What was the challenge with Napoleon anyway? The American education formula has never been particularly effective in making people understand why this so-called liberator, conqueror, massacre and definer of a certain very French way of being, of Corsican origin, is so important even today. We Yankees know that he was short, that he was visible with one hand hidden under his vest, that he went out with a woman named Josephine, that there is a cupcake named after him, that he had this hat and they forced him to retire. . after something called Waterloo.
In a few days, a feature film about this man, directed by Ridley Scott and starring Joaquin Phoenix in the lead role, will be released on screens across the country. Filmmakers know, of course, that a Napoleon film was a beloved but never realized commission from Stanley Kubrick, which is fitting given that Kubrick was something of an imperialist. Scott himself is no slouch in terms of ambition or confidence, however, as we’ll see, any filmmaker who needs to tackle the subject has a giant cinematic hurdle to overcome. This is the first of my top five Napoleon movies.
That would be 1927’s Napoleon, a five-hour-plus epic directed by Abel Gance that ends with an army triumph in the 1790s, decades before Napoleon’s death. This monster movie was intended to be the first of five biopics submitted through Gance. a sequel, thirty years later, about the Battle of Austerlitz.
The most recent, and supposedly definitive, recovery of the Napoleon de Gance can unfortunately only be distributed in its entirety through the British online site BFI. But there are many fragments in YouTube. Es a far-fetched and still surprising movie cover. he is completely invested in the Emperor’s mythological superhero status. For example, at some very important moments in history, Napoleon is visited by an eagle that happens to call him by name, just like in that old song by Paula Abdul. In the same way, the symbol carries on its cover its meticulous verisimilitude, with intertitles such as “All the scenes in Corsica were photographed in the exact places where the incidents occurred. Gance needs you to know where he’s getting his argument from: excerpts from Napoleon’s speeches are considered “historic. “For example: “Believe me. . . ” A man will come who will unite the hopes of a nation. . . And then. . . “
In the title role, Albert Dieudonné is not just an icon. The film goes haywire, especially as Gance caricatures the gargoyles of the French Revolution and picks up on Jacque-Louis David’s old interpretation of Marat’s assassination. For the ultimate crazy war scenes, Gance developed a strategy called Polyvision, synchronizing another 3 reels of film to allocate them in a widescreen setting. The strategy not only gave Gance views of large armies, but also stunning split-screen montages, celebrating Napoleon as the master mathematician of sci-fi maps. and watches. When Kubrick made his own film Napoleon, he did so with a certain humility, knowing that he would have to make it come out of the park more powerful than Gance. Anyway, the film, although trashed before its current restoration, was really intimidating.
It is therefore not entirely out of place that the next truly notable depiction of Napoleon on screen was one in which the man’s face was not even visible. 1949’s Reign of Terror, also titled The Black Book, is a rare vintage feature film directed by then-noir master Anthony Mann. Working with cinematographer John Alton, who had also brought a grim, brooding temperament to new crime films like T-Men and Raw Deal, Mann eagerly navigated a labyrinth of betrayal and confusion after the French Revolution. spectacular. After the thrilling finale that eliminates Richard Basehart’s terrifying Robespierre, his second-in-command, Fouché, escapes from the bakery that the sea-green schemer (see Thomas Carlyle, my people) was using as his office. Thin, hungry-looking Fouché (he is played by Arnold Moss, a fine actor who would later appear in the galvanic Mann/Alton Border Incident; Moss’s son, Jerry, grew up to become a composer and is to blame for the immortal harvest of the Muppets “Rubber Ducky”) comments to some other observer of the ongoing melee: “Robespierre’s last monument. He planned to build statues for himself. All he leaves behind. . . is stale bread. For emphasis, he breaks a loaf of bread. The soldier he talks to says: “The art of being French. . . is knowing what happens next. »Amused by his presumption, Fouché asks: “Do you have an idea?” And he replies: “I am neither French nor a politician. I’m just a soldier. Fouché, before leaving, asks the soldier’s call. “My call is Bonaparte. Napoleon Bonaparte. ” Like James Bond. “I’ll go out to remember,” Fouché says disdainfully. It’s a wonderful “things to come” coda to an exciting spy story. (The actor playing Napoleon was never officially identified, but his voice was dubbed by actor Shepperd Strudwick. )
The progression and hype of ultra-wide format CinemaScope in the early 1950s put 20th Century Fox at its peak in the fight against television, and one of the first masters of the big screen was a journeyman director of the already forgotten German film Its origin is Henry Koster, who directed the first CinemaScope film, the decidedly radical and kitsch The Robe, from 1953. Koster followed with 1954’s Desiree, a tale of Napoleon through the eyes of his first love, Desiree Clary, who was not Josephine. (Who doesn’t even appear in Gance’s vision; he replaces her with a fictional character named Violine. ) In this possibly frivolous spectacle, Napoleon is played through the ultra-sensual theatrical master of this era, Marlon Brando himself. It’s supposed to be a trick Brando just pulled, but he doesn’t. In interviews from the period, Brando complains about being caricatured and pigeonholed as a careless jerk, and here he downplays the Army’s genius as he articulates his syllables exactly as Richard Burton would have done. He manages to make big statements like “Before next New Christmas Eve I will sleep in Moscow” and “I am one of the men who make history” seem quite believable. A toplight is a ballroom dance between Napoleon and Jean Simmons’ main character. Marked by a perceived betrayal, Brando conveys a seething anger that nearly pierces the master strategist’s façade.
