Product Description As seen on PBS The many amours of the French emperor We know about Napoleon and Josephine. But what about Napoleon and Desirée? Napoleon and Pauline? Napoleon and Georgina, Eléonore, Marie Walewska, and Marie-Louise? This British costume drama skips the battlefields and heads straight for the sumptuously appointed ballrooms and bedrooms where Napoleon woos, and sometimes weds, the women in his life. We meet him at 25, already a general in the French army but not yet worthy to wed a wealthy merchant’s daughter. We follow him through campaigns, affairs, and marriages as he conquers most of Europe and achieves absolute power. But will he ever have what he desires most: an heir? Oscar® nominee Ian Holm (The Lord of the Rings) leads an illustrious cast in this classic British series seen on PBS and A&E. Also starring Peter Bowles (The Irish R.M., To the Manor Born) as Captain Murat and Billie Whitelaw (Hot Fuzz, Quills) as Josephine, with Ronald Hines (Van der Valk), Sorcha Cusack (Jane Eyre), Susan Wooldridge (The Jewel in the Crown), and Tim Curry (The Rocky Horror Picture Show). Due to the age of these programs and the improved resolution that DVD provides, you may notice occasional flaws in the image and audio on this DVD presentation that were beyond our ability to correct from the original materials. .com This archival gem from the BBC vaults will be a drawing room delight to fans of the earliest incarnations of Masterpiece Theatre. Dating from 1974, it's a nine-part miniseries that delivers exactly what the name promises--a look at the boudoir behavior and upper-crust machinations of romance during the 20 or so years of Napoleon's dominion over French warfare and politics in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. You'll find no battlefield action of any kind, only bawdy behavior, randy dialogue, corruption, conniving, sexual intrigue, and the sort of stagy scenes of highbrow dialogue that marked a generation of BBC productions which eventually found appreciative audiences on American public television. Each episode bears the title of one of Napoleon's many mistresses, whether they figured into his life as genuine objects of love or as steppingstones to political power. Josephine gets an episode to herself, but as she was a constant in his life (whether constant thorn or constant obsession) she is omnipresent throughout the series. As played by Billie Whitelaw, she is a delightful foil to the outsize, tiny fellow. Ian Holm takes great relish in playing the little big man under an assortment of wigs that capture him at key moments in his military and political life. Holm was 43 when he played the role of a man who ages from 25 to about 50, and he takes us through the phases of Napoleon's life with believable zeal. He seizes Napoleon's mercurial personality with gusto, whether in anger, passion, jealousy, graciousness, or gripped by the boundless ego that colored everything he did and touched everyone around him. Though this is clearly not meant to be a historical portrait, those who know the story of Napoleon and Josephine only as a fairy tale will find the nuance of that relationship fascinating. Because the series takes its time and moves with deliberate pacing through Napoleon's campaigns and travels through places like Italy, Egypt, Poland, and Austria, there is an excellent context that makes sense of the extraordinary career led by this complicated, brilliant, fanatical narcissist. An array of midlevel British actors including Peter Bowles, Peter Jeffrey, Edward de Souza, and Tim Curry populate the bedrooms, war rooms, parlors, and drawing rooms of the sometimes cheap-looking sets. As was the BBC house style for decades, the interiors were shot on video, relying on blocking that is often clunky and awkward. The few exterior scenes bang against each other in grainy 16mm film, all of it edited together in rather harsh fashion. But the technical specifications are pretty meaningless when pressed against Napoleonic obsessions over power and love. Napoleon & Love may be a relic, but it should bring new pleasures to aficionados of classic British historical drama. --Ted Fry
D**.
