The Emperor's New Clothes

I watched the first screening of 'The Emperor's New Clothes' at the London Film Festival. The film seemed to disappear from the public eye after that, even though I personally thought that it was a good film.

In summary, this film is about Napoleon who wants to get his lost power back, and he pretends he is a peasant in order to eventually rise up and seize it. During this time, he meets a woman he falls in love with. The film explores how his life evolves over the longing of love and power, and there is the realization that he cannot achieve both.

This film is moving and witty. One of the most memorable scenes was when Napoleon tries to convince others that he is Napoleon, but he is not believed, and they take him to an asylum where there are many others there that believe that they are Napoleon.

I was surprised that this film did not get respected; it is a forgotten gem.

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.

This is a charming movie, a shame it didn't get more notice when it was in the theaters.

Ian Holm plays Napoleon who uses the old "switcheroo" to escape St. Helena.

But his substitute enjoys the job so much that Napoleon's escape is never announced, and he eventually dies leaving "the real Napoleon" loose in France without an army.

"The Emporer's New Clothes" is a revisionist historical romantic comedy which tells of Napoleon Bonaparte's escape from exile on St. Helena and return to France to reclaim his throne. Traveling incognito, Bonaparte (Holm) hooks up with a comely widow Pumpkin (Hjejle) who takes some of the starch out of the "Little Corporal's" skivvies while setting his crusty old heart aglow. A charming period piece with exotic locations, this film pairs a tour de force by Holm with an all too rare performance by versatile beauty (Hjejle) in a happy mix of drama, subtle comedy, and light hearted romance. (B)

"Emporer's New Clothes" is a well done romance. It beguiles the mind of the audience. One can become lost in the reality of the era. He paranoia involved in Napolean's being is revealed in his character performance as well as this unusual story line. There is a very revealing scene toward the end of the picture in which he is thrust into a psychiatric "prison" and realizes his fate. The empathy that is developed by those surrounding him is remarkable. Cinematography is adequate, but it is not spectacular. The acting is superb. Costuming and set design is well done. It is a film that is definitely worth viewing. I give it a 7 out of 10. It quietly sipped by me when in the theaters, but is now available on DVD.