In theaters from November 22, 2023, the film “Napoleon” is strongly criticized in France. In an interview, Ridley Scott responded with bite.
By tackling one of the monuments of French history, even the greatest director will take the risk of disappointing the French public. And Ridley Scott does not escape this danger with Napoleon, his biopic on the former emperor, which is released in theaters this Wednesday, November 22, 2023. While the film generally won over American critics, the French were much more divided on the quality of the feature film.
It must be said that entrusting a British person with a portrait of the emperor defeated at Trafalgar then Waterloo by the English is enough to crystallize tensions. One point also brings together the critics around this big-budget film: the historical liberties taken by the almost 86-year-old director. Several were cited even before the release of the feature film, notably by the historian Patrice Gueniffey at Le Point. As soon as the trailer was released, British historian Dan Snow also pointed out inaccuracies in a widely shared TikTok video.
Among the most criticized scenes is that of the execution of Marie Antoinette in which the character played by Joaquin Phoenix is present in the crowd in Paris, while the real Napoleon was thousands of kilometers away, at the headquarters of Toulon. Also under fire from critics, a scene in which we see the French emperor firing a cannon directly at the pyramids of Egypt makes several historians jump. Fortunately, in reality, no bullets were fired at these historical monuments.
Asked about these obvious errors in his damning portrait of Napoleon, Ridley Scott brushed aside the criticism by targeting the French in particular. “The French don’t love themselves,” the director told the BBC. He therefore felt that it was “better not” for him to respond to criticism coming particularly from France regarding the historical reality of his film, otherwise he risked becoming “rude”.
Speaking to the British Time magazine, the filmmaker went even further, assuring that he had “not tried to listen to historians to make his Napoleon epic”. “When I have a problem with historians, I ask them: ‘sorry man, but were you there? No? In that case, shut up’.”
Napoleon is a Ridley Scott film starring Joaquin Phoenix and Vanessa Kirby. Fans of the director of Alien and Gladiator can discover this feature film in theaters starting this Wednesday, November 22, 2023, before it goes online on the Apple TV streaming platform.
