Napoleon Movie 2023

Description

Napoleon is a 2023 epic biographical war film co-produced and directed by Ridley Scott from a screenplay by David Scarpa.

Based on the life of Napoleon and primarily depicting his rise to power, as well as his relationship with his wife, Joséphine, it stars Joaquin Phoenix as Napoleon and Vanessa Kirby as Joséphine.

In October 2020, Scott announced Napoleon as his next project. Following delays and recastings due to the COVID-19 pandemic, filming began in February 2022 in England, lasting several months. In addition to writer David Scarpa, frequent Scott collaborators included cinematographer Dariusz Wolski and editor Claire Simpson.

Napoleon premiered at Salle Pleyel in Paris on November 14, 2023, and was released in the United States and United Kingdom on November 22 by Columbia Pictures (via Sony Pictures Releasing) before streaming on Apple TV+ on March 1, 2024.

The film grossed $221.4 million worldwide and received mixed reviews from critics, who praised the battle sequences and performances but criticized its uneven tone, rushed pacing, and lack of historical accuracy. At the 96th Academy Awards, the film received nominations for Best Production Design, Best Costume Design, and Best Visual Effects.

In 1793, amid the French Revolution, young army officer Napoleon Bonaparte watches Marie Antoinette beheaded by the guillotine. Later that year, Revolutionary leader Paul Barras has Napoleon manage the Siege of Toulon; he storms the city and repels the British ships with artillery. After Maximilien Robespierre is deposed and executed at the end of the Reign of Terror, French leaders, including Napoleon, attempt to restore stability. Again employing artillery, Napoleon suppresses the royalist insurrection on 13 Vendémiaire in 1795.

Napoleon woos aristocratic widow Joséphine de Beauharnais and the two eventually marry. Despite their vigorous sex life, they bear no children. In Egypt, he prevails again at the Battle of the Pyramids in 1798, but rushes home when he hears Joséphine has an almost 10-year younger lover, Hippolyte Charles. The Directory criticises him for abandoning his troops, but he condemns them for their poor leadership of France and with several collaborators such as Talleyrand, Fouché, Sieyès and Ducos, overthrows them in the Coup of 18 Brumaire and becomes First Consul.

Napoleon is crowned Emperor of the French by the pope in 1804, during which he audaciously puts the crown on his own head. Foreign Minister Talleyrand suggests to Austria an alliance, though the Austrians dismiss the idea. A year later, Napoleon outmanoeuvres and defeats the Austrians and the Russians at the Battle of Austerlitz, forcing them to retreat over frozen lakes before bombarding the ice and drowning them. Afterwards, he invites Austrian Emperor Francis II for wine—which Russian Tsar Alexander I declines to attend—and tells Francis that since he did not totally destroy their armies, he expects the latter to be grateful.

Napoleon’s mother has him impregnate a mistress, proving that Joséphine is infertile. He divorces her in 1810, publicly slapping her in the face when she initially refuses to read her portion of the decree, but the two remain on good terms and continue exchanging friendly letters. Napoleon marries Marie Louise of Austria, who bears a son one year later.

In 1812, Napoleon invades Russia after Alexander reneges on the Treaties of Tilsit. He prevails, despite bloody guerrilla resistance by Don Cossacks, and then fighting the huge Battle of Borodino, but finds Moscow empty and later set aflame. Napoleon retreats during the winter to France, having lost about half a million men. In 1814, the Coalition forces Napoleon’s abdication and exiles him to Elba.

In 1815, upon hearing that Joséphine is unwell, Napoleon escapes the island and in the Hundred Days returns to power in France. She, having been forced into reclusion at the Château de Malmaison, dies before he arrives. King Louis XVIII sends the Fifth Regiment to stop Napoleon, but he charms them into joining him.

At the Battle of Waterloo in June, Napoleon, having amassed more troops, confronts the British army under Arthur Wellesley, Duke of Wellington. French cavalry charges are repulsed by British infantry squares, and a desperate Napoleon urges his remaining soldiers forward, but this advance is defeated by re-formed lines of enemy infantry. The forces of Prussian Marshal Blücher arrive to reinforce Wellesley, and the French are broken. As Napoleon retreats, he salutes Wellesley.

