Napoleon

[LlynTegid]

Planning to see it, interested in thoughts from anyone who has.

Joing the thread as also interested. Reviews aren’t great but trailers look good.

My sister & I saw it yesterday. Neither of us were very impressed sadly. Way too long generally, drawn out battle scenes where you couldn’t easily distinguish who was who, and it was awful having Napoleon talking with an American accent the whole time 😕. I expected more from Ridley Scott tbh. Given how good Gladiator was I expected this film to have been done in a more sophisticated way somehow.

I thought it was absolutely dreadful, Terrible script, wooden acting (though the best actors would have struggled), and the American accent and intonation was all wrong. I agree with the French critics - "deeply clumsy, unnatural and unintentionally funny" and this one I love - "Barbie and Ken under the Empire"!! I couldn't even have a nap in the lovely reclining seats because the bloody cannons kept waking me up.

The Guardian raved about it today:

https://www.theguardian.com/film/2023/nov/15/napoleon-review-joaquin-phoenix-emperor-ridley-scott?CMP=ShareiOSAppp_Other

My husband saw it.
He said it's dull, slow and too long.
Someone in the cinema he was in walked out halfway through 😂

Terrible script.

”You think you’re so great just because you have boats!”

And it’s going to take a lot of brain bleach for me to forget the weird ‘mumm mumm mumm’ noises Napoleon makes when he’s horny

I thought Joaquin and Vanessa were great and the Austerlitz battle was incredible. The whole thing didn't really hand together but I much preferred it to The Last Duel. The boats line was meant to be funny as was the bad sex noises. It's not making him out to be a hero.

Love scene.
truncated but violent battle scene.
love scene again.
truncated but violent….again.
repeat on loop.
cut to Josephine looking meaningfully at swans on a lake.

costumes were nice.

I'm enjoyed watching it. Not as bad as people are making out.

I didn’t enjoy it at all! Good actors involved but it just didn’t really hold my attention and I was thinking of the shopping I needed to do. I also was doing spot the actors etc. as two of them were in Bridget Jones films. Odd that the daughter appeared at the end and I am still wondering what happened to her son.

I think Joachim Phoenix is too old for the role.

That about sums it up @Polyethyl 😂 (did you notice Josephine’s nip slip?)

There was so much more to the man that was glossed over clumsily or ignored outright. He was a highly political ideologue yet in the film it appeared almost as if he became emperor by accident. No talk of his reforms to French law or his efforts to promote revolutionary ideology outside of France…

With the emphasis on the violence and loss of life (down to the tally of deaths in the closing credits) it comes across as a strong anti-war statement more than anything else. A film for our troubled times…

Very disappointing film. Simultaneously too long but also disjointed and missing explanations for oh so many things. Any one else confused as to why he was in Egypt?

Vanessa Kirby is about the right age but Josephine was 6 years older than Napoleon, not 13 years younger!

I think the nip slip was entirely intentional.

Dreadful. The later battle scenes were great to watch on the big screen but all his early victories were skipped over which meant there was no context to his popularity or rapid rise to power. Joachim phoenix was far too old. Rupert Everett was also terrible as wellington.

The casting made no sense.

I didn't realise Josephine was meant to be 6 years older than Napoleon, what with her looking early 30s and him looking 50 for the entire film. DH reminded me that the DOB were read out at the wedding, but that was a bit subtle for me. It made no sense when they said Josephine was no longer able to bear DCs as she looked so young.

I enjoyed it. I like Joqauin Phenoix. But I was confused on some of the supporting characters - hard to distinguish some of them apart. And also the battles were confusing. I read War and Peace last year so thought I'd find it easy to follow but I didn't.

Went to see it, historically inaccurate by a country mile in so many places, some of the cameos interesting. Can understand why the French may not be keen on it.

Vanessa Kirby make up made her look a bit like PJ Harvey!!

I enjoyed it a lot more than I thought I would. My dh liked it less.
I'm sure the jos/nap relationship was nothing like the truth (but perhaps the letters were real?) But still enjoyed watching it .
I enjoyed the battle scenes, which is something I never normally do.
What a sinister character Tallyrand was played as. I know nothing about him and will find out more. Ditto Ballas.

Just watched it, it was dreadful! Fortunately we watched it at home rather than at the cinema. It was so beautifully shot but the casting and script were laughable. What a shame.

We watched it last night too - I fell asleep. I was determined not to as my husband worked on the sets but he didn’t even get a credit! Anyway very boring, overlong yet unfocused, poor script, weird performance from Joaquin Phoenix. I liked the cinematography and the soundtrack actually (menacing) but having watched Barry Lyndon last week, where the casting was so good and it felt like an accurate depiction of the period, this seemed like fancy dress by comparison.

Saw it in the cinema yesterday. For something so expensive it was a bit just ok. Happy I saw it, the big screen suited it. But the choices made in script and acting were odd. It reduced an incredible history to some rather boring sitting around of napoleon and Josephine….

she was magnificent.