![]() A distant relative of the Emperor he played in Scott's earlier epic, Gladiator, his Napoleon is relaxed to the point of sleepiness when he's on the battlefield, a petulant brat in meetings, and a tongue-tied arrested adolescent where women are concerned. Phoenix's performance is just as enjoyable. Poised yet down-to-earth, her eyes twinkling, she always seems to be smirking at a joke that only she understands. This widowed aristocrat entrances him at first sight, and Kirby is coolly charismatic enough to account for the coup de foudre. He meets his match in the Duke of Wellington, played by Rupert Everett – the one man who sneers more contemptuously than he does – but the most important encounter in his life is with Joséphine, played by Vanessa Kirby. Captions spell out who is speaking and where they are, so there is an obvious purpose to all of his encounters with the world's politicians (played by a succession of British character actors and comedians, mercifully sticking to their own accents). That clarity is there when its hero is striding through palaces and cathedrals, too. As cavalrymen charge across misty plains and infantrymen get blasted to pieces by cannonballs, Napoleon is a reminder that no other director makes films like Scott does. Amid the smoke, blood and chaos, Scott ensures that you can see who's winning and why. The ferocious battles that follow are all spectacular, all distinct from each other, and all easy to follow. Just as he is about to attack, he adjusts his famous hat from a jaunty off-centre angle to a neat symmetrical one – and so it is that he begins his rise to greatness. ![]() The Republic's new leaders are afraid of being ousted by Royalists or invading Brits, and so they send this scruffy Corsican soldier to the town of Toulon to liberate a fort occupied by British soldiers. It begins in 1789, when Marie Antoinette is guillotined in the French Revolution, while a young gunnery officer, played by Joaquin Phoenix, watches with the heavy-lidded sneer he will adopt for much of the film. Was Napoleon the greatest film never made? 'Nicolas Cage at his darkly comic best' It's an awe-inspiring achievement, although it may leave you with a greater appreciation of Scott's leadership skills than of Napoleon's. The latest example is Napoleon, Scott's 160-minute biopic of the French military commander and ruler, which sweeps through several countries and several decades, and has several thunderous battle scenes along the way. In recent years, in fact, their films have grown longer, more expensive and more ambitious than ever. ![]() Martin Scorsese is 80 and Ridley Scott is nearly 86, but neither director is showing any signs of slowing down. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |