2023-11-26 12:25:50
Sunday, November 26, 2023, 11:25
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Napoleon Bonaparte was from Corsica and as a child did not master the French language. Once, a French soldier asked his name and the little boy answered with a Corsican accent. That high-ranking soldier understood ‘Napiolloni’ or something similar. “There, then you are the mucus with la paille au nez (that is, straw in the nose),” he said to the mocker.
Napoleon swore at that very moment that he would cut off the cocks in uniform like him; He vowed to take revenge on the one who would take over almost all of Europe as time went on.
We have almost written it. On the other hand, the son of Corsica invaded England in the 18th century. In the century Charles XII of Sweden. Ignoring his defeat in the Great Northern War, he boldly and imprudently attempted to enter Russia. As would later happen to Hitler, the local ‘Marshal Winter’ overcame the aggressive Napoleon and froze and crushed the army under his command…
202 years have passed since his death on the island of Santa Elena, deserted and in detention. 202 years and a thousand movies. The greatest of the great filmmakers have had wild dreams of filming Bonaparte. Which ones? Chaplin himself, Kubrick himself. The film made by Abel Gance in 1927, on the other hand, is a pure masterpiece of Cinema, according to a number of fans and experts. However, Gance lost his sanity in the near-impossible challenge. In addition to the loss of health, there was no small dog left in his wallet.
202 years have passed since his death on the island of Santa Elena, deserted and in detention. 202 years and a thousand movies. Chaplin himself, Kubrick himself, had crazy dreams
Marlon Brando was the emperor of France in front of the camera. Also Patric Chéreau and Christian Clavier. This time, in the new film released in France on Wednesday and in our country on Friday, Joaquin Phoenix who was the Joker appears to us wearing a bicorn and a leotard.
Our two-and-a-half-hour movie in theaters near our house will be 2400 minutes long as soon as it enters the Apple TV platform. We have Ridley Scott as the author. As many of you know and agree, Scott is the stuff of making the best movies and the worst movies. He has signed ‘Thelma and Louise’, ‘Blade Runner’, ‘Gladiator’ but don’t forget that he is also the author of the trivial films ‘House of Gucci’ or ‘All The Money in the World’. Don’t forget, however, that his first work is The Duellists, which has no equal.
Ridley is two years younger than Woody Allen and two years older than Coppola, five years older than Cronenberg and Scorsese. He is an 85-year-old filmmaker in good shape. The second part of the film ‘Gladiator’ is being prepared; who often makes up his mind. Which often fails completely. Both, with full dignity and showing the respect due to the show.
We have the whole of France these days in arms, ready for war. So are many historians and film lovers. With great reason. Because this time he didn’t guess in the portrait. And because it has gone too far from the celluloid licenses that are usually acceptable when making movies. Start from the beginning In the earlier sequences we see the execution of Marie Antoinette… OK. Well, who would have thought that on the way to the guillotine, the queen that Sofa Coppola loved would have dressed in gala clothes?
The biggest problem: Ridley has no perspective on either the man Napoleon was or the myth he became
But, if desired, these could be tiny details. The biggest problem is different. Ridley has no perspective on either the man Napoleon was or the myth he became. Neither at the beginning many (even Beethoven, Goya) considered him the liberator of Europe nor the megalomaniac who proclaimed himself emperor. It doesn’t say anything, it doesn’t come to any conclusion. Was it true, for that matter, that he became emperor just so that he could strike with all his might against all those despotic monarchies that dominated Europe? Why did so many Spanish intellectuals support him, even though the people were on the side of the Bourbons?
To be honest, I think, even if it’s a huge film, it’s small, very small, in terms of ambitions, intentions. Of course, the fight scenes are contemporary. What Kubrick said is fulfilled on the screen: “Napoleonic battles are so beautiful… They seem like deadly ballets without limits. It doesn’t matter if you don’t even have a clue about military strategy; even if you don’t accept that it is an art of war, you will perceive that these battles are bright, very bright.” And so we recognize them on the screen. The tale and the pity, I think, are not well interwoven in the narrative. They appear loose and meaningless before our eyes.
Who was that boy with ‘La paille au nez’, why was he what he was, what he was looking for, what his dreams were… a thousand questions and not a single answer. Perhaps no answer was necessary. Yes, but the internal skeleton that keeps a complete film upright.
By the way, Abel Gance’s must-see ‘Napoleon’ lasts 5 and a half hours and is available on the Filmin platform.
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