Napa Valley RegisteR ARTS HOliDay eDitiON • NOVeMBeR 22-23, 2023 | A7

MOVIE REVIEW

The emperor has no clothes but plenty of ego in ‘Napoleon’

JAKE COYLE
AP Film Writer
For such a famed historical
figure, Napoleon has made only
fleeting appearances in movies
since Abel Gance’s 1927 silent
film.
Stanley Kubrick had grand
designs for a Napoleon epic
that went unmade. (Steven
Spielberg is attempting to re-
vive those plans as a series ).
Napoleon and his bicorne hat —
more icon of history than a real
character — mostly only pops
up in time-traveling odysseys
like “Time Bandits” or “Bill and
Ted’s Excellent Adventure.”
The party, though, is finally
on in Ridley Scott’s “Napoleon,”
starring Joaquin Phoenix. Scott
doesn’t do anything small, not
even famously diminutive
French emperors. And his two-
hour-38-minute big-screen
biopic serves up a heaping his-
torical spectacle complete with
bloody European battles and
massive military maneuvers.
But don’t mistake “Napoleon”
for your average historical epic.
Our first sense that this may
not be a grand glorification of a
Great Man of history comes early
in the film, when a 24-year-old
Bonaparte leads the siege on the
British troops controlling the
port city of Toulon. When Na-
poleon, then a major, charges
forward in the fight, he’s visibly
terrified, even panting. He looks
more like Phoenix’s anxious
protagonist in “Beau Is Afraid”
than the man who would be-
come France’s Caesar. Napoleon
doesn’t storm the gates so much
as lurch desperately at them.
And for the rest of Scott’s film
and Phoenix’s riveting perfor-
mance, Napoleon’s actions are
never much more complicated
than that. He assumes power
cavalierly. His coup d’état
against the French Directory
in 1799 is a ramshackle farce.
He flings his armies around the
continent without the slightest
concern. He’s prone to petulant
rages, screaming at the British:
“You think you’re so great be-
cause you have boats!”
“Napoleon” subscribes more
to the Not-So-Great Man theory
of history. This Napoleon isn’t
extraordinary nor is he much of
a man. He’s a boyishly impul-
sive, thin-skinned brute, ca-
reening his way through Europe
and leaving battlefields of dead
soldiers in his wake. When he,
while on a campaign in Egypt,
is informed over lunch that his
wife, Joséphine (Vanessa Kirby),
is having an affair back in Paris,
he responds curtly to the mes-
senger: “No dessert for you.”
For more than 200 years,
characterizations of Napoleon
have ranged from genius re-
former born out of the French
Revolution to marauding tyrant
whose wars left three million
dead. Napoleon, himself, helped
shape his legacy while exiled on
St. Helena with a self-serving
memoir. Some of the titans of
19th century literature reck-
oned with him. Victor Hugo
wrote Napoleon lost at Waterloo
because he had grown “trouble-
some to God.” Tolstoy, in “War
and Peace,” was less impressed,
calling him, “that most insignif-
icant instrument of history.”
In “Napoleon,” which begins
with Marie Antoinette at the
guillotine and ends with Napo-
leon on St. Helena where he died
at age 51 in 1821, it’s startling
how much disregard the movie
has for its protagonist. Holly-
wood historical epics have tra-
ditionally leaned toward aggran-
dizement, not the undressing of
fragile, deluded male egos who
exclaim over dinner: “Destiny
has brought me here! Destiny
has brought me this lamb chop!”
Here is a sweeping historical
tapestry — no one does it bet-
ter today than Scott — with a
damning, almost satirical por-
trait at its center. That mix —
Scott’s spectacle and Phoenix’s
the-emperor-has-no-clothes
performance — makes “Napo-
leon” a rivetingly off-kilter ex-
perience.
It’s not always a smooth mix.
Phoenix’s characterization may
at times have more in common
with some of his past depic-
tions of melancholy loners (“The
Master,” “The Joker”) than any
factual record of Napoleon. A
quality like ambition, you’d
think, would be prominent in
depicting Napoleon. He was a
notorious workaholic, metic-
ulously organized and an en-
ergetic intellectual — little of
which is present here, making
Napoleon’s rise to power some-
times hard to fathom.
But that’s also part of the
point of “Napoleon,” which
surely has some contemporary
echoes. There are plenty of en-
ablers along the way (a highlight
of the supporting cast is Paul
Rhys as the scheming diplomat
Talleyrand) as the film marches
through major events like the
fall of Robespierre, the 1799
coup, Napoleon making himself
Emperor in 1804 and the trium-
phant Battle of Austerlitz. The
last is Scott’s finest set piece in
the film, ending in a rout of the
Russian forces as they flee over a
frozen pond while the bombard-
ment of cannons plunges them
into an icy grave.
“Napoleon,” an Apple Studios
release, is rated R by the Motion
Picture Association for strong vi-
olence, some grisly images, sex- KEVIN BAKER, ASSOCIATED PRESS
ual content and brief language. This image released by Apple Studios
Running time: 158 minutes. Three shows Joaquin Phoenix in a scene
stars out of four. from “Napoleon.”

Wish
From A6
has some surprising parallels
(in themes and unresolved sto-
rylines) with “Don’t Worry Dar-
ling” that don’t stop at Chris Pine
relishing his handsome villain
era.
The animation really is quite
lovely overall and striking after
so many years of computer gener-
ated smoothness and perfection.
But this is also a strange mixture
of both styles and the storybook
like textures makes some of the
characters faces and the star look
almost too fake for the world
they’re in.
The star, a speechless innocent,
is also lacking a certain spark that
might make it as iconic as the
filmmakers want it to be. Or per-
haps it just has the misfortune of
looking too similar to the nihilist
star from “The Super Mario Bros.
Movie” from earlier this year.
“Wish” is harmless holiday
programming for the family,
but it’s strange to watch a movie
about celebrating the individual
“star” in everyone that feels like
it was made by mandate, not a
dream. And I would bet that every
person who worked on this film
probably grew up loving Disney
and that each has dozens of ideas
more inspired than this to com-
memorate 100 years and take this
company into the future. Maybe
next time.
“Wish,” a Walt Disney Co. re-
lease in theaters Tuesday, is rated
PG by the Motion Picture Associ-
ation for “thematic elements and
mild action.” Running time: 92
minutes. Two stars out of four.
Calendar
From A6
to improve their reading and commu-
nication skills at the Napa Library, 580
Coombs St., Napa, on Mondays. Par-
ticipants may select a book from the
library collection or bring one from
home or school. No registration required.
Info: events.napalibrary.org/events;
707-253-4241.
TUESDAY, NOV. 28
NAPA FARMERS MARKET
8 a.m.-noon. Napa Farmers Market pro-
vides vendors offering seasonal produce,
meat, eggs, seafood, locally prepared
foods and hand-crafted wares. Located
at 1100 West St. at Pearl. Info: napafarm-
ersmarket.org.
MUSIC WITH RIC
4-5 p.m. Rianda House Senior Activity
Center, 1475 Main St., St. Helena, hosts
Music with Ric, is a sing-along program
designed to rekindle the nostalgia of
songs from the 1930’s to the 1960’s, allow-
ing participants to rediscover and enjoy
the music in their youth. Free admission.
Info: riandahouse.org; 707-963-8555.
MUSIC AT THE GRILLE 29
6-8 p.m. Local musicians perform at
Grille 29 at the Embassy Suites Napa Val-
ley, 1075 California Blvd., Napa. No cover
charge. Info: 707-253-9540.

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