Napoleon (2002) 6/10
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Napoléon_(miniseries)
The most expensive European TV series made at that point.
It's ambitious. Sets are great. Acting is top notch. Filming is super.
Though the weakest actor is Christian Clavier as Napoleon himself. He plays Asterix in the Asterix and Obelix films. Gerard Depardieu is also in this. Kind of fun to see them together like this. But he doesn't seem to be able to decide what kind of man Napoleon is. Sometimes he was played like the caricature of a passionate amorous Frenchman. Sometimes he's a man with a Napoleon complex. Which btw is an image that arose from British and Prussian propaganda. The man himself was famously gracious, even headed and well mannered. In reality he was a smart guy at the right place at the right time. He wasn't overly ambitious. Just smart. Because of his birth he was of lower status in France, and he played to that all the time. If he could do it, than anybody in France could. He had himself crowned an emperor because he needed it to form a personal alliance with the Austrian royal family. Which he needed to do. In the film he always felt cartoonish. I didn't like that. Other than that the acting is awesome.
But there's more that's problematic. It's not good. Too much crammed into too short a time. They constantly jump in time in a jarring way. It's tiring to watch. As a result the dialogue suffers. They don't have time for "natural" speech. It's all, "Hello I am such and such, this is why I am important to the film, and this is what I want, please let me have it". So much infodumping and "tell don't show".
John Malcovitch does a great Talleyrand. A horribly scheming and devious figure. Which he was. Gerard Depardiu does a great Joseph Fouche. It's fun to see him shrink as Napoleon's power grows. But the character in the film isn't much like the real Fouche. Fouche was one of the most brutal fucking psychopaths in the French revolution. The guy was dripping blood. So Depardiu playing him as a sensitive man with an actual heart rings a bit false. But well played all the same.
We're constantly shown key turning points in battles. Without having it set up properly it's not effective It's just -> generals talking and overlooking the battle field -> BATTLE! -> quick shot -> More talk on how well it went -> victory banquet. So I didn't care about his victories.
Also a stupid decision IMHO. Napoleon was, throughout his entire life in situations where he was up against the odds and prevailed anyway. His real life was non-stop drama. Dividing it up into more episodes and slowing down the pace would only have benefited it. We'd have just as much tension. They should have done a Rome or Boardwalk empire. There was more than enough material. And not only shot things about Napoleon. There's a context. They should perhaps have shown the life of people around Napoleon more. They already had the actors. I would have loved seeing things from the eyes of people further down the social ladder. That is interesting.
I also thought it was a shame that they started it right before he took power. While Napoleon was a minor figure during the Reign of terror and the revolution. He was still there. They could have shown the revolution through his eyes. It would have been interesting.
One thing that is really annoying is that it's filmed in old square TV format instead of widescreen. Sure, in 2002 everybody didn't have a widescreen TV. But the development towards it was rapid. Just dumb not to future proof it. As a result it's much less powerful than it could have been.
A lot of complaints in this review. But there's a lot about it that is good. It's pretty to watch. If you're interested in history I highly recommend it. They get most of it right. The historical changes they do are minor.
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