Napolean

I watched the TV mini-series Napolean recently on DVD and was highly impressed. The acting was outstanding and the casting perfect with Christian Clavier doing a great job of portraying the Emperor of France in a way that one can understand how his humanity and charisma had men and women willing to give their lives and their love to him. I liked the way both his and Josephine's love life and their other loves were portrayed. In a way it struck me as being so much more realistic than many American type dramas are wont to be. Isabella Rosallini was the beautiful but older Josephine. Tallyrand, the foreign minister of the period, is also outstandingly acted by John Malkovitch, and typifies the whole balance of power approach to international (read European) politics of the time.

The costumes and scenes showed a period in French history that was breathtaking in its stately homes, and dress of the upper classes and aristocracy. I spent much of the time admiring the coats, tunics of the men who seemed to be more stunningly adorned than the women a lot of the time.

The war scenes were a real study in military tactics before the advent of fire power. There were some muskets in use but clearly the battle tactics had not yet adjusted to fire power with phlanxes of men forming squares and moving forward in large formations. Nowadays they'd be sitting ducks and the loss of life intolerable. But the bravery of the men was remarkable and also how Napolean needed to be there to inspire them.

I have to say also that just before watching it, I had read a thread on www.aikiweb.com which impressed me about the ability of the French to organise and have central command. Aikido is one of those organisations where the founding country, Japan still has a strong central Headquarters but in the manner of all human institutions, as the art spread across the world, the groups in different countries, as in Japan itself split. What struck me about France was that there are only 2 main schools there, one headed by Tamura Sensei and the other by Tissier Sensei who is himself recognised by Hombu Dojo. France is a large country with a strong tradition of aikido. My own country, much smaller already has 4 main schools. And apparently Israel has 47 and counting. It really dawned on me at that point that the French have a tremendous ability to organise themselves in large groups and to respect a central command which meant that they could have someone like Napolean lead a large army across Europe.

Anyway, the series is highly recommended for history buffs, for those who liked military history, Europhiles and anyone with a taste for period movies. The movie is beautifully shot and has sumptous sets and costumes.