Finally, when Désirée went to the Château de Malmaison, where Napoleon was taking refuge with his personal army, and tried to convince him to join the new French government, she reflected, “I wonder what my fate would have been if I had married you. “”So, essentially, this movie is Past Lives, only WITH NAPOLEON.
Woody Allen made his old farce comedy Love and Death in 1975, long before he gained (or didn’t, depending on who you believe) his current notoriety; This may not cut it for you, so if you can’t stand seeing this guy, you should pass on this photo. It turns out that, from where I’m sitting, this is one of Allen’s most productive natural comedies (and really, his last film of this type, given that it would stick with his close Annie Hall). art film, and which would remain parked in that garage for the rest of its career), a carefree parody of period cinematic epics with erudite nods to Russian literature, Eisenstein and Bergman. Napoleon’s campaigns in Russia weigh on the difficulties of Allen’s Boris Grushenko. Informed that the Corsican crusader had invaded Austria, he jokes: “Is Courvoisier away from home?” Boris, definitely a coward (his protests that he doesn’t need to be a soldier constitute Allen’s most natural homage to Bob Hope, who conquered the American box office by banking on a series of evasive threats), after being enlisted, receives this pep talk . . in fundamental training: “Imagine your loved ones conquered by Napoleon and forced to live under French rule! Do you want them to eat that rich food and thick sauces? Do you need soufflé and croissants with each and every meal?
And, in fact, when we first meet Napoleon (Boris and his conflicted wife Sonja, played, of course, by Diane Keaton, have hatched a harebrained plan to assassinate him), he gets fussy about the ingredients for his eponymous cupcake, still in development. “No raisins. If this pastry is named after me, it will have to be richer. It intends to bring to market the meat dish named after its British rival Wellington. “Europe’s long term is at stake “.
Napoleon is played here through James Tolkan, who would later tell Tom Cruise that his ego writes checks his body can’t win in Top Gun. He’s funny here, as is Howard Vernon, Jess Franco’s normal character who also played Professor Von Braun in Luc Godard’s Jean-Alphaville. Vernon plays one of Napoleon’s generals, a madman schemer whose fulminations – “I will form an alliance with the crown. . . not with the king, only with the crown” – culminate in one of Allen’s biggest jokes.
“What you’re telling me is that Napoleon is a dead little man. “That’s what Bernie Casey, a history professor, says with great disappointment. Ryan, two of his protégés, Bill S. Preston, Esquire and Ted “Theodore”. Alex Winter and Keanu Reeves are the immortal airheads of 1989’s Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure, in which they save themselves from failure by traveling back in time in a public phone booth and collecting antique figurines to opine on cool San Dimas, California. .
Napoleon is the first ancient figure they meet in the Stephen Herek-directed film, and they don’t even look for him. After observing it with his telescope in 1805 in Austria, the army commander, played by Terry Camilleri (who is of Maltese origin, not far from Corsica), says in French: “Blow them up” while waving the phone. “An explosion incident sends the hat wearer into a time vortex with them, and the duo entrusts Napoleon to Ted’s little brother, Deacon. “Take him to watch the videos or something,” they say. Instead, Deacon takes him to an ice cream parlor where the future emperor eats a huge dish called “The Zyggie Pig. ” For this, two waiters, played by co-writers Ed Solomon and Chris Matheson, slyly congratulate him. (Full journalistic disclosure: I’m a friend of Mr. Solomon, whose recent paintings with Steven Soderbergh – the movie One False Move and the miniseries Full Circle – have been smashing, and who is as wonderful a guy as (one would hope) a Bill & Ted co-creator would be. ) Although he is playful enough to kill a Zyggie pig, Napoleon does not leave a good impression on Deacon, who loses the comrade.
“Do you realize you’ve blocked one of Europe’s most important leaders?” asks Ted indignantly. He’s an! Deacon backs off. Eventually, he’s placed at a water park called, you guessed it, Waterloo, and he’s caught in time for the most important school history report in the history of the best school history reports. This absurd film respects verisimilitude by keeping up with the times. the truth is that neither Napoleon nor Socrates spoke English and knowing that Freud spoke it fluently. Like Joan of Arc, Go-Go member Jane Wiedlin speaks lightly. All of them, with Billy the Kid, Abraham Lincoln and Genghis Khan To complete the group, locate a form of consumerist fulfillment next to the San Dimas shopping center before handing in your notes. The movie is so captivating and funny as the millennium approaches.
Veteran critic Glenn Kenny reviews what’s new in RogerEbert. com, the New York Times and, fittingly, AARP magazine. He blogs extensively about Some Came Running and tweets, usually jokingly, about @glenn__kenny. He is the Author of the acclaimed 2020 book Made Men: The Story of Goodfellas, published through Hanover Square Press.