Napoléon (1955)
Directed by Sacha Guitry

Film Review

Every film buff knows that Abel Gance's Napoléon (1927) is the greatest film ever made on the life of Napoleon Bonaparte, but impressive as this film is, it only covers a fraction of the famous general's life. To make one film that spans Bonaparte's whole life was beyond Gance's capability but not Sacha Guitry's. Guitry positively revelled in the challenge, having already played the future emperor in one of his films, Le Destin fabuleux de Désirée Clary (1942), and made several similar prestige period dramas, notably Les Perles de la couronne (1937). Naturally, Guitry would be too busy writing and directing this mammoth undertaking to play the lead role, so that honour he conferred on two other actors of the first rank, Daniel Gélin and Raymond Pellegrin, who play the younger and older Napoleon respectively. Guitry appears in the film as Charles de Talleyrand, the political manoeuvrer he had played so expertly in his earlier period film, Le Diable boiteux (1948).

As with Si Versailles m'était conté (1954) and Si Paris nous était conté (1956), Sacha Guitry's Napoléon is constructed as a series of self-contained vignettes rather than a continuous drama - the only way he could feasibly have encompassed Bonaparte's entire life and career in one film (albeit a film in two parts running to just over three hours). Some of France's finest actors were roped into the production, most appearing on screen for barely a few minutes, with most of the budget having apparently been spent on the film's lavish production design and authentic battle reconstructions. The film is visually impressive but it scarcely has time to develop the characters and shed any real light on the psychology of its subject. Abel Gance's subsequent period piece Austerlitz (1960) would be more successful in this respect.

What is left out of the film is more intriguing than what Guitry chose to include. The battle of Trafalgar is referred to only en passant, despite this being one of the most important episodes of the Napoleonic wars, and the struggle against Imperial Russia, which resulted in Napoleon's abdication, is compressed into a few minutes.  On the other hand, we have a full five minutes devoted to courtiers rollicking around on a lawn and seemingly interminable musical interludes which add little to the film other than to distract us from the lack of meaningful content. Rather than attempt a serious biopic Guitry is content to serve up a pick 'n' mix version of history which has no great depth and is really only a gloriously self-indulgent piece of pageantry. Yet, flawed though it is, Sacha Guitry's Napoléon proved to be one of his most successful films, attracting an audience in France of five and half million.

Film Synopsis

This film recounts the life of one of the most important figures in the history of France, Napoléon Bonaparte.  Beginning with his arrival at a military academy, the film moves swiftly through Bonaparte's rise to power as a great general and ultimately Emperor of France.  We follow his great battle campaigns, and his personal life, particularly his courtship of Josephine and his many subsequent secret liaisons.  The film ends with his exile to the island of St Helena and his premature death.