Napoleon is due in cinemas at the end of the month with Joaquin Phoenix in the leading role and a soundtrack which includes Black Sabbath (their classic dirge War Pigs) and a slowed-down Radiohead cover (The National Anthem another dirge). According to the publicity, it promises to tell the life of Napoleon through his tortured love affair with his wife, Josephine, his own jealousies and obsessions, as well as his master-plan to conquer Europe. From the trailers, it looks like another epic in the mould of Scott's Gladiator, with at least some of the gripping battle scenes that are his trademark.
By making a film on Napoleon, Scott is, of course, making his own bid for greatness. He is placing himself in a lineage which can be traced back almost to the invention of cinema when, in 1897, Louis Lumiere produced a short film which depicted Napoleon arguing with Pope Pius VII based on their real-life encounter in 1804 when Napoleon, in a tantrum, tried to convince the pontiff to move the papal throne to Paris. This was followed by Abel Gance in 1927 with Napoleon, a 330-minute character study of power, glory and hubris, with the sallow-faced Albert Dieudonne as the emperor. Other powerful films on Napoleon were made by the Franco-Russian Sacha Guitry and the Ukrainian-Russian Sergei Bondarchuk.
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