Monsieur N. (2003)

Pretty Good

Don't listen to the negative reviews

Clever, believable, and super fun to watch. It totally has replay value.

The film creates a perfect balance between action and depth of basic needs, in the midst of an infertile atmosphere.

In my top 20 films. Highly recommend. Soundtrack good too. Great watch!

In the beginning of the Nineteenth Century, Napoleon Bonaparte is sent to Saint Helena, an island in the middle of the South Atlantic. "Monsieur N." presents a version of the last days of this great leader through the eyes of the British officer assigned to be his liaison with the British governor of St. Helena.I do not know details of the life of Napoleon Bonaparte in his exile, but this movie is very confused and I have not caught the objective and reasons of the search of Basil Heathcote for the last days of Napoleon Bonaparte in St. Helena and his body. The movie has an awesome cinematography, but is also too long and boring in some parts. Last but not the least, the DVD released in Brazil by the distributor "Casablanca Filmes" has problems with the subtitles, presenting partially most of them. When the dialogs are in English, I do not have problem to understand, but I have practically lost most of those in French. Imagine the situation of an average Brazilian viewer that can not understand English. The DVD has also a bug on 92:02 minutes, and the alternative is to go to the next chapter, and return to 92:50 minutes. My vote is six.Title (Brazil): "Monsieur N."

funny, almost saddening how the one who tells the story first makes it their own at the truth's expense. a brilliant piece of motion picture artistry yet the undeniable undertones of English supremacy left a bad taste in my mouth. true to the genius of napoleon, but one has to question whether it was the intellectual workings of a genius' mind we were bearing witness to or the one who unwittingly outwits the genius, even though by the dumbest of luck. the mind is the most unforgiving of captures and physical captivity is a mere detail if compared to it. that is what i came out of the movie in awe of. the story has been recycled and repetitively told much to the detriment of it's truth and purity; and even though it has been airbrushed to do away with the blemishes, one can not help but feel that the newly-created veneer of English supremacy was the gremlin in their propaganda machine.i highly recommend the movie, intriguing to the final scene.

Of the thousands of movies I've seen so far, this is the first one which made me think of the "wasted talents" expression. I had never EVER seen so many fine actors giving so dreadful performances (Frédéric Pierrot, Elsa Zylberstein,and so on). The "aging" make-up is quite awful and, to make it worse, lit broadly. The use of music (e.g. love at first sight for the young aide de camp) is at times so caricatural that I could feel most spectators around me smile awkwardly. So far, Antoine de Caunes has been quite a good actor, but seeing this one and "les morsures de l'aube" I think he should start considering quitting. Please Antoine, give up that "master of balantree" project ; I doubt you deserve it.