Désirée (1954)
The life...the women...the conquests of Napoleon!
Genre : Drama, Romance
Runtime : 1H 50M
Director : Henry Koster
Synopsis
In Marseilles, France in 1794, Desiree Clary, a young millinery clerk, becomes infatuated with Napoleon Bonaparte, but winds up wedding Genaral Jean-Baptiste Berandotte, an aid to Napoleon who later joins the forces that bring about the Emperor's downfall. Josephine Beauharnais, a worldly courtesan marries Napoleon and becomes Empress of France, but is then cast aside by her spouse when she proves unable to produce an heir to the throne.
In czarist Russia, a neurotic soldier and his distant cousin formulate a plot to assassinate Napoleon.
Napoleon's tumultuous relations with Russia including his disastrous 1812 invasion serve as the backdrop for the tangled personal lives of two aristocratic families.
Painter Francisco Goya becomes involved with the Spanish Inquisition after his muse, Inés, is arrested by the church for heresy. Her family turns to him, hoping that his connection with fanatical Inquisitor Lorenzo, whom he is painting, can secure her release.
Elba island, 1814. Martino is a young teacher, idealist and strongly anti Napoleon, in love with the beautiful and noble Baroness Emily. The young man finds himself serving as librarian to the Great Emperor in exile, whom he deeply hates, yet soon begins recording Napoleon's memoirs, getting to know and learning to value the man behind the myth. Among seductions and affairs, expectations and fears, he will craft a precise portrait that nevertheless will not manage to hide a final, inevitable, disappointment.
During the Napoleonic Wars, when the French have occupied Spain, some Spanish guerrilla soldiers are going to move a big cannon across Spain in order to help the British defeat the French. A British officer is there to accompany the Spanish and along the way, he falls in love with the leader's girl.
A polish countess dispatched by her country to become Napoleon Bonaparte's mistress at the urging of Polish leaders, who feel she might influence him to make Poland independent.
After defeating France and imprisoning Napoleon on Elba, ending two decades of war, Europe is shocked to find Napoleon has escaped and has caused the French Army to defect from the King back to him. The best of the British generals, the Duke of Wellington, beat Napolean's best generals in Spain and Portugal, but now must beat Napoleon himself with an Anglo Allied army.
During Napoleon's victorious campaign in Germany, the city of Kolberg gets isolated from the retreating Prussian forces. The population of Kolberg refuses to capitulate and organizes the resistance against the French army, which immediately submits the city to massive bombardments.
Edmond Dantés's life and plans to marry the beautiful Mercedes are shattered when his best friend, Fernand, deceives him. After spending 13 miserable years in prison, Dantés escapes with the help of a fellow inmate and plots his revenge, cleverly insinuating himself into the French nobility.
Bill and Ted are high school buddies starting a band. They are also about to fail their history class—which means Ted would be sent to military school—but receive help from Rufus, a traveller from a future where their band is the foundation for a perfect society. With the use of Rufus' time machine, Bill and Ted travel to various points in history, returning with important figures to help them complete their final history presentation.
This film covers the last years of the Emperor's life, imprisoned by the British on St Helena, a remote island off the west coast of Africa. Napoleon retains a loyal entourage of officers who help him plot his escape and evade the attentions of the island's overzealous governor, Sir Hudson Lowe.
Ferdinand de Lesseps, disappointed in love, is sent as a junior diplomat to the Isthmus of Suez, and realizes it's just the place for a canal.
Vitaphone production reels #2471-2478; third Warner Bros. feature film - the first being The Jazz Singer and the second Tenderloin - to include talking sequences, along with the by now usual Vitaphone musical score and sound effects. A copy of this film survives at the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C., but the sound disks are lost.
This film gives an overview of Napoleons return to France in 1815 before covering in detail the Battles of Ligny and Quatre Bras. Filmed on the Battlefields in Belgium using re-enaction footage expert Presenters follow the Emperors brilliant initial plan which however soon begins to fall apart due to flaws in the French staff, Napoleons arrogance and the courage and fighting ability of the Allied Troops. Both these battles deserve to be better known but they have been overshadowed by Waterloo the culmination of the Campaign
This final part takes us through the dramatic events when Wellington’s Anglo-Dutch Army aided by Blucher’s Prussians defeat Napoleon. The French army was outfought and Napoleon was out-generaled by Wellington. At Wavre Grouchy beat the Prussian rearguard before retreating to France. Meanwhile, the Anglo-Dutch army counted the bloody cost of the previous days fighting while Wellington wrote his controversial Waterloo Dispatch and the vengeful Prussians pursued the French towards Paris, leading to Napoleon's abdication and the occupation of the city by the Allies.
The exploits of Brigadier Gerard who helps expose Foreign Minister Talleyrand as a traitor to Napoleon.
Napoleon Bonaparte's younger brother, visiting the United States, falls madly in love with a young woman he meets in Baltimore.
A follower of Napoleon escapes the firing squad, flees to a woman's bedroom and winds up butler.
At the front, Bébé meets two Russian soldiers.
The film displays Madame Récamier 's conflict with Napoleon. Twice she was pressed to become one of the Empress's ladies. In revenge for her refusal Napoleon declined to save her husband from ruin.