Abel Gance

Abel Gance was a french film director.  One of his most famous films was a silent film called Napoléon that he wrote, directed, and edited.  It was made in 1927 and ran for 330 minutes.  It was meant to be the first of six parts about the life of Napoleon Bonaparte, however the rest were never made.  The film was said to be ahead of it's time because of the effects he used, such as Polyvision, which was a wide-screen technique that used three projectors.  He also experimented with other things such as hand-held cameras, setting the film apart from anything that had been done in his time.
Watch the first 15 minutes of the film here!