Napoleon (2023) - Scott's best in many years, a thumping epic

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A wild scene of fierce battle makes up the striking motif in this poster for Ridley Scott's Napoleon

Corsican army officer Napoleon Bonaparte rises in the years following the French revolution of 1788, by 1804 becoming Emperor of France. His countless military battles around Europe and beyond it and his passionate but childless marriage to empress Joséphine define the man.

 

Napoleon is written by David Scarpa (All the Money in the World (2017)), based on the real historical figure, and directed by English master filmmaker, co-producer/director Ridley Scott (The Duelists (1977)), whose 28th feature it is.

Opening with a brutal, vivid rendering of the execution of Marie Antoinette, France's last queen, Scott intentionally throws his audience immediately into a fantastic, adventurous depiction of a severely different time and place than the common day, - anywhere that it may be lived on this earth. Napoleon springs along without wasting time, to various countries and battles, with a narrative anchor in the central love story, which is never shown with present-day affinities but rather with unflattering, somewhat theatrical, perhaps honest insight into the actual marriage. Co-producer/star Joaquin Phoenix (Irrational Man (2015)) is the man to lift such a bombastic mega-ego commander on the big screen and gives a memorable performance, and Vanessa Kirby (Kill Command (2016)) is very good as Joséphine, although the character is invariably reactive in nature: He conquers; she largely home-sits. And fails to get pregnant, which was her main job. The importance of this ultimate failure is dealt with seriously, and is part of the film's incredible allure. 

Helping to build the bulky, striding picture are also incredible costumes, locations and battle scenes, - the Austerlitz battle is especially captivating, but there are striking images and a very engaging sense of primal, boyishly gleeful but of course deadly serious 'war' about all the battles in Napoleon. Dariusz Wolski's (War Machine (2017)) cinematography is wonderfully free of the now so often seen soaring drone shots that reveal a mass of CGI-created details. This film's digital effects are never glaring; and the achieved realism helps transport us to this far-away time and place. Martin Phipps (Black Mirror (2011-16)) relishes the film with strong musical choices, classical and some more idiosyncratic, but all apt and commendable. The film also has some noteworthy supporting actors; Paul Rhys (Borgia (2013-14)) as the French foreign minister is fantastic, and so is Rupert Everett (Muse (2019)) as the Duke of Wellington. The film is a deft display of Scott's unsentimental knack for bravado storytelling, entertaining the masses and telling a great story at the same time. This French legend strikes one as very French here, while the sub-level humor and brazen, unadorned form is very English.

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Watch a trailer for the film here

 

Cost: 200 mil. $

Box office: 140.1 mil. $ and counting

= Too early to say

[Napoleon premiered 14 November (Paris) and runs 157 minutes. Shooting took place from February - May 2022 in England, Paris, France, Morocco and in Malta. The film opened #2, behind The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, to a 32.7 mil. $ first (5-day) weekend, falling out of the top 5 in its 2nd weekend in North America. Together with Martin Scorsese's The Killers of the Flower Moon, it is the first major theatrical picture from Apple Studios, who will also base the two films' success criteria on their performance on their streaming service as well as at the 2024 Oscars. The film has been criticized for a long list of historical inaccuracies/creative inventions; Scott has told the critical historians to "shut the fuck up". He has also stated that he hopes to later release a 4 hour 10 minutes long director's cut version of the film with more about Joséphine. Scott returns with Gladiator 2 (2024). Phoenix returns in Polaris (2024). Napoleon is rotten at 58 % with a 6.30/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Napoleon?

Greed (1924) - Von Stroheim's legendary, groundbreaking epic

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An eerie, vampire-like hand stretched through darkness for money makes up this stirring poster for Erich von Stroheim's Greed

The extroverted miner McTeague becomes an apprentice with a traveling dentist and falls for one of his customers, whom he marries, just as she happens to win 5,000 $ in the lottery. But in the following years their relationship gets devoured by greed and abuse.

 

Greed is written by great Austrian-born American filmmaker, co-writer/co-producer/director/co-editor Erich von Stroheim (Blind Husbands (1919)), with Joseph Farnham (Thunder (1929)) and June Mathis (The Man Who (1921)) making minor contributions, adapting McTeague: A Story of San Francisco (1899) by Frank Norris (The Third Circle 1909).

