Ridley Scott couldn’t care less if French critics weren’t fans of his newly released biographical war drama Napoleon. The film, which stars Joaquin Phoenix as Napoleon Bonaparte and Vanessa Kirby as Napoleon’s first wife, Empress Joséphine, was attacked by several French publications for its historical inaccuracies and casting.
French GQ, for example, called it “deeply awkward, unnatural and unintentionally funny” that French characters in the showcase speak with American accents. Along the same lines, the daily Le Figaro suggested that the film should be titled “Barbie and Ken Under the Empire” instead. And Napoleon biographer Patrice Gueniffey told Le Point magazine that Scott carried out a “very anti-French and very pro-British” rewriting of history.
“The French don’t even like themselves,” Scott told the BBC when asked about the negative reviews. “The audience I showed it to in Paris loved it.”
“Napoleon” premiered on November 14th at the Salle Pleyel in Paris and is scheduled to be released in theaters on November 22nd in the United States and the United Kingdom. Earlier this month, Scott went viral with his rather blunt response to television historian Dan Snow, who denounced the film’s factual errors in a TikTok post.
“Get a life,” said Scott Snow and other history experts in an interview with The New Yorker.