The emergency government charges him with the task of protecting the National Assembly. He falls in love with the beautiful Joséphine de Beauharnais. Napoleon leaves prison, forming plans to invade Italy. Jealous revolutionaries imprison Napoleon but then the political tide turns against the Revolution's own leaders. Serving as an officer of artillery in the Siege of Toulon, Napoleon's genius for leadership is rewarded with a promotion to brigadier general. He returns to visit his family home in Corsica but politics shift against him and put him in mortal danger. It continues a decade later with scenes of the French Revolution and Napoleon's presence at the periphery as a young army lieutenant. The film begins in Brienne-le-Château with youthful Napoleon attending military school where he manages a snowball fight like a military campaign, yet he suffers the insults of other boys. The film used the Keller-Dorian cinematography for its color sequences.
A revival of Napoléon in the mid-1950s influenced the filmmakers of the French New Wave. Many innovative techniques were used to make the film, including fast cutting, extensive close-ups, a wide variety of hand-held camera shots, location shooting, point of view shots, multiple-camera setups, multiple exposure, superimposition, underwater camera, kaleidoscopic images, film tinting, split screen and mosaic shots, multi-screen projection, and other visual effects. The film is recognised as a masterwork of fluid camera motion, produced in a time when most camera shots were static.
On screen, the title is Napoléon vu par Abel Gance, meaning "Napoleon as seen by Abel Gance". Napoléon is a 1927 silent French epic film written, produced, and directed by Abel Gance that tells the story of Napoleon's early years.