Sainte-Hélène

Here we got a another german gem from the twenties. But nothing surnatural here. The last months of Napoléon's life are here described. It's also the fall of a beaten man, left by everyone exerpt a fistful of true friends who go with him on the small island St Helena. The director of the movie, Lupu-Pick, was totally fond of making silent work. So it's not surprising that he comitted suicide when movies began to talk.

The French director, Herr Abel Gance is well known among the silent film fans for having filmed, among others, a superb, indispensable film about the life and wars of Herr Napoleon, a countryman of his almost as famous as Herr Abel Gance even for those outside silent movie circles.

"Napoleon" (1927) is a enormous silent masterpiece, a film with so many innovations and creations that it became a milestone in silent film history; the film project turned out too monumental even for Herr Abel Gance and he sold the scenario of "Saint Helene" to Herr Lupu Pick, who, in 1929, filmed the story of Napoleon's exile at that island after the defeat in Waterloo by the English government.

Herr Lupu Pick was also an important film director as well as an actor in many films. He is best known for directing important "Kammerspiele" films. "Napoleon auf St. Helene" is his last silent film and the penultimate of his career.

This German count could say that in some ways, "Napoleon auf St. Helena" is also a kind of late "Kammerspiele" film, not for the decors certainly which are usually sparse and unique in that special German film genre , but due to the psychological study. The film focuses on Herr Napoleon ( Herr Werner Krauss ) and his rival, the evil governor Hudson Lowe ( performed excellently by Herr Albert Bassermann ), contradictory human portraits that shows the solitude, despair and hatred among those two strong characters.

There are also in the film a gallery of different characters around Napoleon who will share his painful exile in that claustrophobic English colony ( a prison inside a prison ) , different persons with varied ambitions that are shown in the film in contradictory terms, enriching in this way the story.

"Napoleon auf St. Helena" is a very interesting silent film worthy of his director, a kind of spurious modernization of the film merits for which Herr Lupu Pick was known in the early 20's.

And now, if you'll allow me, I must temporarily take my leave because this German Count must retreat to his golden retirement.

Herr Graf Ferdinand Von Galitzien http://ferdinandvongalitzien.blogspot.com/

It comes as no revelation I am sure that Abel Gance was an avowed and unashamed admirer of Napoleon Buonaparte! Indeed his admiration for 'strong leaders' prompted his support for Petain during the early years of the War and for de Gaulle in the 1960's. His 'reactionary' politics need not concern us here. It must have been a great sadness to him that shortage of funds obliged him to sell his scenario of 'Napoleon on St. Helena' to another director namely Lupu Pick. Napoleon's escape from Elba had such devastating consequences that after Waterloo his victors determined to make his next captivity his last and the rocky Isle of St. Helena in the South Atlantic was chosen. Accompanied by a few loyal supporters including General and Madame Bertrand and their children, Napoleon soon realised that this was not to be 'exile' but 'house arrest'. This is a far more subdued and straightforward film than Gance himself would have made and in some ways resembles the 'Chamber Play' vehicles of which Pick was the undisputed master. Werner Krauss, one of Germany's greatest and ultimately one of its most controversial actors, is Napoleon, a man whose initial arrogance is worn away by having six long years to reflect on what he was and what he has become. 'Power' is after all a drug and the withdrawal symptoms unpleasant. Needless to say Gance's script portays him as an heroic, stoical figure who is the victim of 'Perfidious Albion' in the person of Governor Hudson Lowe who has the unenviable task of being a glorified gaoler. He is played by Albert Bassermann who excels in a thoroughly umsympathetic part. Lowe was referred to by Wellington as 'a stupid man' and his excess of zeal in carrying out his orders to the letter certainly hastened Napoleon's demise. Prisoner and gaoler only met half a dozen times is as many years and their scenes together, though brief, are effective. Excellent use is made here of Beethoven's 'Eroica' symphony. Ironically Napoleon was the original dedicatee but when Beethoven heard that the First Consul had declared himself Emperor he scratched out the dedication and declared that Napoleon would soon trample the rights of man underfoot and become a tyrant. This prophecy serves to remind us that Napoleon probably got his just desserts. Beethoven's music will last forever whilst tyrants rise and fall. Although not in the same league as his 'Shattered' and 'New Years Eve' this talented director has given us a fine film with many features of interest. Sadly Lupu Pick died of poisoning in 1931.