To be honest, I haven't heard much about this movie, since because it wasn't very huge nor that "mainstream", I think. Still, I walked past the poster by the movie theater and thought it could be interesting, so I decided to go watch it again, luckily in a press preview. Unlike two other movie premieres, this one doesn't offer any events or shows. It would be just a backdrop for us, press to take pictures with. And I decided to do my version of low-cost cosplay for the occasion. 😂
Enough for my costume attempt, let's get started with
🌟 the Recap 🌟
The movie Napoleon is an epic historical and (I would add) drama film that follows the most iconic French leader, Napoleon Bonaparte. His rise to power and fall to his grave. While adding another aspect of his relationship with his first and only love, (the empress) Joséphine.
I think the good thing about biographical films is that there are no spoilers in telling you guys a plot, which is something I've been struggling with 😂. So, if you want to know Bonaparte's life story, you can easily look it up on the internet. I must say I might not know much about French history, but I'm trying to write as understandable as I can, please bear with me. As today's post is about the movie, I'll recap how Scott, the director, told us this story.
The story didn't start from the childhood of Bonaparte, it actually didn't start with him at all. Instead, it started with the French Revolution in 1793, which included guillotine chopping off heads and an angry French mob.
Bonaparte first came in the Toulon War, where he led the French army against the British fleet, using artillery. This was the moment that made him well-known to the nation.
After that, around 3/4 amount of the movie, we were just following him chronically through the crucial moments of his life coming to power in the government and later becoming the emperor of France, which Oh! I didn't really see that coming, but wow! he really went for it.
The last part (the last 1/4 amount) of the movie was about the Waterloo War, the last war that Napoleon led and (as you might have known/ or guessed) lost to Britain (and the allies). Towards the end of his life, unfortunately, similar to other only-a-while successful people, he died alone (and I would say) quite lonely, in contrast to all those accomplishments and power, he's got throughout his lifetime.
Now it's time for...
🌟 the Review 🌟
As I mentioned in the beginning, I came watching it without much expectation, whether I liked it or not, but I found myself ending up liking it, in a way that there are a lot of unexpected elements that Scott used in the movie to tell us and not making it "flat" nor boring like just a common life narrative.
The first thing I wanna say is that the production of filming is outstanding. In every scene of the movie, I can see all the little details that really take the audience back into France at that time, whether it was a luxurious coronation or a hopeless street in Paris, or even someplace else like Egypt or Russia.
It all looked amazing. I read that behind the scenes Scott used 11 cameras to capture lots of angles and as a director, he had to quality check them all. That's why I felt like I see more viewpoints even just 1 scene.
The second thing about Scott's method was adding a lot of elements of "normal human being" to Bonaparte, like his relationship with Joséphine. I think this is the most evident thing that makes me feel that no matter how "great" a conqueror he is, at the end of the day, he was just still a guy, who has put his heart and soul into the only woman he ever loved. That's why Joséphine became such an important part of his life.
This poster really made sense to me after watching the film. The world for Joséphine is the world that Bonaparte tried to make throughout his life.
Scott used the letters that Bonaparte and Joséphine wrote to each other to navigate the story, actually, it was mostly Napoleon's writing and only one (or two times, I'm not sure) that she wrote him.
I must say that I have such an immense affection for Vanessa Kirby since I saw her on Netflix's UK royal family series, The Crown. Yet again, Kirby captured the essence of Joséphine perfectly, while adding more "Kirbyness and charm" to it.
At this point, it would be impossible to mention Joaquin Phoenix's mastery of acting. What really stood out to me is that he brought the "normal common" guy into a great warrior/politician/whatever we learned about him in history class. He shows a lot of humor to Bonaparte, not in a comedic way but in a less serious and god-like emperor that I believe lifted the whole mood of the movie to give it more new flavor (in some way), which looks like it wouldn't fit into a period movie, but somehow with Phoenix, he made it work. That's why he won an Oscar.
The last thing, I want to share with you guys is...
🌟 the Reflection 🌟
What hit me after watching the movie is that... One can't have it all, even the great conqueror Napoleon.
The 3 things that Bonaparte held as his core values (France, Army, Joséphine) are not only driving him to be the greatest and most powerful of all but also stripping him down to nothing. At the end, looks like only thing he had left is his bare unhappy and unsucessful soul. In the movie, you'll see that everything he did is for the 3 things and when the time came to choose, he unfortunately was broken by it. The minute that he had to divorce Joséphine, because she couldn't bear his child, they both were heartbroken and torn and basically couldn't regain any happiness after that at all. Even though Bonaparte kept on being a great general in a war, he always had something missing.
So from that point, many questions popped up in my head. What really should be the priority of life? Your happiness or your duty.. If you had to pick one, would you rather be happy but declining your duty or fulfil your duty to your nation but never again be happy. I guess there aren't really correct answers for this, since everybody has a different priority and different perspective in life. But, I don't know. Everybody had to die at some point. What would be the thing that you lived for while you were alive? For me, I still figuring that out and I guess it'll never be ending easily even, so I guess I'll have to wait and see.
Sometimes, sudden reflections in my brain can be super random like this, but I still like to think about it and get it out. Thank you Hive for this space and thank you guys if you kept reading until this part. :) I'll see you next time!
Overall, I think the movie is good for history lover for sure. It's a biographical film that is light and not too serious with great production and cast. Give it a try if you're still not sure, I recommend it.
PS. The first 2 photos are mine but all the official movie photos are from Source 1 and Source 2.
Let's stay supportive of the entertainment industry and keep watching great movies, guys
Khob khun kaa,
Nomnomnoodle 🍜