Stroheim's notorious epic has three phenomenal performances in the leads: Gibson Gowland (A Stranger in Town (1943)) as McTeague, Zasu Pitts (Spring Tonic (1935)) as wife Trina and Jean Hersholt (Reunion (1936)) as McTeague's friend Marcus Shouler. It also has several good scenes that arrive as pearls on a string. They are directed with extraordinary panache and foresight, utilizing locations to great effect.

Very regrettably huge parts of Stroheim's original film has been lost, not least since the lost reels apparently contained subplots that would have added nuances to the gloomy portrait of man that meets the audience in Greed. As the film stands now, both on screens and in the historic annals and analyses about it, the legends of Greed, its creation, Stroheim's obsessions and the film's afterlife, is at least as good and fascinating as the film itself.

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Watch 2 minutes of exerpts from the film here

Cost: 611k $

Box office: 274k $

= Mega-flop (returned 0.44 times its cost)

[Greed premiered 4 December (New York) and runs 140 minutes/239 minutes (Turner Entertainment's 1999 reconstructed version using stills). Stroheim had been fired from Universal Pictures prior to making a new, liberal deal with The Goldwyn Company, which also promised him 30k $ for a completed film and allowed him to head out and shoot the film on location. Shooting took place from March - October 1923 in California, including Los Angeles and San Francisco. The studio agreed to double the film's budget just three days into shooting. Stroheim had worked himself to exhaustion and collapsed days into shooting, but then recuperated and finished the film. Especially its 2-months long Death Valley shoot in conditions of extreme heat and lack of comforts are notorious; collapses from heat exhaustion would occur daily, and 14 cast and crew members became ill and left, including Hersholt, who spend a week in the hospital with internal bleeding: He still later called this the best role of his career. During the shoot in the mine, Stroheim famously insisted that it be done at 3,000 feet (900 meters) below ground for realism, although the setting was the same at 100 feet (30 m). When shooting ended after nearly 200 days, Stroheim had shot 85 hours of film or what comes to more than 52 times the length of the film that his contract stipulated that he should deliver. Stroheim's first cut of the film ran 42 reels or 8+ hours, and just 12 people saw it, with 3 of them agreeing it was the greatest film ever made. His next cut was 24 reels, around 5 hours, intended to be shown over the course of two nights; but simultaneously the studio was editing a shorter version. Goldwyn Company then merged with Metro Pictures, putting Stroheim's Universal nemesis Irving Thalberg in charge of the film, and Stroheim eventually ended in a fight, where Stroheim got punched in the face by Louis B. Mayer, who disliked the film. It was cut to 10 reels and added title cards that were much contended. The whole editing debacle hurt Stroheim profoundly. Metro Goldwyn Pictures Corporation spent 65k $ on advertising, - not much considering the film's relatively high cost. Critics were split, but many were mainly offended by the film's realism and thought it sordid. It grossed 227k $ (82.8 % of the total gross) in North America. The lost original Stroheim cut of the film has been called the 'holy grail' in cinema; though several legends are around about its possible whereabouts, it has never been found. The 1999 reconstruction cost 100k $ to assemble. Roger Ebert has given the film a 4/4 star review, translating to a notch over this one. Stroheim returned with The Merry Widow (1925). Gowland returned in The Phantom of the Opera (1925); Pitts in Sunlight of Paris (1924); and Hersholt in Cheap Kisses (1924). Greed is fresh at 96 % with a 9.30/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

 

What do you think of Greed? 

The Family/La famiglia (1987) - Scola's warm, refined chamber drama

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On an earthy-orange background the title for Ettore Scola's The Family stands forth with grandeur

We follow two brothers, Carlo and Giulio, through the lives they lead in a great big house in Rome, and particularly Carlo's secret relationship with a cousin of theirs.

The Family is the 19th feature from the great Italian co-writer/director Ettore Scola (Passion of Love/Passione d'Amore (1981)). He co-wrote it with Ruggero Maccari (Le Bal (1983)) and Furio Scarpelli (The Dinner/La Cena (1998)), with Graziano Diana (Don Busco (2004, TV movie)) contributing some dialog. It is a minor masterpiece, and if some object that it is a bit banal, I reply that I don't think it is more banal than life itself.
It is infused with a warmth, a sensitivity and a nostalgia that is balanced expertly with a kind of wise objectivity. And Vittorio Gassman (We All Loved Each other So Much/C'eravamo Tanto Amati (1974)) acts beautifully here. The Family is a terrific film.

