Customer Reviews

DESIREE (NTSC-IMPORTED FOR ALL REGIONS)

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

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.

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.

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.

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...

Was pleasantly surprised to locate this on DVD after a 10 year search!
Quality was much better than expected from an overseas release and I
finally could watch one of my favorite Brando films again! Thank you!

He's absolutely **seductive** in this role. He just draws you in and you stay through the film, which is sometimes bogged down in tableus, just to see Brando own every scene he's in.

But I do hope to find a better version. This one was dark and murky even on my bright computer screen.