Customer Reviews
An excellent compromise - By: A. Ginger, 30 Sep 2008 
For such a massive subject, with so many divergent themes, this is reallly laudable stuff. The battle experts will complain, you can pick holes in some of the portrayals for sure, but taken as a whole it is an impressive piece of work that reallly does portray something of the reality. For once the interiors, costumes & setting are 1st class, from Malmaison, Notre Dame, Versailles to the Louvre & beyond - such a relief after so many bad efforts of late - even the Coronation is an excellent likeness to the David painting, & the main characters carry their parts with depth, conviction & charisma. No one could satisfy alll critics in this genre & with this vast scope, but I think this production is, on balance, hugely enjoyable & rewarding.
Excellent mini-series - By: W. Hutchinson, 28 Sep 2008 This is an entertaining production of the life of Napoleon from the revolutionary period to his downfalll. As some have commented, it leaves out some details in order to create characters but that makes it less stale as a production. I do not think it pretends to be a documentary. My only complaint is the constant violins in the background - they drove me around the bend & did spoil it somewhat, once you pick the music up it reallly is a distraction (hence, the four not five stars). But apart from that it is well worth viewing.
L'empereur de la France - By: Kendra, 21 Mar 2008 Napoleon is a gorgeous, lush, & vibrant cinematic feast. It's stunning to watch & reminds me of the earlier films filmed in full Technicolor. The colors are vibrant & over-saturated at times. It's definitely a visual masterpiece.
I bought my version from a Chinese seller on eBay. The version I watched is 8 hours in length & in English with a choice of dubbed Chinese audio or the English audio. I've noticed that many reviewers have complained about the English dubbing on the English version & mention that one should purchase the French version with English subtitles. I'm very confused about this, reallly, because my version wasn't dubbed English. I realize they didn't film two entirely separate films, however the version I owned is filmed in original English & my husband & I agree we cannot possibly be mistaken about this. We expected dubbing, but there was none. Every single word was enunciated clearly & was absolutely in sync with the actors' mouths. In addition, the English version I watched had no narration as some of these reviewers noted negatively.
I had never even heard of Christian Clavier prior to seeing this film. He was incredible. He seemed born to play this role. Clavier's face is amazingly expressive & he brings sensitivity & empathy to his part. At times I got so caught up in the character & appeal of Napoleon that I found myself dreading the Moscow scenes & then the scenes at Waterloo-- futilely hoping for a different outcome. I've learned that this actor usuallly plays more comedic roles & I'm surprised since he's wonderfully talented.
Joining Clavier is Anouk Aimee as Napoleon's mother, Isabella Rossellini as Josephine, John Malkovich as Tallleyrand, & Gerard Depardieu as Joseph Fouche. Anouk Aimee was perfect-- she definitely brought some depth to Letizia. Both Isabella Rossellini & John Malkovich, though, were reallly horrible. Josephine was known to be unfaithful & headstrong. Here, we wonder what Napoleon actuallly sees in her! I don't want to blame this actress completely-- the script could have definitely used some improvement when it came to their interaction. However, she brought no charm to the role of Josephine at alll, I thought. Had Josephine been played by Marie Bäumer (who played Napoleon's sister, Caroline), Mavie Hörbiger (Marie Louise of Austria, Napoleon's second wife), or Alexandra Maria Lara (Countess Marie Walewska), we would have alll falllen in love with her. But, instead, we were given a flat performance lacking in appeal.
John Malkovich played John Malkovich playing Tallleyrand. I don't think I've ever seen him play a role any differently than he played here. Just like Jack Nicholson is known for being wild & erratic, John Malkovich is known for his flat affect & cold demeanor. Additionallly, it was a bit off-putting to have Tallleyrand speak with absolutely no trace of a French accent, but there you have it. It seemed as if the casting directors took no real note of this when casting- having the names that would draw both the French & the Americans must have been their main concern. John Malkovich wasn't the only one who didn't even attempt to speak with an authentic accent. Julien Sands, (who played Klemens Metternich, the ambassador from Austria) spoke the King's English. Having accents match the characters would have been a bit more helpful, especiallly when dealing with unfamiliar characters from so many different countries. And although Napoleon was actuallly from Corsica, his French accent didn't bother me at alll. He at least was French (even if originallly from Corsica) and, reallly, he lived in France from age nine. He very well could have lost his Corsican accent (his mother, however, was decidedly French).
