Dear Theo:
Apple TV+ has been made with the complicity of traditional distribution, trusting that some of its big bets of the year will go through theaters allying with a great Studio. Although everyone sets their eyes on Martin Scorsese’s “Moon Assassins”, we must not leave out his other great asset, Ridley Scott’s “Napoleon”, which will hit theaters at the hands of Sony Pictures with a whole halo of epic around it.
Joaquin Phoenix becomes emperor again at the hands of Ridley Scott after the iconic “Gladiator” (2000) which brought the actor his first Oscar nomination. The film focuses on the character’s military rise to become emperor and the ups and downs of his torrential relationship with his wife, Josefina, to whom he was married between 1796 and 1810 in a France that went from revolution to empire. Vanessa Kirby, Tahar Rahim, Ludivine Sagnier and Ben Miles complete the cast.
David Scarpa (who already worked with Ridley Scott in “All the Money in the World” in 2017) writes the script for a film that boasts an ambitious, detailed and overwhelming production with a team made up of Dariusz Wolski (photography), Sam Restivo and Claire Simpson (editing), Arthur Max (production design), Janty Yates (costumes) and Martin Phipps (music) to give form and substance to the rise of the victor of Austerlitz who postulated himself as emperor of Europe until his fall with the invasion of Russia and defeat at the Battle of Waterloo.
At 85 years old (and with 3 unsuccessful Oscar nominations in the directing category), Ridley Scott demonstrates his feverish activity as an old fox who is not afraid of any challenge and who is not daunted by age either, as he has well shown with the undervalued “The last duel” (2021) or returning to the Roman coliseum “Gladiator 2”, which is filming, and in a certain way closing the circle of “The duelists” (1977), as it was set in the gloomy and muddy wars Napoleonic, and taking the baton from the never carried out project carried out by Stanley Kubrick and having as an almost unattainable reference the version that Abel Gance made of the character.
Joaquin Phoenix plays a character incarnates a historical figure already brought to life by actors like Charles Boyer (“Maria Walewska”), Marlon Brando (“Désirée”) or Rod Steiger (“Waterloo”). Before its jump to the platform, and with an expected duration of 147 minutes, the film will hit theaters on November 22, 2023.
Nacho Gonzalo
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Espresso: “Napoleon”, Ridley Scott makes Joaquin Phoenix the self-crowned emperor | The Cinema of What I Tell You