Ridley Scott’s ‘Napoleon’ Test-Screens Again to Mixed Reaction

Back in November, Scott’s “Napoleon” stunned an L.A. moviegoer at a test-screening. He called Scott’s epic a “masterpiece”:

“It’s 150 minutes. Covers the sweep of Napoleon's life from his promotion around the time of the revolution, to the end. I think it’s bigger, better and MORE PSYCHOLOGICAL than Scott’s epics like Kingdom of Heaven and Gladiator. Also more political. I think the picture is a masterpiece, or very nearly one. It's the culmination of Ridley's life's work as a filmmaker. His staging of battle scenes on a near-cosmic scale is mind-blowing. Joaquin gives a Brando-like performance, taking some very big risks, and at times verging on the absurd, but always taking the audience with him. As a movie about a nationalist in a time of chaos and disintegration who thinks in terms of pure power, it has a lot of parallels to 2022. It's a great movie and I'll be surprised if there is anything better released in 2023.”

Another L.A. “Napoleon” test-screening occurred this past Thursday. The one reaction gathered so far has been very mixed. There are surely more coming, so we might get a better idea of how the screening went down. For now, this is the sole reaction:

“Ridley Scott’s 150-minute “Napoleon” has Joaquin Phoenix playing an extremely whiny character. He stays true to whatever we have heard of Napoleon in journals, aka Napoleon syndrome. His whininess gave the film a comic undertone, which was liked by few. Napoleon proclaims, "I come back from exile and see France is bankrupt, and my wife is a slut! Great!" The battle scenes were just adequate, and there are four of them! So it ends up getting repetitive after a while. Overall Phoenix shines, but the film falters.”

Last month, an Empire interview with Ridley Scott had the filmmaker looking back on the filming of “Napoleon” and his time with star Joaquin Phoenix. Scott admitted to changing some of the script during filming because of Phoenix’s unconventional approach to acting:

“Joaquin is about as far from conventional as you can get. Not deliberately, but out of intuition. That’s what makes him tick. If something bothers him, he’ll let you know,” says Scott. “He made [Napoleon] special by constantly questioning.” That inquisitive nature led to significant changes on the movie. “With Joaquin, we can rewrite the goddamn film because he’s uncomfortable. And that kind of happened with Napoleon,” he says. “We unpicked the film to help him focus on who Bonaparte was. I had to respect that, because what was being said was incredibly constructive. It made it all grow bigger and better. With Napoleon, I think we dug in and found the character, or as close to what he may have been. Joaquin is probably the most special, thoughtful actor I’ve ever worked with.”

Phoenix was once, in his early days of acting, a down-to-earth and “normal” actor, but something inside him snapped around 2008 — that’s when the strange behavior began, including a memorably weird appearance on the David Letterman show a year later. The vulnerability and unpredictable nature of this new Joaquin ended up making him a better actor. Filmmakers who have worked with him keep pointing to his intense preparations, deeply immersing himself in the characters, often blurring the lines between fiction and reality.

From what I heard, a few months back, Apple wanted to release “Napoleon” in the summer of 2023. Given that rumors are pointing to “Killers of the Flower Moon” being launched at next year’s Cannes Film Festival, would Apple also want to world premiere Scott’s film on the Croisette?