Mark Kermode reviews Napoleon - Kermode and Mayo's Take

okay so um Napoleon directed by Ridley Scott from a script by David scarper the tagline he came from nothing he conquered everything you say that both of those it's a great tagline complete rubbish yeah I'm just total rubbish in both section I'm just setting it up okay so the film follows Napoleon's rise you know through the the ranks of authority to war from Warrior to Emperor from Emperor to Exile from Victoria from you know Victorious uh leader to Vanquish anyway huge battles vast Globe trotting narrative you know we can't go into winter it's Russia the horses won't make it massively compressed historical narrative and of course the Fab line which you quoted in that interview you think you're so great because you have boats said to the British ambass which I think should now be put on the you know on on the British passports we think we're so great because we have like he wanted to say was I effing hate the British I know I know however with all that I have to say that for me the central uh theme of this is the relationship between Napoleon and Josephine as you know Phoenix says it's part historical drama part character study there has been much praise for the spectacular battles I should say the spectacular battles are really Grim I mean they first for a start they're murky I mean they're shot kind of yeah they're battles it's mud it's rain it's violence it's you know people running at each other with pointed implements and horses getting hit by cannonballs and you know blood it's like Saving Private Ryan Napoleonic style I thought that the battle scenes were horrific and I I think they're meant to be and when you you know people talk obviously about you know the battle scenes huge and spectacular they're they're Grim um it's interesting to knowe incidentally that that's a movie by you know Ridley Scott who everybody used to accuse of being all spectacle and no substance that I think what this is the substance that's more interesting than the spectacle so Napoleon is not sympathetic I mean he may be a brave Warrior on the battlefield she calls him a brute but in private he is a weasy little boy out there in the world he leads armies into death and destruction the death tolls are astonishing and are much is made at the end of just what the death tolls were when he's with Josephine he is to use a word that wackin Phoenix used in that interview whiny bratty kind of like a school boy she exerts her power over him in a in a a particular scene in which she says to him they're sitting opposite each other and she's sitting on a chair and she says to him if you look down you will see a surprise and once you see it you will always want it now it takes a very fine actor to deliver that line and get away with it luckily Vanessa Kirby is a very fine actor and so the whole she's a big fan of the podcast by the way well good that's great and she delivers that line as you know a a threat a tease a come on a stale I mean there's so much power in the way she delivers that line Phoenix talked in that interview about the Absurd humor of their relationship and I think that absurdity is Central I mean in fact that on one level the movie itself is preposterous Ridley Scotts Napoleon would cover you know and I'm what all of it is preposterous but actually that preposterousness is particularly apposite considering the nature of their relationship people have talked about the great love between Napoleon and Josephine the love scenes are ludicrous deliberately so he makes this weird sound when he wants to be with her just this kind of weird gesture you know I I want to be with my and then the scenes of them together he's it they are they are played for ludicrousness that it's they're not you know long languorous passionate scenes quite the opposite they are perfunctory and canine in their the way that they're pulled out the madness of him crawling underneath the table and during that scene about you know why aren't you pregnant yet the other thing that I think which hasn't quite been flagged enough is this is a film that manages to portray Josephine as a sexually independent strong woman without ever demonizing her for it she is who she is you take it or leave it she asks him straight off right at the beginning I have a past is that going to be an issue and he says no she takes lovers she she says to him have you had lovers he says oh oh yes yes you think no you haven't no you haven't it's just what she does she's completely charismatic she's also three-dimensional I mean when she said in that interview you know first that she wants a kind of you know distance avoidance thing with him but then later on she thinks that she genuinely does love him she's never portrayed as a demonized force and this is very unusual for mainstream C to do something that and I think that's it's partly to do with the filming but I think a lot of it is to do with Vanessa Kirby coming in and taking control of that role and making it the kind of lightning rod at the heart of the film as for Phoenix's Napoleon I mean he's a narcissistic lunatic he's kind of like a a calicular figure actually weirdly enough in terms of performance there are flashes in his performance of Malcolm mcdow's cular petulent whiny brtish also his previous Emperor for Ridley Scott kodus is exactly that kind of exactly and those things they not you know you know what a fantastic uh you know uh admirable leader quite the opposite whiny bratty and brave in as much as the winter is coming we have to stop no we're going to carry on oh look everyone's freezing to death there are a couple of other performances is worth mentioning rer Everett is very very good he is as Sensational as Wellington just having a fantastic time it looks like he's drunk an entire bottle of bitterness and fantastic uh you know and thank heavens for the for the support um there was that weird thing when you compared you said that you know people have said that uh Tony Scott is like Napoleon the weird thing when you said that Ridley Scott is like Napoleon but he's a benevolent dictator actually the comparison is between uh uh Ridley Scott and Stan kuri because of course Stanley kubric tried for years to get a Napoleon project together he you know he researched it it was called the greatest movie never made uh he just never got it done abble G's version originally wanted it to be six films you know even though the the the the end result of that Napoleon is considered to be one of the greatest works of Cinema it wasn't the full thing that he wanted to do Ridley Scott just went I'm going to make Napoleon oh there we are I've made Napoleon apparently there is a director's cut coming later on which is 4 hours that we'll come to yeah coming to Apple TV but so you know if you look in the history of Cinema you know the fact that that Ry Scott just went I'm going to do Napoleon there we are I've done Napoleon I mean man he shoots fast 62 days the whole film took breathtaking breathtaking you know kurick decades didn't happen abble G huge amount of su and only did some of what he wanted to do but I do think that at the end of it the thing that makes the film interesting is the portrait of aoon as this whiny weasly bratty narcissistic ciglar like figure and the portrait of Josephine as a strong independent um three-dimensional character who absolutely has the measure of him at the beginning of him and and I think Vanessa Kirby is the key to it I think those people who think that uh Ridley Scott likes events not explanation will find this as more more proof of that I think the events are better than the explanation in terms of who Napoleon was and who he there is no explanation as to why he is that guy there is no explanation as to like for example the incredible reforms that he passed the man who reintroduced slavy reintroduced slavy into the French colonies where you know where is that going there are other people like Andrew Roberts historian who said he was the Enlightenment on a horse that's how where where is that where is that Napoleon so I don't think so when and when Ridley Scot that's a great phrase when challenged by Dan snow and others about the historical accuracy instead of saying it's a film I've just done a version he has this Preposterous line where he says were you there no well shut up then or stronger language that's not how history worked absolutely that's not how history worked so I do think Ridley needs a little bit of firm media yes but I want I want to be clear firstly I'm reviewing the film not the history exactly and secondly Ridley has always been like that Ridley has always been like that anyway it's it's spectacular if you get a chance to see it on a big screen do that before it's on your laptop or your phone because but the battle scenes are brutal they're not lavish and G glorious they are but it's like Gladiator you know it is it's brutal stuff also when I said Commodus Emperor Commodus it wasn't Mark Commodus obviously it was Oh I thought he' played me oh well he could do he could play me wacking would be great he would I mean you know he did Johnny Cash he could do me thanks very much for watching this video I hope you enjoyed watching it as much as we enjoyed making it while you're here check out all the videos cuz they're cool too aren't they they are and if you want to keep up to date with everything kerm Mayo take then check out our social channels I mean why wouldn't you I mean I I would but I have done excellent

Channel: Kermode and Mayo's Take

Views: 378,970

Keywords: Mark Kermode, Simon Mayo, Kermode and Mayo's Take, Film Review, TV Review

Id: 59X4T9EGKq8

Length: 9min 41sec (581 seconds)

Published: Fri Nov 24 2023