According to tnl.net today, April 11th, marks the date in 1814 when former French leader Napoleon Bonaparte was exiled to the island of Elba.
Its been a long time since I’ve taken a history class but I’ve always found Napoleon to be a fascinating, legendary character in world history. Being so far removed from that time period as well as that region of the world I’m not sure what my feelings are towards the man of whom Thomas Campbell once said, “He is the sworn foe of our nation, and, if you will, of the whole human race”. Most of this post will only be loosely associated with Napoleon Bonaparte but before I go on I wanted to point out a few great Napoleon sites. One is maintained by PBS and can be found here. The other is this site maintained by the Foundation Napoleon.
There are a couple of great movies which feature Napoleon and his exile. The first is The Emperor’s New Clothes:
Starring Ian Holm as the indomitable Napoleon Bonaparte, this movie chronicles the fictional last attempt of Napoleon to regain his throne and thus his empire. A double is found among the commoners and is trained to look and act like Napoleon. While the double remains in exile the real Napoleon steels away to Paris to retake his empire….the only problem is that the fake Napoleon will not give up his new found opulent lifestyle and shortly thereafter dies. With the news of the ‘death’ of Napoleon, the real Bonaparte must now decide how to proceed. In the meantime he meets the recent widow Nicole Truchaut and her son and begins to use his skills as a master strategist to revolutionize their daily lives.
This is a very sweet, romanitic movie. Ian Holm, per usual, is simply excellent as the gruff but good-hearted Napoleon and Iben Hjejle is wonderful in the role of Nicole Truchaut. The rest of the cast is terrific. I’ve seen this movie several times and highly recommend it.
The next is The Count of Monte Cristo.
Starring James Caviezel as Edmond Dantes/the Count, Guy Pearce as friend turned foe Fernand Mondego, and the lovely Dagmara Dominczyk as Mercedès Iguanada, this movie is the ultimate revenge fantasy. This movie begins with a chance encounter between Dantes and the exiled Emperor…an encounter that soon begins to unravel the fabric of our hero’s life. What ensues is a painfully long prison sentence, the germination of the seeds of revenge, and ultimately the opportunity for redemption. I love the colors and the lavish costumes in this movie, especially when Edmond becomes the Count. I would be remiss if I didn’t mention the wonderful job done by Richard Harris in one of his final roles. I have yet to read the daunting novel by Alexandre Dumas so I don’t know how accurately the novel is portrayed. That being said I highly recommend this movie as well.
In my mind I cannot think of Napoleon without immediately thinking of Josephine.
The PBS site has a section dedicated to the courtship, romance, and ultimate demise of Napoleon and Josephine. It includes excerpts from letters passed between the couple which are very interesting. Thinking of Josephine brings to mind Tori Amos.
On her CD, To Venus and Back, Tori sings a hauntingly beautiful song entitled Josephine, one of my favorites on the album.
On her site you can go here to view the lyrics and you can click on load audio the hear a portion of Josephine.
and last, but not least, I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to mention the wholly unrelated movie:
This directorial debut of Jared Hess, written by Hess and his wife, Jerusha, is funny, and sweet, and romantic, and touching, and just plain bizarre! The cast of relative unknowns does a great job in this film that is destined to become a cult classic. What I found most refreshing about this movie compared to other teen-movie fare is that the nerdy characters did not attempt to change their looks or personalities in order to become like the popular kids. They remained true to themselves throughout the film. I also liked the fact that the popular kids weren’t played by impossibly good-looking 20-somethings pretending to be teenagers, they were normal looking kids. And, although its a stretch, there was something Napoleon-like in the way that the title character took on the role of campaign manager for his friend Pedro Sanchez and laid out the strategy for Pedro’s bid for Class President.
This concludes your pop culture history lesson of the day!
Very cool post, Carl. I love how you tie together some very loosely related items of interest. Not much time to post, but I will say that I loved the two movies and Napoleon appears to have been a land hungry despot. I haven’t done any extensive research though…
Speaking of Pedro, Tori and I saw a T-shirt at Gordman’s that had the slogan, “Vote for Pedro”. I love the whole class president campaign sequence. “Is it hot in here?”
The British “affectionately” referred to Napoleon as “The Monster”.
I know for a fact that you loved all 3 movies referenced in this post! You can’t deny your love for Napoleon Dynamite! 🙂
Cool post! Do I like land-hungry despots? “Heck, yes!”
Thanks for the movie ideas, Carl. I just netflixed Cristo and Emperor.
