Monday, October 13, 2008

Abel Gance's Austerlitz (1960) and the first sub

Have you ever seen this movie made by the great director of the silent classic 'Napoleon'? It's terrible - all shot in the studio - even the battle and bivouac scenes - almost as if he became mesmerised by dialogue and forgot his lessons as a silent director. Such a shame but I am sure there are fans of this movie out there - it has a cameo of Orson Welles as inventor Robert Fulton who tries to sell Napster the idea for a submarine...which is the best scene. Fulton was commissioned to make a craft 'Nautilus' for Bonaparte - some steampunk author could have a great time with 'what ifs' if the Napoleonic wars had featured an undersea dimension. Imdb on the movie