To mark the 100 year anniversary of Napoleon's invasion of Moscow, both Russia and France collaborated on making director Vasily Goncharov's "1812." Released in August 1912, the film became the first time in cinematic history two countries teamed up to create a movie.
One reason was the costs to make such an epic motion picture. Thousands of extras were attired in period uniforms to fight it out on the battlefield leading to Moscow by two gigantic armies. The Russian Army was lent to the project by Czar Nicholas to reduce the costs of the budget while France took care to film their side of the marching and fighting.
Another reason was political. Things were beginning to heat up in Europe with alliances being selected two years before World War One. Russia didn't want to upset an ally despite the two countries duking it out 100 years before with the French invading Russia.
What makes this movie so rare to see today is once the Bolsheviks took over Russia in 1917-1918, the new government didn't want to recognize the Patriotic War's lineage of the previous Czars and the leaders who undertook Russia's path towards victory. There is very little preserved from that period of early Russian cinema. "1812" is an exception which over 30 minutes of a much longer program is in existence today.
