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Napoleon Complex: Six Films in Search of an Emperor

Date: March 4–6 and 11–13, 2005
Location: Getty Center, Harold M. Williams Auditorium
Admission: Free; reservations required.

It has been said that to Napoleon Bonaparte, image was everything. This film series spans two weekends with six films exploring Napoleon's many cinematic incarnations.

The series is presented in partnership with the UCLA Film and Television Archive and complements the exhibition Jacques-Louis David: Empire to Exile.

Napoléon

Conquest

Désirée

The Duellists

Waterloo

The Emperor's New Clothes



Napoléon

(1927, Abel Gance, 235 min.)
Friday, March 4, 7:00 p.m.

Epic in scope and scale, Abel Gance's film chronicles Bonaparte's life from childhood through the French Revolution, climaxing with his triumphant invasion of Italy. It stars a gaunt, driven Albert Dieudonné in the title role, Antonin Artaud as a crazed-looking Marat, and Gance himself as the brutal revolutionary Saint-Just. The final section of the film features the only surviving Polyvision triptych.


Napoleon film still

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Conquest

(1937, Clarence Brown, 112 min.)
Saturday, March 5, 7:30 p.m.

A glamorous costume drama conceived as a star vehicle for Charles Boyer and Greta Garbo, Conquest is a lavish, semifactual account of Napoleon's longtime love affair with Polish countess Marie Walewska. Marie succumbs to Bonaparte after he agrees to protect her beloved Poland. Sumptuous costume and set design heighten the 1930s melodrama.


Conquest film still

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Désirée

(1954, Henry Koster, 110 min.)
Sunday, March 6, 3:00 p.m.

Marlon Brando stars as a smoldering, arrogant, temperamental Napoleon in this guilty pleasure. Désirée presents Napoleon through the eyes of a lost love, who stands witness to nearly every crisis in early 19th-century Europe. This stereotypical 1950s melodrama makes grand kitsch out of the pomp, the decor, and the man himself.


Desiree film still

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The Duellists

(1977, Ridley Scott, 95 min.)
Friday, March 11, 7:30 p.m.

Based on a story by Joseph Conrad, The Duellists is a penetrating portrait of the Napoleonic era. Despite their shared loyalty to the Emperor, the aristocratic d'Hubert and the working-class Feraud become locked in a class conflict that outlives Napoleon's reign. Harvey Keitel is utterly convincing as the obsessed Napoleonic loyalist who declares in a Brooklyn accent, "I love the Emperor."


The Duellists film still

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Waterloo

(1970, Sergei Bondarchuk, 123 min.)
Saturday, March 12, 7:30 p.m.

A wide-screen war spectacular, Waterloo is an ambitious account of Bonaparte's disastrous final stand. Rod Steiger delivers a moody and explosive interpretation of Napoleon, while Christopher Plummer holds his own as his British nemesis, Wellington. Bondarchuk's attention to detail in costume, decor, manners, and mores imbues the film with authenticity.


Waterloo film still

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The Emperor's New Clothes

(2001, Alan Taylor, 107 min.)
Sunday, March 13, 3:00 p.m.

Exiled to the island of Saint Helena, an aged, frustrated Napoleon conspires with a band of loyalists to return to Paris and reclaim the throne. The group hires a look-alike to stay on Saint Helena and play emperor while the real Napoleon ventures to Europe. The film explores the lives of two men fraught with circumstances that they least expected to encounter late in life.


The Emperor's New Clothes film still

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All images courtesy of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.