for Ridley Scott, “Napoleon was at the same time leader, warrior, politician…and dictator”

The 86-year-old English director is signing, with Joaquin Phoenix in the title role, a new adaptation of the life of the famous emperor, produced by Apple, and which arrives in cinemas on Wednesday December 22 in France and in Anglo-Saxon countries. Saxons. Franceinfo met him in Paris.

At 86 years old, Ridley Scott is visibly still in good shape and very active, since after this Napoleon financed by Apple to the tune of a comfortable (and official) budget of 200 million dollars, the sequel to its famous Gladiator will normally be released in just a year, at the end of November 2024. For his 28th feature film, the very erudite English director therefore tackled a new historical figure, after Christopher Columbus or Moses, among others.

Visiting Paris to promote Napoleonhe confided in journalists, still just as histrionic, sometimes responding sideways or scratching colleagues with vulgar remarks.

Franceinfo: Why did you choose to adapt Napoleon’s life again?

Ridley Scott: There are 10,400 books that have been written about him since his death, that’s about one per week since 1821. How can anyone not be interested? This man clearly fascinated the world, being a leader, diplomat, warrior, politician, bureaucrat, and of course inevitably a dictator. A dictatorship implies a bloodbath, which is why, in the end credits of the film, I specify the number of soldiers who died under his command, that is to say two million, without counting civilian victims. No one ever wins a war, even the winners lose.

What direction did you choose to go with the film?

Making an epic and historical film like this, a bit “old-fashioned” in the middle of all the big superhero productions of today, quite stupid in passing, was a big challenge. I take my hat off to Apple, since the film is not cheap, they took this risk. We wrote a script that wasn’t a history lesson, but focused on a central character. And I was fascinated by this Achilles heel that his wife, Joséphine, represented for him.

“He was not crazy, he knew very well what he was doing on the contrary”

Ridley Scott, about Napoleon

at franceinfo

Is she the real heroine of the film after all?

If you want, but not really. He was celebrated for his victories and his incredible intuition on the battlefield. But he also had this weakness for Joséphine. He was both an anti-hero, a bit of a monster, but also a man very much in love with Joséphine.

So you are not hiding the fact that he was a dictator?

Not at all, but the starting point was that he had a wonderful intuition, he was even born with it. And he was tough because he was Corsican. People said he was crazy, but not at all, on the contrary I think he knew very well what he was doing. But if you have an intuition, there is an inner voice that speaks to you, you have to listen to it. If everything goes well, we must continue. But the danger is to think that this intuition is always correct. At one point, when he should have stopped, he was already emperor and sort of out of control.