I vestiti nuovi dell'imperatore

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.

First off I need to say that Ian Hom is amazing. To be able to play two different characters of two different persuasions and bearings is mind-blowing. This film is whimsical and fun and a very good "what if" of history. Parts of it are sad and parts are humorous and all of it is good. A human element is given to characters whom are known to history solely for their deeds and every character in the film has depth of field and a real personality. Many of the scenes are played out in textbook fashion with a beginning a middle and an end with rising and falling action and yet each scene propels the story line further and is a driving force to the film as a whole. My personal favorite moment in the film is the melon scene where Naploean as an exile in his own country still becomes a general of a an army of melon merchants. Sheer brilliance and very beautiful in its humanity. This film shows that although a person can't change whop they are, everyone can change direction and find love.

This is a carefully crafted, beautifully acted "what if" story about Napoleon Bonaparte. It is literate, inventive, and has a beautiful music score to boot. The female lead, Iben Hjejle, is a revelation! I wish she would make more films outside of Denmark.

The story centers around Napoleon's exile after Waterloo, and a plot to have him escape (using a double), return to France to raise an army and regain his throne. But something unforeseen happens along the way, when his double, back on St. Helena, decides he is enjoying being Emperor Napoleon too much to give it up. That leaves the real Emperor Napoleon, secretly back in Paris, with a problem: nobody believes he is who he says he is...

Let's not reveal any more of the plot in this outstanding film (provided you can enjoy a movie with no nudity and cursing, and virtually no violence).

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.

"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)