Language: In French with English Subtitles
Running Time: 2 hrs
Distributor: Comstar

Genre: Drama
Starring: Philippe Torreton, Richard E.Grant, Jay Rodan, Elsa Zylberstein,
Roschdy Zem, Bruno Putzulu
Director: Antonine De Caunes
Rating: NC-16 (Some Nudity)

SYNOPSIS:

On the night of 14th October 1840, on the island of Saint Helena, in the driving rain, Napoleon's tomb was opened and with it perhaps one of the greatest mysteries in history. How can Napoleon the pioneering military strategist, meekly accept being locked up on a storm-lashed rock in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean? What system of defense and thus of attack, can he dream up to loosen his jailers' grip? On this far-flung island chosen by his enemies, Napoleon fights a mysterious battle, his last and most important and one that history has kept secret all these years.

DISC REVIEW :

Historical mystery-melodrama directed by Antoine De Caunes, surprisingly a tv host back in the 90s, details the last years of the Napoléon's life during his exile on St Helena, while also examining the conspiracy surrounding his corpse during its reburial in Paris in 1840

We begin in Paris, 1840, some 19 years after Napoléon's death, as his body is exhumed and transported to its final resting place under the golden dome of Les Invalides. British soldier Lt Basil Heathcote (Rodan) - in charge of keeping an eye on the Emperor during his exile on the windswept St Helena - has uncovered some documents that hint his former charge may not have died on the island after all. Naively, the movie depicts the former conqueror as an innocuous authoritarian, writing his memoirs, speculating about a unified Europe, gardening, screwing, and beekeeping. The official story is that N. died of cancer, but alternative scenarios have long circulated: Why were large traces of arsenic found on his corpse? Why was the body of his butler (and possible half-brother) never located? And why, if Napoleon's confinement was costing the British 8 million pounds per month (and 3,000 soldiers), would his captors bother keeping him alive?

Relating to the well-known theory that the corpse of Napoléon's butler Capriani may have replaced the Emperor's, it is this mystery that acts as the plot's spine. Yet given that the thesis can never be substantiated, it proves to be the film's least-interesting aspect, almost to its disadvantage at times.

What is worth seeing the film for - aside from De Caunes' interesting use of the bleak South Atlantic locale - is Torreton's turn as Napoléon. Torreton is expertly understated as a once-great leader reduced to waging a petty war with British governor Sir Hudson Lowe (Grant), who oversees his capture and won't even allow his name to be spoken by those around him.

Somehow not really grasping as a historical detective story, Monsieur N works best as a portrait of a broken leader, chiefly thanks to Torreton's dignified performance. Screenwriter René Manzor is lacking in strategy thus making the movie's last third bogged down in tiresome flashbacks. Yet by demonstrating a visionary eye, De Caunes is evidently a director to watch.

MOVIE RATING: B+


Review by Lokman BS