Désirée

I fell in love with Marlon Brando's and Jean Simmons's chemistry in Guys and Dolls, but I didn't know until recently that they'd made another film together prior to their musical pairing. In Desiree, Brando plays Napoleon Bonaparte, and once again, he's paired up with Jean Simmons, the title character. Yes, we all know Bonaparte married a woman named Josephine, not Desiree, so what's the story about?

Daniel Taradash wrote a very interesting script, with exciting, passionate characters. The film lasts decades, starting from Bonaparte's introduction to Desiree, before he changed his name, through the memorable Battle of Waterloo. As famous a figure as he was, the film actually focuses on Desiree, the woman torn between Bonaparte and Jean-Baptiste Bernadotte. She's vivacious, loving, strong, and smart. It's easy to see how the two very powerful men fell in love with her. And if you thought Jean and Brando had sizzling chemistry together, just wait until you see her with Michael Rennie. He's absolutely adorable in this movie, and when Brando humiliates Jean by leaving her for Merle Oberon, it's no wonder she considers crying on Michael's very tall, comforting shoulder.

The Oscar nominated costumes, designed by Charles Le Maire and Rene Hubert, are exquisitely beautiful. Jean gets to wear a different gown in every scene, even in the diary-writing montages. She wears a gorgeous turquoise dress for only ten seconds, but it's a beautiful ten seconds. If you've only seen Jean in The Big Country or Guys and Dolls, you've got to rent this movie if only to see how beautiful she looks when she really dolls up (no pun intended). Even though Brando gets first billing, it's her show.

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.

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...

The strange thing about this movie is that it really is what its title promises -- the story of Desiree, and nothing more. Made in the dark years before the feminist movement, (indeed, in the worst days of the feminine mystique) the film makers seem to assume that the "ideal" woman is warm, impulsive, kittenish, flirtatious and yet non-sexual. Desiree is forever stuck at the end of childhood. She lives through great events but her "womanly" nature makes her ignore everything but her own physical comfort. She is Scarlett O'Hara without the suffering, cruelty or ambition, and Natasha Rostov without the fellow-feeling, patriotism and mystical sympathy for others. It's odd how you feel enchanted by her, and yet you feel disgusted with yourself for wanting a girl who remains infantile in so many ways. Truly a guilty pleasure.

Some of the things Desiree says in this movie are beyond belief. For example, after she becomes Princess of Sweden, her husband suggests that she needs some tutors, and she cries, "I haven't learned anything since I was ten!" And like, who is supposed to stand up and cheer? You could be the worst sexist pig in the world and this movie would make you feel like Anna Quindlen.

Or take the scene where the Swedes arrive in the middle of the night and tell Marshall Bernadotte (a superb Michael Rennie) that he is now in line to be King of Sweden. Bernadotte tells Desiree, his wife, to hurry up and get dressed. "Put on anything, you understand?" And she wails, "no, no, I don't understand anything!" Some other comments have said Jean Simmons is "whining" in this movie. But it's much worse than that. She's really pure feminist Kryptonite! The whole point is that men find her irresistible because she always, always, plays dumb and does nothing but bleat about being hungry, tired, or confused.

Problem is, Jean Simmons is just so natural and so attractive that it sort of goes down easy. You really do find yourself wanting to hug her every other scene, if you're a man anyway. If you're Anna Quindlen you probably just want to slap her. She's the feminist anti-Christ.

At least she's not a blonde!