Désirée

My first introduction to this stroy was when my best friend gave me a copy of a very battered "Desiree" by Annemarie Selinko. When I found this movie, I was skeptical. I love the book, and most often, when books are made into movies, they are ruined. I was pleasantly surprised to find that the movie fit in so well with the book, and in fact used some of the same dialogue.

I felt that all of the actors did a remarkable job. Desiree was almost exactly the way that I had pictured her. Jean-Baptiste was also very like the image I had previously formed. Napoleon was amazing. He was so like the real Napoleon, I didn't have any trouble beliving that it really was him. Even though there were some things left out, like the end of the book and therefore the end of the story, I enjoyed it very much. I would not object to seeing this movie more, and it made my love for the book increase a great deal.

If you loved the movie, and even if you didn't, I would suggest getting a copy of the book. The romance between Desiree and Napoleon is much more pronounced as well as Desiree's love for Jean-Baptiste. The story-line is the same, but the end gives you the much needed satisfaction of seeing Desiree back in Sweden.

In my opinion, this is a first-rate movie, and I reccommend it to all.

I've never seen a Brando film before. I've never seen a Napoleon film before. But after studying Napoleon in World history class and seeing Desiree, I've come to the conclusion the Brando must be a descendant of Napoleon or something. He IS Napoleon. I wasn't that interested when my grandmother suggested it, but I don't take things at face value. I check it out. True it's not incredibly accurate, historically speaking, though a lot of it is true and someone certainly did their research. If I recall my history class correctly someone once called Napoleon "The greatest Godless man alive." or something like that. But Brando IS Napoleon. No Question.

Recently I viewed for the umpteenth time CONQUEST with Charles Boyer's brilliant Oscar-nominated performance as Napoleon. I have just seen DESIREE for the first time and am intrigued by Brando's take on the man. The make-up department has given him a Napoleonic nose bridge and he has supplied the rest. He plays N. as a moody, passionate, obsessed man, but plays him in a quiet, controlled manner. Only twice in the film does he lose his temper. This is a performance I will go back to and study. Brando's insight is as always stellar. His Napoleon believed so much in his "destiny," that he assumed the rest of the world would fall into place around that obsession. Fascinatnig to watch.

The film itself is a pretty, early CinemaScope epic with Oscar-nominated Art Direction and Costume Design. Jean Simmons does her very best to bring this woman to life, but as others here have observed, Desiree was a rather dull child, noted for her beauty, and little else. That her life was a Cinderella story (from milliner to Queen of Sweden) is of no doubt, but she never seemed to have deserved her good fortune. It is really Brando's film. He has 19 scenes and makes the most of every one.

If you are a Brando or Napoleon fan, do see it, but don't expect much from the story. It's pretty straight-forward with little drama (though the circumstances make for much drama if written properly).

This film is about Désirée Clary, a common French woman who was the one-time fiancée of Napolean and who later became queen of Norway and Sweden. She had a very remarkable life and it SHOULD have been an exciting film, though I found the movie to be very mannered and subdued...too subdued. As a result, it is not an especially exciting film...and it should have been. It follows her from her first meeting Napoleon and moves up through he ascending the thrones.

Désirée Clary is played by Jean Simmons, Napoleon by Marlon Brando and her husband by Michael Rennie. The film is also sumptuous to look at--with lovely sets and in full Cinemascope color. What it does not talk about at all are the marital infidelities by Napoleon, Josephine as well as Désirée's husband--all which could have made the movie much more interesting. So it's pretty but sanitized...and a bit dull because of this. It also just never sparked my interest at all and much of it is because the film is too episodic. Her life might better be told as a mini-series instead.

Henry Koster directed many films with considerable charm and flair... His attempts at drama were for the most part less successful but always visually pleasant... He was nominated for an Academy Award for directing "The Bishop's Wife" in 1947... His reputation as a skilled artist led to his assignment as director of the first film in CinemaScope, "The Robe."

Koster does manage to keep the dynamism of "Désirée" and is excellent on both the technical level as on the screen acting... The film won Oscar Nominations for Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Color & Best Costume Design...

His high moment of the film was 'The Coronation Ceremony' where after the blessing of the crowns Napoleon seizes the crown from the Pope Pius VII and crowns first himself, then Josephine (Merle Oberon), Napoleon's first wife... (This petite brunette looked particularly ravishing as the empress).

Marlon Brando proved his versatility playing the great French soldier-statesman, a man insatiably ambitious, exceptionally intelligent, prompt to make decisions... Brando's performance is cool, calculating, compulsive, using a calm, measured English accent, providing the role its wise temperature of the most celebrated personage in the history of France & Europe...

British actor Michael Rennie plays the revolutionary general Jean-Baptiste Bernadotte with a noticed antipathy for his rival... Bernadotte shifts his allegiances, forming alliances with Russia, Great Britain & Prussia, contributing in the defeat of Napoleon at the Battle of Leipzig...

Jean Simmons - lovely as ever with her delicate beauty - gives the story fluid charm of a seventeen-year-old girl to a self-confident woman... We see her running through the streets of Marseilles, growing up in the outcome of the French Revolution, recording her daily written account of events, witnessing Napoleon's arrest...

Rescued from the threat of a jump into the Seine, Désirée rejects Napoleon's advances, and marries Count Bernadotte, now a Marshall of France...

Désirée was a romantic figure involved with two opposite characters: one as Emperor of France with an eternal search for wars and glory, and a king, uncertain sometimes about his capacities, with the necessity of a beloved queen besides him...

If not viewed as a history lesson, this fictionalized biopic is good entertainment and at least a point of departure for a study of a great French leader...