This is the week that Kevin Brownlow’s restoration of Abel Gance’s Napoleon sees the light of day, as part of the San Francisco Silent Film Festival. The five and a half hour epic, first released in 1927, will have only four screenings at a theatre in Oakland this week. It is being reported that once these four screenings are completed, that will be the last we will see of Gance’s epic film. The cost of presenting, the orchestra (five and half hours of music) is astronomical. I am hoping that someone will come forward (DeNiro, Scorcese, Spielberg?) who will fund a screening event of this film in New York City. This film must not languish in a vault. It must be seen. It must be experienced!