Napoleon is exiled, this time to the island of Saint Helena in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, and is seen bantering with children, writing his memoirs that would become read all over the world and presenting to his listeners a version of history where he is always right. An unwell Napoleon collapses, hearing Joséphine beckon him to meet her again. Napoleon dies in 1821. An epilogue notes that roughly 3 million people died in his wars.

On October 14, 2020, the same day his film The Last Duel (2021) wrapped filming, Ridley Scott announced Napoleon, at that point provisionally called Kitbag, as his next project for 20th Century Studios, based on Napoleon‘s life. He would direct and produce, while the screenplay was written by Scott’s All the Money in the World (2017) collaborator David Scarpa. The film’s working title was derived from the saying that « There is a general’s staff hidden in every soldier’s kitbag ».

During the same year, Scott also consulted with University of Oxford scholar Michael Broers regarding Napoleon’s life, particularly collaborating with him in deconstructing the geography of the Battle of Waterloo. He also received Stanley Kubrick‘s script for his planned Napoleon film, which never materialized.

By January 2021, Apple Studios announced its commitment to finance and produce the film, with filming scheduled to begin in the United Kingdom in 2022.

Scarpa had been approached by Scott to write a film based on Napoleon following production of All the Money in the World. As he initially had a « high school basic knowledge » of his life, he conducted research regarding Napoleon and after realizing that writing a film encompassing his entire life was impractical, he decided to focus on Napoleon’s relationship with his wife, Josephine.

He began by reading Napoleon: A Concise Biography by David A. Bell, but did not understand it and opted to conduct further research by reading more books and watching YouTube videos. When researching Josephine, he cited Ambition and Desire: The Dangerous Life of Josephine Bonaparte by Kate Williams as his primary influence.

He took inspiration from Scott’s The Duellists (1977) and Milos Forman‘s Amadeus (1984), wanting to portray Napoleon as an « irreverent » figure similar to how Mozart was depicted in Amadeus, and told Scott he envisioned Napoleon as being competent « in the realm of battle », and « incompetent in the realm of love ». Scott proposed the idea of beginning the film with Marie Antoinette being under the guillotine, wanting to focus on the « ambivalence about where democracy leads ».

Scott’s writing process also involved hand-drawing storyboards, with him sending Scarpa the illustrations once Scarpa sent him pages from the script.

In August 2024, it was reported that Phoenix had threatened to leave the film unless Paul Thomas Anderson (with whom Phoenix previously worked on The Master) was recruited to rewrite the script. Eventually, the situation calmed down and Phoenix remained involved in the production.

Later that year, Scott confirmed that Anderson had indeed been brought in for rewrites, saying: « It turned into a lot of fun, actually. Three of us in this room screaming with laughter.

Joaquin Phoenix was reportedly attached to star as the French general and emperor Napoléon, reuniting him with the director after Gladiator (2000).

Scott had Phoenix and another actor in mind to play Napoléon, but felt « blown away » by Phoenix’s performance in Joker (2019) and concluded that Phoenix could be an « amazing asset » for Napoleon, both creatively and commercially.

The Last Duel actress Jodie Comer was reportedly Scott’s first choice to play Joséphine. She entered negotiations to star in March 2021, confirmed her casting in September, and said: « I just jumped at the chance to work with Ridley and his team again and the idea of working with Joaquin, who’s someone who I hugely admire… I’m so excited to delve into that world. »

In November, she said her role was « going to be another huge challenge, but what I love about period dramas is that kind of transformation. Even now, doing some costume and hair tests for Kitbag, it’s just so exciting because it becomes so much easier to step out of yourself and into somebody else. »The same month, Youssef Kerkour was confirmed to star.

On January 4, 2022, Comer revealed her departure from the film due to scheduling changes caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and described the situation as « rubbish ».Vanessa Kirby was announced as her replacement later that day.

On January 18, 2022, producer Kevin J. Walsh said the film had been retitled Napoleon. In February, Tahar Rahim was added to the cast, in the role of Paul Barras. The historian Lorris Chevalier, who worked on The Last Duel, became the historical adviso