The Emperor's New Clothes (2001)

Director:

Alan Taylor

Writers:

Simon Leys (novel)
Kevin Molony (screenplay) ...

Release Date:

7 November 2002 (Australia)

Genre:

Comedy | Drama | Romance

Tagline:

The world's most powerful man is about to fight his greatest battle... between love and glory.

Plot:

Napoleon, exiled, devises a plan to retake the throne. He'll swap places with commoner Eugene Lenormand...

Plot Keywords:

Male Female Relationship | Alternative History | Class Differences | Costume | Fruit Cart

Awards:

1 win

Cast

Ian Holm	...	Napoleon Bonaparte / Sergeant Eugene Lenormand
Iben Hjejle	...	Nicole 'Pumpkin' Truchaut
Tim McInnerny	...	Dr. Lambert
Tom Watson	...	Gerard
Nigel Terry	...	Montholon
Hugh Bonneville	...	Bertrand
Murray Melvin	...	Antommarchi
Eddie Marsan	...	Louis Marchand
Clive Russell	...	Sergeant Justin Bommel
Bob Mason	...	Captain Nicholls
Trevor Cooper	...	Leaud
Chris Langham	...	Maurice
Russell Dixon	...	Dr. Quinton
George Harris	...	Papa Nicholas
Niall O'Brien	...	Bosun

Also Known As:

My Napoleon (UK) (working title)
Vestiti nuovi dell'imperatore, I (Italy)

MPAA:

Rated PG for brief language.

Runtime:

Japan:107 min | Argentina:108 min | USA:107 min

Country:

Italy | UK | Germany

Language:

English

Colour:

Colour (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Certification:

Australia:PG | Singapore:PG | USA:PG | Argentina:13

Filming Locations:

Cinecittà Studios, Cinecittà, Rome, Lazio, Italy

Company:

FilmFour

Trivia:

While the historical Napoleon never had the opportunity to say "They have changed my battlefield". It is reported that the Duke of Wellington said exactly that when he revisited the place after the huge Belgian memorial mound was erected there.

Quotes:

Captain Nicholls: Let us understand each other. Either this is Napoleon, in which case we have all nobly performed our duty, and may look forward to a well-deserved retirement in England at the expense of the British Crown. Or this is an imposter, and you have colluded in the most heinous fraud of all time, the suitable punishment for which I can only guess at. While I, I have allowed the Monster of Europe to slip through my fingers and escape from this island on my watch. ON MY WATCH! Gentlemen...

This is good old-fashioned romance, history, and fiction all in one small but unforgettable film, a bit like the subject himself.

In 1821, on St. Helena, Napoleon loyalists switch the emperor with a look-alike ship hand and send the little tyrant secretly off to Paris to revive the Old Order. I love improbable movies like `The Emperor's New Clothes,' especially the docudramas that feed our lust to know the insides of great figures.

You may not know Ian Holm's Napoleon that well because Holm concentrates more on the mannerisms than the script. Yet the best lines are good, such as when the emperor, disguised as a seaman, boards a ship and says, "A position above decks would have been more appropriate.' Or when his love interest, Pumpkin, responds after he tells her his true identity: "You're not Napoleon! I hate Napoleon! He has filled France with widows and orphans! He took my husband. I won't let him take you." There are truths there to make a revolution.

Our hero tries his hand at selling melons, marshalling his crew with his great leadership rhetoric, and wins the love of Pumpkin, her son, and himself after 6 years of humiliating, loveless exile.

When the film opens with the young son showing colored slides of the emperor's life on a primitive projector, you can feel the romance and the warmth for the rest of the film. When you wake with Napoleon on ship to see a stunning sunrise, you know Alessio Gelsini Torresi is a cinematographer worth watching.

This sweet film, softly extolling the grandeur of simple love, takes it final cue from Candide, where that weary traveler laid his weary heart in his garden. This Napoleon had said, "I place my trust in only two things: my will and the love of the people of France." He finds now a redemptive will to survive and, without egotism or violence, a love of one person to satisfy an empire.

This is good old-fashioned romance, history, and fiction all in one small but unforgettable film, a bit like the subject himself.