Product Description

IMPORTED FROM HONG KONG FOR ALL REGIONS (NTSC)

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #104573 in DVD
• Formats: Color, Widescreen, Import, AC-3, Dolby

Customer Reviews

Desiree - Good movie but not such a great copy
This movie is good entertainment with some very vivid recreations of historical set pieces, especially Napleon's coronation based on the famous David painting. Unfortunately this DVD version is copied from video and is not easy viewing on large and projection televisions. The sound quality is particularly poor in the first half of the film. At this price, buy the video or wait for a studio to release a proper transfer edition.

Great Movie!
I love this movie, and not all of it is historical fiction! There was a woman named Desiree Clary she was the first love/fiance of Napoleon Bonaparte. She married one of his marshals, Jean-Baptise Bernadotte whom was elected to become King of Sweden in the early ninteenth century. Desiree's and Jean-Baptise's descandents are still on the throne of Sweden to this day.
There is only one thing I have against this movie: (1) There are some scenes that are missing, but are found in the book.

Beautiful Depiction of Napoleon By Marlon Brando...
Napoleon Bonaparte talked about his "destiny," but his destiny would be to allow the love of a woman, Desiree Clary, to slip away from him in sacrifice over his love of his country, France, and due to the disapproval of him by Desiree's parents. He marries Josephine, a woman he believes can help to make possible the furtherance of his goal: to pick up the crown of France "from the gutter with the point of a sword" as must take place in order for France to regain its honorable and rightful place in the European community.

Napoleon Bonaparte said he was "one of the men who [would] make history," and so he was and did....

Unrequited love - Desiree's for Napoleon in the beginning. Then, Napoleon's for Desiree in the end. Scenes throughout the film find Napoleon and Desiree in the same social settings and at the same events, separately. He has married Josephine. She has married Jean-Baptiste Bernadotte. She happily and he for the mere purpose of furthering his point on the path toward his goals. Eventually, he leaves Josephine who is distraught and is comforted by Desiree whom she has come to know. Desiree, finding herself alone with Napoleon, scolds and disapproves of his actions. He persuades her to dance with him and she does. He wants her to walk in the garden with him, but she will not, remembering the last time they walked in a garden and he kissed her and subsequently hurt her by marrying another.

In the end, it is a garden in which Napoleon and Desiree are sitting after so much has taken place and after so much history has been made - Napoleon gained power and became Emperor and then lost what he had gained as a result of the betrayals of some of those he trusted. There, in the garden with Desiree, Napoleon reflects on his life. He asks Desiree, "Do you remember when we first met?" Desiree answers, "That was the night you told me you knew your destiny." Napoleon says, "That was the first night I kissed you." He adds, "I wonder what my destiny would have been if I'd married you." Desiree accuses him of only proposing marriage to her for her dowry. He denies this, in part, and laments his sacrifice for his country and those who have betrayed him. He says, "I made war to secure peace. Not for a year, but for a dozen centuries. I dreamed of a United States of Europe...Was that so rash a dream?" With that, he hands over his sword and surrenders to his enemies. "When did you fall out of love with me?" Napoleon asks Desiree. "...Somewhere along the way," she answers. As she is leaving, Napoleon calls to her and says, "Desiree, our engagement...it wasn't only the dowry...." Then, as history would later tell, Napoleon spends the final years of his life alone and under guard on an island in the Atlantic.

There wasn't a dry eye in my house as I watched this movie. Of course, I was the only one in my house at the time and it was my eyes that were not dry...anyway, have your Kleenex handy at the end of this film. The tenderness and realism with which Brando portrays Napoleon is very, very moving.

Aside from the always exemplary acting talent of Marlon Brando and a well rounded cast that includes Jean Simmons (with whom Marlon also starred in "Guys and Dolls"), the period costuming is amazing and impeccably detailed and the film depicts Napoleon Bonaparte's very human side with great sensitivity. This is a film worth watching.