Enrico Guazzoni is best known as the creator, together with Giovanni Pastrone, of the Italian epic films set in classical times. La Gerusalemme liberata and Quo Vadis, both made before the international success of Cabiria, represent the first examples of the genre and are fondly remembered as among its most memorable titles. Not everyone knows, however, that he was also the author of a not insignificant number of films dealing with subjects related to the French Revolution and the subsequent Napoleonic wars. That Scuola d’eroi truly belongs amongst the list of historical epics set during the Napoleonic campaign is clear not only from its large- scale battle scenes, but also from the fact that it features nearly all the biggest names in the Cines stable, from Amleto Novelli to newcomer Pina Menichelli, whose fresh performance overshadows that of the older Gianna Terribili Gonzales, whom she would soon overtake in the Roman studio’s hierarchy.
Screened for the first time in Rome in March 1914 (at the height of Italian cinema’s golden age), Scuola d’eroi was spotted by George Kleine, Thomas Edison’s partner and one of the principle American tycoons of the period. He immediately recognised the significance of its Napoleonic theme and ensured it was distributed in America, under the title For Napoleon and France.
The version presented here, which retains the title and intertitles of the American edition, was restored from a nitrate positive held by the Cineteca Milano. The only tinted copy currently in existence, it is longer (1,708m) than the copy held in the George Kleine collection at the Library of Congress (1483m) and differs from the latter for its linear construction, without flashbacks, which is probably closer to the Cines original (2,230m).

Matteo Pavesi