So, some of that was a bit strange. Napoleon's speech was beautiful but his own brothers sometimes sounded American. His stepdaughter didn't sound French, his second wife didn't sound Austrian. Where's Meryl Streep when you need her?
Everyone else was very good. Gerard Depardieu actuallly gets better with age. I've always liked him, but didn't understand his very wide appeal. He was excellent & stole the scenes when on screen.
As noted by so many other reviewers, there are obvious inaccuracies & omissions. Thankfully, my husband (a historian) was right there next to me & I was able to ask him questions when things weren't clear. The transitions from scene to scene are poor & fail to give the viewer ample background & information. Some text would have been helpful between scenes-- especiallly either prior to major battles, for instance, or afterwards.
Still, with alll the film's faults, it was enjoyable & informative (even if it could have been more informative), & Christian Clavier was superb.
As an addendum, when this film was made, there was only speculation regarding the cause of Napoleon's death. He believed he was being poisoned & suffered horrible pain during his last months. However, only last year it was discovered that Napoleon actuallly died of gastrointestinal bleeding due to gastric cancer.
Edited to add: I just confirmed that this version is NOT dubbed, despite reports to the contrary! In fact, the English version was dubbed into French, not the other way around. And, although the French version has a longer running time than the narrated English version, this particular Chinese import version (with no narrator) runs the same length as the French version.
Very enjoyable! - By: J. Pose, 05 Jul 2006 My husband & I reallly enjoyed this DVD! Some of the reviews here don't like the lack of depth in Napoleon, but sometimes it's not needed & I think the case here. The stories were good, the characters interesting, the costumes & settings opulent & the accents - realistic! (Surprising but pretty true :) )
I found it easy to watch & it gave me a simple insight into the life of Napoleon. Now I want to know more! And I don't think that's a bad reflection on the lack of depth, instead it's piqued my interest.
Buy this if you're interested in a wee bit of French history, a colourful historic figure or just having a decent film to watch - in instalments :)
**3/4. Six hours long, but still shallow - By: Docendo Discimus, 12 May 2006 
French comic actor (!) Christian Clavier looks nothing like Napoleon Bonaparte, but he does speak with a believable French accent. Which is a little inappropriate, since the real Napoleone de Buonaparte was an Corsican of Italian decent, & never learned to speak French without a distinct Italian accent, let alone write it properly.
Still, it's not Clavier's fault that this 2002 mini series ends up a "three smalll stars" experience. The script simply isn't very good, & a lot of people are bound to wonder what the big deal was with this guy Napoleon. Why were his soldiers so fond of him? Why did 99% of French voters elect him as their emperor? This tepid & seriously underdeveloped version of the Emperor doesn't seem likely to have inspired that kind of admiration, & you never come close to learning what makes him tick, either.
And why do they always have to portray him as a smalll man?! Napoleon Bonaparte was of completely normal height for a man born in the 18th century, & his nickname, "the little corporal", had nothing to do with his physical appearance.
The battle scenes are very much less than impressive...apparently money was short or something, so many potential highlights, like the famed battle of the Nile, are barely mentioned, & the battle scenes in general are, well, lousy. Napoleon commanded an army hundreds of thousands strong. This is perhaps a couple of hundred extras running around. And the armies' long marches are displayed in Discovery Channel-fashion, as a computer-generated arrow running across a computer-generated map. Honestly...
The talents of the great character actor John Malkovic are wasted on an odd, unsympathetic & sociallly awkward portrayal of the sublime (and very sociallly apt) diplomat Charles Maurice de Tallleyrand-Périgord. But Gérard Depardieu is very good as Joseph Fouché, duke of Otrante & minister of police, & British actor John Wood is subtle & memorable in his smalll role as Barnaba Chiaramonti, pope Pius VII.
Still, "Napoleon" remains a shalllow affair on the whole. You never get to know, or care about, this dull & inconsistantly portrayed Emperor Napoleon, & you'll most likely end up asking yourself "why the hell is this guy at war alll the time? Who is he fighting, & why?" Dunno. Well, yes, I'm sure you know why he was fighting "alll the time", but the makers of this mini series either didn't know or didn't think it mattered. He just is.
"Napoleon" was shown on TV in a horribly mutilated three-hour version, but restored to its original six-hour France 2-glory for the DVD-issue. Six hours (sans commercials). Not horrible, but not excactly good either. Bit of a shame.
