Napoléon is a 1955 epic French historical biographical film duology directed and written by Sacha Guitry.
It depicts the life of Napoléon Bonaparte from his birth to his death, including of course The French Revolution, his rise to the top of the state, his rule as Emperor of the French and the wars he fought, totalling three hours.
Napoleon is played by two actors, Daniel Gélin as a young man and Raymond Pellegrin in later life. Sacha Guitry himself played the role of Talleyrand, controversial diplomat and first Prime Minister of France (he had played Talleyrand before, in 1948's Le Diable boiteux, adapted from his own stage play) who narrates most of the story.
The film also features appearances by a number of notable actors, particularly Michèle Morgan as Joséphine de Beauharnais, Erich von Stroheim as Ludwig van Beethoven, Yves Montand as Marshal François Joseph Lefebvre, Maria Schell as Marie-Louise of Austria, Jean Marais as Charles-Tristan de Montholon, Jean Gabin as Marshal Jean Lannes, Orson Welles as Napoleon's Saint Helan jailor Sir Hudson Lowe and many others. Marais and Welles would later appear in another French Napoleonic epic with a big cast, Austerlitz, and Welles would appear again in Waterloo.
For the 1927 film by Abel Gance, see here. For the 2002 miniseries, see here. For the 2023 film by Ridley Scott, see here.
Napoléon provides examples of:
- Assassination Attempt: A Cossack tries to assassinate Napoleon at one point, only to end up neutralized and shot point-blank.
- Author Appeal: The culmination of the dozen of films Sacha Guitry dedicated to the Napoleonic era, which he was particularly fond of.
- Citywide Evacuation: When Napoleon reaches Moscow in 1812, the city is empty. Then it is ravaged by fire, which he contemplates through a window.
- Cradle To Grave Character: Napoleon. The duology follows him from his birth in Corsica in 1769 to his death in Saint Helena in 1821 (the only live-action biopic to do so so far).
- Creator In-Joke: The film features allusions to Sacha Guitry's other works set in this era:
- In Désirée Clary's introduction, the narrator mentions her destin fabuleux ("fabulous destiny"). Guitry had previously directed a film about her life, Mademoiselle Désirée (French title Le destin fabuleux de Désirée Clary).
- The first scene featuring General Cambronne shows Napoleon advising him to watch his language, lest he say a word he will regret. Cambronne famously said "Merde!" as he was asked to surrender in Waterloo, which is shown in the film. This Brick Joke also calls back to the fact that Guitry wrote an entire play revolving around Cambronne's famous word, Le mot de Cambronne.
- Deadpan Snarker: Talleyrand, per Sacha Guitry's signature laconic witticisms habit.Talleyrand: Oof, he's dead. We're finally going to be able to talk about him. [they've talked about Napoleon for years]
- Epic Movie: Three hours of film, an appropriately epic historical subject, and one of the biggest casts ever assembled for a French film.
- Expository Hairstyle Change: The whole scene of Bonaparte getting a hair cut is mostly just an excuse to... switch actors.
- Framing Device: Talleyrand narrates the whole story from a drawing room in 1821, having just heard of Napoleon's death on the island of Saint Helena.
- Irony: Talleyrand starts talking about Napoleon's story by saying he "was born on an island" (Corsica), "dreamed all of his life of conquering an island" (Great Britain), "was exiled to an island" (Elba) and "died on an island" (Saint Helena).
- March: The film's opening theme is an elongated remix of the "Consulary Guard March"
with also bits of the melody of "On va leur percer le flanc", two of the most famous Napoleonic marches. - Movie Multipack: It is a film duology totalling about three hours.
- Never Speak Ill of the Dead: A variation. One of the two women Talleyrand talks to at the beginning has a plain and negative opinion of Napoleon. Talleyrand cuts her and tells her she's not allowed to have "an opinion" on "the greatest man who ever lived" be it negative or even positive, unless she can formulate it in a particularly witty way (again per Sacha Guitry's usual taste for witty and cultured Deadpan Snarker humor). The woman doesn't take it well and leaves, with Talleyrand then basically saying he's had to put up with her bullshit for twenty years.
- Protagonist Title: "Napoléon", of course.
- Screaming Birth: Napoléon's mother (Letizia Bonaparte) screams while giving birth to him offscreen.
- The Storyteller: Talleyrand tells the whole story of Napoleon to two friends of his after the fact, in 1821.
- Suddenly Shouting: When Napoleon visits Lannes, who's been mortally wounded on the battlefield, Lannes can barely whisper. However, just as the Emperor leaves the room, Lannes sees wounded soldiers around. He then asks Napoleon to come closer, points at the wounded and yells "ENOUGH!". While telling this, Talleyrand laments that Napoleon didn't take that advice.
- Time-Shifted Actor:
- Daniel Gélin played Napoleon as a younger man up until he became emperor, at which point Raymond Pellegrin took over. Oddly, Gélin was 33 while Pellegrin was 29 (it was Pellegrin's dramatic chops Guitry was going for with the change).
- A younger actor played Napoleon as a teen during his time at the Brienne military school.
