Napoleon

Original title: Napoléon

TV Mini Series
2002
15
1h 29m

IMDb RATING

7.3/10

5.2K

YOUR RATING

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Adventure Biography Drama History Romance War

A masterful soldier, tactician, and statesmen, Napoleon Bonaparte, with courage and love for his country, rises from an unpaid general consumed with ambition to the most powerful man in Euro... Read allA masterful soldier, tactician, and statesmen, Napoleon Bonaparte, with courage and love for his country, rises from an unpaid general consumed with ambition to the most powerful man in Europe. But his life ends with a fall and exile.A masterful soldier, tactician, and statesmen, Napoleon Bonaparte, with courage and love for his country, rises from an unpaid general consumed with ambition to the most powerful man in Europe. But his life ends with a fall and exile.

Stars

See production info at IMDbPro

IMDb RATING

7.3/10

5.2K

YOUR RATING

Stars

See production info at IMDbPro

Won 1 Primetime Emmy
- 4 wins & 11 nominations total

Episodes4

Browse episodes

TopTop-rated 1 Season 2002

Trivia
The series was shot simultaneously in French and English. Thus, two versions exist, with the same actors and near-identical edits, but different original languages.

Goofs
Tsar Alexander and Napoleon are listening to Paganini's Caprice No. 24. However, that piece was only composed in 1817, when Napoleon was already in St. Helena.

Quotes
Napoléon: The English are calling upon my men to desert by flooding our lines with this drivel. It'll have no effect on them!
Maréchal Joachim Murat: I'm not so sure. The men have had enough. Most of the time we have to force them to obey!
Napoléon: Have the officers discipline them again. That's why they're here.
Maréchal Joachim Murat: The officers, they say that you torture your soldiers, and that you will never be able to seize Egypt.
Napoléon: I have, Murat, Egypt is ours, almost ours. Cairo is a French city. The Nile Delta has been pacified, and all there is left to subjugate a few Turkish regiments.
Maréchal Joachim Murat: Turks and Arabs, supported by the English. Be realistic, Bonaparte. We can't go on, especially with the plague on our heels.
Napoléon: The doctors assured me that the epidemic could be contained.
Maréchal Joachim Murat: The doctors can do nothing against fear.
Napoléon: I can.

Alternate versions
Shot simultaneously in French and English. For the French version, the French actors spoke in French, the rest recited their dialogues in English and were later dubbed by other actors. For the English version, the French actors repeated the same shots reciting the dialogues in English.

Connections
Featured in The 55th Annual Primetime Emmy Awards (2003)

Soundtracks
Napoleon
Written by Richard Grégoire
Performed by Bulgarian Symphony Orchestra-Sif 309
Courtesy of Virgin Classics

User reviews50

Review

Featured review

Excellent performance by M. Clavier

I was never interested in Napoleon. Although I visited the Louvre I didn't go to see Napoleon's chambers, which are on display there. I would have never watched this series if it wasn't for the actors in it. And now, after six hours of Napoleon and nothing but Napoleon, I actually got interested in the chap and think about reading a biography. And I'm sure this is down to the excellent performance of Christian Clavier. Simple as that.

Okay, his English could be a tiny bit better, agreed, but I rather get used to an accented English than to a bad performance by English native speakers. Christian Clavier is truly an excellent actor, although he might be best known (in France) for his parts in very silly comedies. If he only decided to take more "serious" parts, maybe more people would notice what a fantastic talent he has. What he can express just with his eyes is quite stunning. But that may be a female point of view...

The other well known actors had, of course, smaller parts, in comparison. But none of them was miscast. And I especially liked how actors from different countries once again worked together. This as well is what the European idea is about.

One of the few things I didn't like were the flashbacks at the end. They were completely out of place and should be cut out. They don't make sense at all at the end of the film.

And a last remark about Monsieur Clavier's language skills: The first way he said "Ich liebe dich" got me guffawing, the second way he made my heart melt. Maybe he should think about doing a film in German...?