By-the-book historical accuracy, much of the dialogue is verbatim from what is known
What is most astonishing is how Josephine (aka Rose) and most women were not physically attracted to the 5-foot-2-inch tall Napoleon (until he became well-known). When he proposed marriage, she emphatically turned him down. She told a friend that she had to overcome a feeling of repulsion to consummate their sexual relationship. She thought he was drab and boring, serious with no sense of humor. The actress portrayed this when Napoleon was explaining how he and his battalion drove out a fleet of British ships from Toulon, a southern seaport city in France, and her eyelids became heavy. She could not appreciate his brilliant analytical mind and military genius (he was a little over her head), but she greatly admired his reputation for bravery. Over time she grew to deeply love him. When she realized that her affair with Captain Charles was making Napoleon maddeningly jealous and he demanded a divorce, she pleaded for forgiveness and promised never to cheat again. And she kept that promise; although, Napoleon had affairs as he pleased. When Josephine expressed disapproval, Napoleon didn't understand why it should bother her. He told her they were merely for physical gratification; there was no emotional attachment. She had to accept his double standard. Of all his sexual encounters, he never loved anyone as he did Josephine. After he became Emperor, they did divorce out of a necessity to conceive an heir (for the throne) with a younger woman, they both anguished over it. In selecting a mate, Napoleon was choosing between two sisters of the Russian Czar Alexander: Catherine, age 20; Anna age 14. He first chose Catherine (aka Katarina), but Catherine's mother considered Napoleon "a plebeian upstart Corsican monster" not deserving of her daughter. The Czar later announced the engagement of his sister, Catherine, to the Duke of Oldenburg. This infuriated Napoleon, because he wanted Russia as an ally not an enemy. Napoleon then requested Anna, but the Czar's mother refused, saying Anna was too young. Napoleon had acquired a son with Poland's Marie Walewska. She loved Napoleon dearly and was devoted and loyal to him to the end when everyone else abandoned him. He told her he couldn't accept for marriage anyone other than an Emperor's daughter. So on April 2, 1810, he married Maria Louise, the 19-year-old daughter of Emperor Francis I of Austria and great niece of Marie Antoinette. Marie Louise gave birth to a son, Napoleon-Francois-Joseph-Charles, on March 20, 1811. Napoleon and Josephine remained close throughout their lives, and he gave her the Malmaison estate and 3 million francs a year to live on.
H**2
Fun Look at the Women Behind the Conqueror
If you can get past the fact that this mini-series is dated (released on DVD in 2011 but made by BBC in the mid 1970s) in its pace and staging -- AND you have a keen interest in the personal side of Napoleon Bonaparte -- you won't want to miss this one.9 parts, 7+ hours, wonderful costumes, strong cast led by British actors Ian Holm (Napoleon) and the late Billie Whitelaw (Josephine). You'll also spot early appearances in the careers of Diana Quick (Brideshead Revisited), Nicola Pagett (Anna Karenina), and Catherine Schell (Tale of Beatrix Potter), and Tim Curry (Adams Family Reunion).It's a pretty full story of all the women Napoleon was involved with, dominated by his long, loving and tempestuous relationship with Josephine. You get to witness his rise to power in the background, but the focus is on his love life and the quest for an heir. I thought there were moments when Holm overacted a bit -- it felt more like he was a stage actor -- exaggerating every emotion rather than expressing them more subtly to the camera. But mostly he did a believable job as the ambitious general-turned-emperor. And it's fascinating to watch his ego grow and grow.
M**E
Love life
Nicely done dvd series and actedOne I did not have on Napoleon 1With Author A Pataki new book comes out in2020 about Desiree Clarey and N I’m ready
C**.
Beautiful to watch and rewarding drama
My wife said "I would have watched it for the costumes even if the story hadn't been so good." Very well acted, and an interesting format: each episode is shaped around a different woman in Napoleon's life. It must, alas, leave out much detail, but what it has is very well done.
M**N
I love this serial
I love this serial. Napoleon was showed in a human way. By watching Napoleon & Love, I understood why he was unfaithful to Josephine and his necessity to have a son (an heir). At the end his wish was accomplished but to a high cost, his divorce to Josephine, the woman he really loved.
R**T
Great Historical Fiction
I saw this series back in the 1970s when it aired on television. It has been unavailable till recently but it has aged very nicely.
"**"
He absolutely loved it. Couldn't thank me enough
Gave it as a gift to an enthusiast of all things Napolean. He absolutely loved it. Couldn't thank me enough.
P**S
disappointed
Never finished watching this DVD - - found it extremely BORING.... was so very disappointed.... will donate it to Friends of Library sale.