Thanks for the movie suggestions. I am going to add Emperor and Cristo in a few mintues to Netflix. I saw ND and it was hilarious. I actually want to rent it again b/c I will probably like it more the second time. I love these kind of movies. My recent and most favorite is Station Agent. This is a must buy DVD for me when I have the chance. On our way to Lebanon, Mike and I saw an abandoned burger joint out in the middle of nowhere that reminded us of the Station Agent.
The Count of Monte Cristo is one of my favorite movies. I own this one and watch it on occasion. It’s a perfect mix of love, romance, integrity, sword fighting, torture, vengeance, justice, belonging, family…. awwwww…..perfection.
I liked Napoleon Dynamite. Made me wonder what happened to the odd ones I went to school with. There were quite a few Napoleons in Odessa.
Hey Carl, I misspelled Napoleon. Would you fix it for me, please? It’ll bug me if you don’t.
Speaking of the “o” in Napoleon, I loved the way Uncle Rico pronounced ND’s name. All fake French accent on the “o”. “Napole-own”. LOL
The Count of Monte Cristo is my all-time favorite novel!
No, the movie wasn’t nearly as good as the book.. and it was changed QUITE a bit, much to my dismay. 🙁
Never read the book. I bet I’d love it.
It’s more of a tragedy, and mainly him seeking revenge.. but I’ve never read a book that has moved me so much as reading that one. (besides the Bible, of course)
Julie, its taken care of. I try to fix everyone’s spelling errors only because I hope they do the same for me.
Rob, I think you’ll enjoy these! I have Count also, Abby, if you want to borrow it and save your Netflix for something else.
Wow Angela! That’s a BIG novel! I think the only reason I haven’t read it is that the size is just so intimidating!
I don’t know if I would agree that Napoleon was a monster or not. I honestly haven’t read about him or Alexander the Great or anyone like that recently enough to know what I think about them. Except Hilter of course! Interesting comments though Mary my sweet. You library people are smart! 🙂
i think i have about 3 copies of it.. when i find hardbacks of it, i have to get them.
my favorite one is an old, illustrated hardback.
a bit like mel gibson in Conspiracy Theory, i know.. lol
I also enjoyed the Count of Monte Cristo movie and I too have not read the novel, but I have read The Three Muskteers by Alexander Dumas and enjoyed that quite a bit.
I haven’t seen either the Emporer’s New Clothes or Napoleon Dynamite but I will have check them out. A couple of friends of mine also have told me the Napoleon Dynamite is a must see. Fun and bizarre.
I recenlty taped the movies Big Fish, Win a Date with Tad Hamilton, and Nightmare Before Xmas off HBO and I intend to watch one of those tonight. Which should I watch first? Any recommendations anyone?
Carl, how come you didn’t tell me I misspelled remembrance on my blog then? I fixed it today when I realized it.
Thanks!
Ok, while we’re on a spelling binge, Carl you misspelled “aptly” (“apply”?) on one of your other posts. There, I said it. {Snicker!}
Angela, wasn’t Mel collecting Catcher in the Rye by Salinger?
Yes, Rob.. that part stuck with me for some reason.. hehe
Hmm, so Angela’s mildly paranoid about government mind control…
Oh, I misspell tons of stuff! I’m always catching things in my posts and comments that I’ve read over several times without noticing! I had misspellings and missed grammatical errors on tons of stuff that I posted last Monday when I was in my post-extreme-home-makeover haze! 🙂
Julie, I had forgotten that you liked Count so much. Once you mentioned it I started remembering having a conversation about this. Can’t remember if we watched it with you guys or not.
No, I saw it with some girlfriends. I can’t remember if Mary was there. I don’t think so.
Now that you mention it I think she did go see it with you. I remember seeing Count with a friend who was visiting from Nebraska.
Oh, I was there, Julie! I love his gorgeous blue eyes!
Angela, I did not read the book, but I did read the cliff notes when the movie came out. If I remember correctly, the count does not get together with the girl. I suppose I would have been disappointed in the lack of sticking to the “real” story if I had read it before seeing the movie. As it is, I am just a sucker for a happy ending especially when justice prevails and everyone has a chance at redemption even if they decide not to take that chance…
Is that terrible to admit that I read the Cliff Notes? It wasn’t like it was assigned reading for a class…They are actually helpful when used in the “manner intended” by the authors. You get a good overview of characters, plot, themes, etc.
Carl, I am sorry. I should have said that I liked all 3 movies! I really want to see Mr. Dynamite again!
Vote for Pedro!
yes, Mary.. the ending was absolutely nothing alike.
there was no premarital sex.. so the boy was not his.. so yeah, i was a little frustrated with quite a few things. lol
If the guy and girl don’t get together in the end then I probably would’ve been disappointed with the book. I’m a sucker for formulaic romantic happy endings to movies and books. There are some “tragedies” that I like but by and large I’m more for happy endings.
