Napoleon Bonaparte is one of them historical figures, almost Homeric, gripping and contradictorywhich arouses immense admiration on film actors. Playing Napoleon all his lifeDuring his stay on the island of Elba or when he focuses on his emotional relationships, can crown an entire careerThat’s what translators love Marlon Brando, Rod Steiger, Charles Boyer, Ian Holm and of Joaquin Phoenix. it could be Jack Nicholson At the behest of one of its directors, Stanley Kubrick, he was also fascinated by the story of the French emperor, but his ambitious project never came to fruition. got it back now Steven Spielberg, but before that, the equally ambitious film starring and directing Phoenix was released on November 22nd. Ridley Scott.
A camera in a snow globe
One of the first approaches of the silent cinema days, it remains one of the most flamboyant approaches. ‘Napoleon’ (1927) is a very personal vision of Abel Gance, interpreted by Albert Dieudonné as a divine figure, with as many historical changes as technical inventions: a small camera placed inside a snow globe in a war between children to get the effect of crash planes or Polyvision (screen splitting into three parts with different images). The original production was five and a half hours long and was restored in 1981 by the Francis Ford Coppola company with a new score by his father. Carmine Coppola. French cinema is back in character with another less acclaimed blockbuster ‘Napoleon’ (1955), in which Sacha Guitry directed Raymond Pellegrin as Napoleon and had a high cast around: Michèle Morgan (Josefina), Orson Welles (Governor of the island of Saint Helena), Erich von Stroheim (Beethoven) and various soldiers and aristocrats such as Jean Gabin, Yves Montand and Jean Marais.
A cameo in ‘War and Peace’
Hollywood became interested in the love intricacies of the character. Clarence Brown’s ‘Maria Walewska’ (1936) is a romantic novel. Relationships between Napoleon, played by Charles Boyer, and the Polish countess, played by Greta Garbo, the absolute star of the movie. Marie was the French lover while married to Josefina, and they had a son, who was legitimized by Marie’s husband, Count Anastase Walewska. Directed by Henry Koster, ‘Desirée’ (1954) focuses on a love story between Napoleon (Marlon Brando in one of his most remembered compositions) and Désirée Clary (Jean Simmons), distorted to Hollywood taste. The young woman was the sister of the wife of Napoleon’s older brother, Joseph I Bonaparte, and was engaged to her in 1795, but broke off the engagement after meeting with Josefina de Beuaharnais. In ‘War and Peace’ (1956), an outstanding adaptation of Tolstoy’s work by King Vidor Filmed in Italy, Herbert Lom’s portrayal of Napoleon appears in the context of the war with Russia and the battle of Austerlitz.
Kubrick’s pharaoh project
Kubrick began making his film in 1961 and abandoned it ten years later due to its high cost. As meticulous as ever, he read all the books about Napoleon.At the Kubrick exhibition held at the CCCB in Barcelona in 2018, he studied hundreds of canvases in a room dedicated to this project alone, listened to all the music of the time, and stored 17,000 recreated photographs and documents. The project would almost lead to a luxury book. 900 pages edited by Taschen, ‘Stanley Kubrick’s Napoleon: The greatest movie ever made’, citing the words of the filmmaker who assured him that his Napoleon would be the greatest movie ever made. Kubrick had in mind Jack Nicholson, Ian Holm or David Hemming for Napoleon, and Vanessa Redgrave for Josephine. The locations were set in Yugoslavia, France, and Italy, and the battle scenes would have required around 40,000 extras. It was more of a pharaoh’s project than Napoleon’s. Behind the movie was Metro Goldwyn Mayer, for whom Kubrick made a space journey.
Spielberg to the rescue
It was announced earlier this year that Steven Spielberg He would make Kubrick’s project a reality, as he did with ‘AI Artificial Intelligence’ in 2001. The idea is to make a mini-series – for HBO Max – and he’s been collaborating on it since 2013. the producer’s widow, Christiane Kubrickand his brother Jan Harlan. The cast has not yet been discussed.
It would seem that the figure of Napoleon cannot be approached from a less flamboyant genre of production: the character needs major historical reconstructions and cast, endless extras and locations; Bonaparte is not ‘independent’ movie bait. Ukrainian director Sergei Bondarchuk’s film ‘Waterloo’ was shot in 1970 by the French emperor Rod Steiger and Christopher Plummer as the English Duke of Wellington, as Louis XVIII with Orson Welles, who loved to appear in films about Napoleon. Despite the painstaking reconstruction of the Battle of Waterloo on June 18, 1815, this English-speaking Italian-Former Soviet Union co-production proved too costly for what it brought. Steiger’s thick Brooklyn accent didn’t help much with his particular composition, either.
From Isabella Rossellini to Josephine
Not immune in the 21st century Bonapartist admirationbut with different approaches. ‘My Napoleon’ (2001), by Alan Taylor, is based on Simon Leys’s ironic novel ‘The Death of Napoleon’, in which the emperor escapes from Saint Helena disguised as a sailor and is replaced by a stuntman in his prison. Ian Holm finally managed to embody the emperor. Paolo Virzi’s ‘Napoleon and Me’ (2006) focuses on his exile on the island of Elba. Raised in a funny tone, it features Daniel Auteuil’s commentary. Napoleon (2022) is a clean but simple mini-series based on the book written by historian and MEP Max Gallo, author of Robespierre’s biography. Christian Clavier – after becoming the irreducible Asterix – represents Napoleon, From Isabella Rossellini to JosephineGérard Depardieu plays Joseph Fouche, John Malkovich Talleyrand and Anouk Aimée plays Letizia Bonaparte.
Epic for ‘Gladiator’?
Ridley Scott’s film restores the character of a great production for a new portrait of megalomaniac Napoleon. Phoenix seems like a good Bonaparte and Vannesa Kirby takes on the role of Josefina. The film explores the character’s origins, ascension to absolutist power, his relationships with his mother and Josefina, and his capacity as a military strategist. Probably a Scott close to the ‘Gladiator’ saga, where he already directed Phoenix, oscillating between reality and the legend of Napoleon Bonaparte, soldier, statesman and emperorRepublican general during the French Revolution and leader of the 18 Brumaire coup against the same revolution he supported.