Ridley Scott everything is ready to go Napoleon. His macro project is one of the most anticipated films of the year. Headed Joaquin Phoenix And Vanessa KirbyThe film presents the whole story of the legendary French soldier. Ambitious and ruthless, he conquered half of Europe and proclaimed himself emperor. All this will be seen in cinemas on November 24th.
To celebrate such an event, Scott made a trip to Spain. Although not shown in the film, the country was one of the first territories to drive out the French. The director visited the Prado Museum. On its walls hang numerous pieces from the Revolutionary War, such as Burden of Overalls And Executions on May 3both Francisco de Goya.
Between paintings and sculptures, Scott receives us in the Jerónimos monastery, destroyed by troops during the war Napoleon. Brand new statues and reliefs Carlos V and his family watch as the 85-year-old director greets us journalists one after another for several hours, during which he doesn’t take a single break. When it’s your turn Hypertexthe politely shakes our hand and wastes no time in diving headlong into the mysteries and details of his film.
Among critics, one of the most celebrated aspects is the epic and bloody battles. Selecting those who will appear in the film was not an easy task. “It was complicated. Napoleon He fought 66 fights,” points out Scott, “and he only lost a few.” From this small group, the director made it clear who he wanted to include. “The biggest one, which he lost catastrophically, was the fight when he was going to Moscow. He shouldn’t have done this. So I had to record that fight because it was a complete error in judgment,” he admits. The moment in the film became a turning point for the main character. “Then I also had to compete in Waterloo,” he adds.
But defeat Napoleon They are not the only thing that appears in the film. “I liked the ice on Lake Austerlitz,” he explains. Scott. This battle is considered one of the most important in the Emperor’s life. In it he gave a tactical concert to defeat the Russian-Austrian troops. “He demonstrated very smart intuition and forward-thinking planning. He chose the lake because he knew they would camp three to five miles around it. He imagined himself as bait. The lake was famous for its thick morning fog. 2000 tents. Campaign, and there are those who risk saying 20,000. It was a bait. So I like this shrewd tactic,” explains the director, who also mentions the Battle of Borodino.
Josephine, Napoleon’s weak point
War is not the only thing Ridley Scott he wanted to depict in his vision Napoleon. To this end, he gave vital importance to the protagonist’s wife in the film, Josephine Beauharnais. And he didn’t want to do his thing Bonaparte an invincible and impenetrable person. “How do I do that? I can’t just do fight scenes because if you see too much you get bored. I can’t do bedroom scenes because that gets boring too. So what was the key to this stories?” – he asked himself. when approaching a project.
“The main thing was that he was an extremely powerful man in every way, he was even an emperor. But he had an Achilles heel. He had a soft spot for this woman. Why? Again, it can’t just be sex, that’s too simplistic. There had to be something more in his nature, in his personality,” says the director. This is where he focused his attention. How the most powerful man in the world succumbed Josephine. “Josephine developed. He had a certain natural social grace. I had some gifts that he didn’t have,” he says, “that’s what attracted him.”
Efficient shooting
Among my favorite scenes Scott when directing Napoleon there is the aforementioned Battle of Austerlitz, as well as the 1799 coup d’état. “When he brings all these people, these politicians to the assembly. to catch them,” the director begins. “I said do it in one take with eight cameras,” he says below.
“I set up the cameras, said action and boom! It took us about 8 minutes. This is the speed you see. Then I said Joaquin: ‘Everything is fine? Are you happy? ‘Yeah.’ Do you want to make another one? ‘No’. And that was all. One shot. We could have spent all day on this, but in the end we were ahead of our time,” says the veteran director proudly. And despite the fact that his films are usually long and ambitious, Scott He is one of the filmmakers who best optimizes the resources at his disposal. So, Napoleon It was filmed in just 62 days.
The result was a 2 hour 40 minute film that should have actually been twice as long. In previous cases Scott He assured that he was working on an alternative edit. However, he now claims that his version will be shown in cinemas Napoleon. “This is my director’s cut. I’ve been making director’s cuts for 20 years, so everything that comes out is very measured. I know there are times when the film gets too long and the audience has to endure it. set limits on the response you want to get. And movies cost money, so you want to make it a success for the studio. I totally understand that,” he says, raising doubts about whether the longer cut will see the light of day or not. Meanwhile, Napoleon opens in theaters November 24.
Source: Hiper Textual
