Before trying the latest Ridley Scott ‘underwhelment’, this French-based NAPOLEON bio-pic is easy to find on-line. Centered on the defeated Emperor’s last act, stuck in miserable comfort on the out-of-the-way Isle of Saint Helena, it’s well produced, well-cast & pretty fascinating stuff over the first couple of acts, before devolving needlessly in a third act that’s all shaggy dog story. Whatever were director Antoine de Caunes and writers René Manzor & Pierre Kubel thinking? (Can they possibly feel Napoleon's life starved for incident?) The opening hooks you right from the start as Napoleon is exhumed from his Helena grave for reburial in Paris two decades after his death. The biggest national event imaginable, and many of the parties who’d been around during his final years are being tracked down by a British officer with unanswered questions from his time there. Was Napoleon poisoned?* Who was behind a final rescue attempt? Or was it a failed kidnapping? Why else would Napoleon have refused his last chance? Where did a favored British lady go to after she left St. Helena? Why did an aide’s body disappear and who wound up with Napoleon’s considerable fortune? Sounds like a clever mystery, non? Well, no. In fact, it’s all painfully stupid, as if in addition to being a great military strategist (a debatable point BTW with Waterloo & 1812 on your battle C.V.) the man could also give Agatha Christie lessons in designing and running twisty plots. A shame, too, as everything untouched by these clever narrative ‘reveals’ is compelling & believable in a straightforward manner. Serried ranks of guards (in spiffy red uniforms) and servants with little to do, no wonder jealousy & petty rivalries broke out among the staff. As the new Brit in charge, Richard E. Grant is commandingly despicable. And if Philippe Torreton’s Nappy is no more than adequate, Jay Rodan’s near-and-dear constant British watcher gives a starmaking turn that somehow didn’t pan out. Worth a look for the first two-thirds, they even figure out a way for Napoleon to speak (aphorisms popping out of more conversational French) that sounds just right. No small thing.
SCREWY THOUGHT OF THE DAY: *Ridley Scott agnostics only more confirmed in their opinion by his last three films. Will NAPOLEON make it four?
ATTENTION MUST BE PAID: *The plot all based on possible poisoning and the Bonaparte family inclination toward stomach ulcers. But didn’t Napoleon die of stomach cancer? There’s no poison for that.
WATCH THIS, NOT THAT: It’s said there are more books on Shakespeare than anyone else but Jesus. But in film, it’s Napoleon who’s second to Jesus. Best Napoleon e’er seen comes in a rare screen appearance by famed film montage-master Slavko Vorkapitch who briefly shows up as the young Napoleon in Rex Ingram’s SCARAMOUCHE/’23. A small but thrilling moment. While Abel Gance’s insane and insanely brilliant NAPOLEON/’27 is an entire world unto itself. https://maksquibs.blogspot.com/2013/03/scaramouche-1923.html
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