That being said, I can readily understand why you wouldn’t like it if you were enamored with the original story. A Tale of Two Cities is one of my favorite books that could be considered a romance tragedy…its very bleak at any rate…and I would be very unhappy if I saw a movie in which they completely messed with the ending!
I’m sorry Mary. I couldn’t remember what girls I went with. I just remembered Misty being there. James will tell you my memory isn’t the best.
I, too, am a sucker for a happy ending. An occasional tragedy can be good for the soul, but most of the time, give me a happy ending or…..else…yeah…
Julie, maybe your memory problem’s a Norwegian thing? I read that somewhere, I can’t remember where.
Actually, I went to a chiropractor this morning. He said my neck at the base of my skull is out of wack( I knew that cuz it hurts). He said those pinched nerves are probably affecting my thought processes. Wow, I have a medical excuse!! I am going back tomorrow. It’s messed up my sinuses, my allergies and asthma are back.Who knows, maybe I’m infertile again. 🙂 I went three years ago and got all fixed up but haven’t went for maintenance. Now I’m screwed up again. Wow, I’m ramblilng. This doesn’t have anything to do with Napoleon.
i usually only like happy endings too.. but this book was amazing.. and actually, i dont really know why he doesn’t end up with her in the end. they could have with how things were left. that’s one thing i didn’t quite get.
and hey.. i’m half norwegian with a bad memory.. so maybe that has something to do with it. lol
Angela gets cooler all the time. 😉
Go Norskes!
So Julie, does that mean you’re hoping the chiropractor will get you fixed up again so you can start having more kids! 🙂
uhhh……NO!
lol
Dem choir practors iz magic! You gonna be shootin out babies all over de place!
Le Comte de Monte-Cristo is a fantastic novel! I’m a delirious fan of Alexandre Dumas…
Have you read 3 Musketeers?
I’m a big history buff and recently finished a book titled “Sex with Kings” which sounds rather salacious but is actually a collection of stories about offical royal mistresses in history. Fascinating reading…AND it includes your pal Napoleon!
just got a copy of 3 Musketeers from the breakup of someone’s library. it’s got that old book smell. looking forward to reading it. (swash swash buckle buckle)
i’ve always had a fascination with Josphine.
you should read The Passion by Jeanette Winterson. Napoleon’s chickens play a central role.
i hated Napoleon Dynamite. it was stupid, & not in that nice way. mostly i hated the main character & thought it was pointless.
“is a point in every direction the same as no point at all?”
Oh Jenn See, how could you despise our dear Napoleon Dynamite?!?!? ND was stupid but I’d have to disagree, I loved that stupidity. I enjoyed the entire movie but the last 2 minutes really makes the whole thing worthwhile…my favorite part is when Pedro keeps saying “is it hot in here….I think they got the heater on or something” and then proceeds to go home and shave his head….pure cinematic gold! 🙂
Both books, Passion and Sex, sound interesting! (Boy, that doesn’t read well does it?) 🙂
I’ll have to read Dumas one of these days…just another in the long line of authors that I should’ve read by now but haven’t!
I read Alexander Dumas “Three Musketeer’s” back in high school and it’s one of the few books I can say that I was required to read that I actually enjoyed. The novel is certainly better than any film adaptation I have ever seen of it.
What are you doing up so late? Get to bed! You’ve got comics to sell tomorrow! 🙂
yea! comic day! 🙂
It’s so funny how it’s chic to be geek these days! Can I be a comic geek too? I’m one by proxy, if that counts (roomie is an avid comic guy).
Anyone heard of Uzamaki? Pretty messed up!
i pretty much stick to marvel & dc comics still..
i just blew $30 today.. ouch. but i had to get the first 4 Indentity Crisis series.. as well as the a few regulars & a couple impulse buys.
i’m so weak.
Yes, you can be a comic geek by proxy….only to be truly geeky you have to drag yourself into a comic store once in awhile! 🙂 I’m glad more people are getting into comics as that at least helps a little in keeping the prices down. I have a few really cool backordered things that are coming in today. Can’t wait to get over there! Yea for new comic day!!! 🙂
Carl, sorry, I hadn’t seen that question: I have, the sequel too, and I’m trying to locate the very end of it (le vicomte de Bragelonne has 4 parts at least, and I’ve only read two…)
Do you read them in French or English?
Well, me being French and all, in French… I don’t think I’ve ever read a French novel in English…
Yessss, 50!
I was just curious since you obviously read and write English so well. Didn’t know if you ever read these in English. Wish I had spent more time studying Spanish in college. It would be cool to be bilingual, but I’m too lazy and/or busy. Congrats on being #50! That’s cool!
Thank you (on three accounts)!