Watch the first couple of minutes of the film here

Cost: Unknown
Box office: Unknown
= Uncertain (but reportedly an "enormous commercial success")
[The Family premiered 20 January (Florence, Italy) and runs 137 minutes. It has been described as Scola's most autobiographical film, as he also came from a big family household in Rome's Prati neighborhood. The film reportedly grossed 346k $ in North America. According to Peter Bondanella in his book A History of Italian Cinema, the film "attained enormous critical and commercial success." It was nominated for the Best Foreign Film Oscar, which it lost to Gabriel Axel's masterpiece Babette's Feast/Babettes Gæstebud (1987). The film also competed in Cannes and won 6/12 David di Donatello award (Italy's Oscar) nominations. Scola returned as one of 9 directors of Imago Urbis (1987, documentary) and then with his own film Splendor (1989). Gassman returned in I Picari (1987). 1,697 IMDb users have given The Family a 7.5/10 average rating.]

What do you think of The Family?

55 Days at Peking (1963) or, Peking anno 1900

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The gorgeously painted poster in booming colors for Nicholas Ray, Andrew Marton and Guy Green's 55 Days at Peking

American Marine Major Lewis has to get his Western counterparts to stand shoulder by shoulder in Peking around 1900 in the bloody 'Boxer Rebellion'.
 
Charlton Heston (Planet of the Apes (1968)) is the angular strong-man, who falls for a stoic beauty from Russia (Ava Gardner (The Barefoot Contessa (1954))). David Niven (The Guns of Navarone (1961)) beautifully portrays the over-courteous and feeble-minded Brit, a character who grows in the course of the film.
Dmitri Tiomkin's (Rio Bravo (1959)) music is grand. He was both Oscar-nominated for his score and for the song So Little Time, with Paul Francis Webster (Paytonn Place (1957), lyrics). 55 Days is also the kind of epic where its sets are so big and detailed that one feels compelled to watch without blinking.
Wisconsinite Nicholas Ray (Rebel without a Cause (1955)) was a great director, and he was hired to direct: However, somewhere in the course of doing this, he became so overworked that he collapsed on the set, and Guy Green (A Patch of Blue (1965)) and Andrew Marton (The Longest Day (1962)) finished the job uncredited. Save for a lost horror film and an experimental film, We Can't Go Home Again (1973) and some shorts, this became Ray's last film. 55 Days is written by Philip Yordan (The Bravados (1958)), Bernard Gordon (Crime Wave (1954)) and an uncredited Ben Barzman (The Heroes of Telemark (1965)), with Robert Hamer (They All Died Laughing (1964)) supplying some dialogue.
The film contains both suspense, glamour, destitution and tragedy, SPOILER although the latter is ultimately lightened some by a humane decision committed by Heston's wonderful character. - Epic historical dramas rarely get finer than 55 Days at Peking.

The marvelous water color title still, created by Chinese-American artist Dong Kingman for Nicholas Ray, Guy Green and Andrew Marton's 55 Days at Peking

Here is a short trailer for the film

Cost: 17 mil. $
Box office: 10 mil. $ (North America only)
= Uncertainty (likely at least a big flop)
[55 Days at Peking premiered 4 May (UK) and runs 153 minutes. The period in Chinese history that the film portrays, influenced, naturally, by its own time, is still controversial today. Ray was reportedly paid a very high salary for directing the film, which made him uneasy that it should become his last, which it sort of did. Filming took place near Madrid in Spain, and 4,000 extras were employed, including many Chinese, who were recruited from restaurants and laundries across Europe, as Spain didn't have enough Chinese people for the mass scenes. The film became the 20th highest grossing in North America for the year, but with its massive budget, it was still a financial disaster, although it was reportedly more successful internationally. - Without those figures, however, it is impossible to make out its precise status, although it was likely at least a big flop. The film was nominated for 2 Oscars: It lost Best Score to John Addison for Tom Jones and Best Song to Call Me Irresponsible from Papa's Delicate Condition. Ray returned with now lost horror, The Doctor and the Devil (1965). Green returned with A Patch of Blue (1965). Marton returned with The Thin Red Line (1964). Heston returned in Kraft Mystery Theater (1963, TV-series), The Patriots (1963, TV movie) and theatrically in The Greatest Story Ever Told (1965); Gardner in Seven Days in May (1964); and Niven in Burke's Law (1963, TV-series) and theatrically in The Pink Panther (1963).  5,288 IMDb-users have given 55 Days at Peking an average rating of 6.8/10.]

What do you think of 55 Days at Peking?