The French do not like an Englishman’s rendition of Napoleon. Or at least, the French critics do not. Yet while British and American reviewers glowed, French critics considered it lazy, pointless, boring, migraine-inducing, too short and historically inaccurate. And that’s just to start. The critic for the left-wing daily Libération panned the film as not just ugly, but vacuous, positing nothing and “very sure of its inanity.” The review in Le Monde offered that if the director’s vision had one merit, it was “simplicity” — “a montage alternating between Napoleon’s love life and his feats of battle.”

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Persons: Napoleon, Joaquin Phoenix glowers, Ridley Scott, deliciously, glowed, ” Organizations: Le Monde Locations: Paris