Been taking advantage of alone time to watch movies that I can't convince my SO to watch with me.
Napoleon: The Director's Cut
Terrible. I knew in the first 3 seconds of Joaquín Phoenix's performance that he was going to play Napoleon all wrong. Also, he was too old for the role. That's not all, though; all you see is Napoleon waging war or nagging Josephine. Not a word about the Napoleonic Code and his modernization of the French State.
Doesn't stop there either. There's historical revisionism for the sake of not entering politically incorrect territory. When Napoleon marries Marie Louise of Austria, as she's given up for the sake of peace (and because Austria is very much being extorted), they portray her as fawning over him as such a powerful and desireable man. Nothing further from the truth. She basically grew up seeing Napoleon as a sort of evil troll from a fairy tale, and was devastated she had to marry him. It's basically rape, but that would be too problematic for the movie.
The Substance
Terrible. Disgusting, more than I could have imagined, and totally shallow, faux-feminism, with no actual message to be found. What possessed Cannes to award them anything?
I'm watching one more tonight. Maybe 3 time's a charm.