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What the British BBC calls a ‘great CV of Napoleon’s career’ and ‘a beautifully illustrated Wikipedia page’ is met with harsh criticism in Paris: the leading Napoleon expert, Jean Tulard, says he would advise young students not to watch the film. to look. Nothing is right in the film, neither the details nor the general idea. Attributing Napoleon’s good or bad luck in the war to his relationship with Joséphine de Beauharnais is absurd and unfounded. If the daughter of wealthy plantation owners on the Caribbean island of Martinique had any influence, it was Bonaparte’s decision to reintroduce slavery (which had been abolished by the 1794 Revolution) in 1802. But this fact doesn’t even appear in the movie.

It must be said: criticism of Napoleon is absolutely allowed in France. The self-proclaimed emperor, who came to power in a coup, betraying the achievements of the decade-old revolution, left an ambivalent legacy. It is no coincidence that since Valéry Giscard d’Estaing in the 1970s, no French president – neither François Mitterrand, Jacques Chirac or François Hollande – has visited Napoleon’s sarcophagus in the Invalides. Emmanuel Macron, who cannot hide his Bonapartist leanings, broke with this tradition.

In 2021, on the 200th anniversary of the death of the French emperor, the newspaper “Le Monde” asked many people whether Napoleon was a “tyrant or a hero”. Other Parisian media asked, somewhat bewildered, “Should we celebrate this occasion?” The magazine “Paris Match” agreed, but with an ironic reasoning: “Napoleon was a tyrant – but he was our tyrant!”

The Emperor as libertine – designed by a British gentleman

The debate over the new film is not so much about what Napoleon did, but about who made ‘Napoleon’. The French were struck by the fact that a Briton of all people, a representative of the “treacherous Albion”, as they have said in France since the Hundred Years’ War, dared to attack the national figure of Napoleon I.

The 86-year-old star director Sir Ridley Scott describes the little Corsican as an infantile, squeaking newt. When it comes to political and historical matters, in an interview he puts him on a par with Alexander the Great, Hitler and Stalin. Such a view is widespread in Britain, which Napoleon tried to ruin with a continental blockade until he was abandoned by the British at Elba. The film credits also mention the 320,000 deaths in the Napoleonic battles.

But despotism is only his side of Napoleon, Tulard puts it into perspective. At the same time, the Emperor spread the fruits of the French Revolution, such as civil law, throughout Europe. In France he created the central bank, the secondary schools and the entire state structure with the prefectures in the departments.

The conservative Parisian newspaper ‘Le Figaro’ also shares this sentiment, having published balanced articles in recent years about Napoleon’s selfish conquests. She believes that large-scale productions such as Scott’s “Napoleon” not only served as popular entertainment, but also had subliminal political or patriotic purposes. It is no coincidence that Oliver Stone’s film “Alexander” (the Great) was released shortly after the Iraq War; Although the politically incorrect director denied this, the undertone of the film ultimately conveys a message of the ‘good’ conquerors from the West – in keeping with the American military operations in the Middle East. And the regimes of China and Russia, according to ‘Le Figaro’, specialize in nationalist historical films such as ‘The Battle of Changping’ (2008) or ‘The Battle of Kulikovo Field’ (2022).

“Le Figaros” conclusion to French speeches: “Let us also launch super productions about our history to be represented in information and influence campaigns with films, series and video games.” It doesn’t have to be Napoleon in the first place: the sequel to last year’s blockbuster ‘The Three Musketeers’ will be released worldwide in mid-December. With an international star cast, but guaranteed with a French director. (aargauerzeitung.ch)