internationale de Productions Cinématographiques (CIPRA)

Trivia:

In the 1920s, Abel Gance had written a six-part movie biography of Napoleon. He shot the first part (Napoléon (1927)), which turned out to be a financial disaster. He sold the sixth part to Lupu Pick who shot Napoleon auf St. Helena (1929). Wanting to make a come back at the end of the fifties, he rewrote the third part to make it "Austerlitz".

Goofs:

Factual errors: In the scene in William Pitt's office in London which is set in the early 1800's, you can see in the background through the window the Houses of Parliament and Big Ben, 60 years before they were built.

A film that needs to be restored.

Austerlitz (1960) was the battle that made Napoleon Bonaparte not only one of western civilization's greatest generals, but it solidify his position as Napoleon I "The Emperor of France". I saw this film many years ago on video. The colors were washed out and it was cropped big time. Besides these faults, the movie was great. If there's a movie that needs to be restored it's this one. A film of this magnitude and the grand scale it was presented on needs to be shown it is original glory.

NAPOLEON was restored recently. It's only fitting that the film that the same director spent his entire life on have one of it's sequels be remastered and preserved in the same way.

Highly recommended.