Movie News: : 2 Napoleons - French Revolutionary Wars Commander - (1) Volodymyr Zelenskyy in the 2012 Russian film "Corporal vs. Napoleon." + Joaquin Phoenix
STARING DOWN A TV STAR: After Reagan and Trump We're Getting Punked All Over Again by Zelenskyy
Intro: While he’s posing somewhere underground escaping three assassination attempts and uploading large-screen videos on Zoom and social media, Zelenskyy is also acutely aware of optics, and prone to deliver memorable lines that reflect a comedian’s sense of brevity and wit. His early declaration that he wouldn’t accept an offer to leave the country — “I need ammunition, not a ride” — became a rallying cry that shamed foreign governments into action and inspired homegrown soldiers; (it’s now being sold on t-shirts on Amazon.)
CULTURE WAR
Opinion | How Zelenskyy’s Acting Career Showed Hints of His Powerful Underdog Leadership
Volodymyr Zelenskyy in the 2012 Russian film "Corporal vs. Napoleon." | TABOROVSKY/IMDB
Where did the Ukrainian leader learn to rally the public and captivate a western audience?
TV, of course.
"The real-life Zelenskyy, with sunken eyes, unkempt hair and days’ worth of stubble, has captivated the world over the past week, as he appears in an olive green T-shirt on TV newscasts and the giant screen.
(Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy speaks to the nation in Kyiv, Ukraine on Feb. 27, 2022, in this photo taken from video provided by the Ukrainian Presidential Press Office. | Ukrainian Presidential Press Office via AP)
The first time Volodymyr Zelenskyy appeared on television as the president of Ukraine, he was running around his parents’ apartment in his undershirt, fighting with his niece for bathroom time. It was the pilot episode of “Servant of the People,” a sitcom that premiered in 2015, about a common man who became an unlikely president. Zelenskyy’s character, a divorced high school history teacher named Vasily Goloborodko, stumbled into office after making a long, profane rant against corrupt elections, which one of his students secretly filmed and posted on YouTube. When it went viral, students crowdfunded his fee to qualify for the upcoming election. He wound up winning more than 60 percent of the vote — to the shock of the nation’s shadowy ruling oligarchs, its political apparatus and, most of all, the candidate himself.
By the time Zelenskyy actually ran for president of Ukraine four years later, he had become a national celebrity, with a show that both mocked and paralleled Ukraine’s longstanding battles with corruption. . .And his talent for public expression is not just a ticket to name recognition at election time; it’s also a potent governing tool. That should be no surprise to anyone who remembers Ronald Reagan. Trump used the skills he’d built as a tabloid centerpiece-turned-TV-star to hone his still-rock-solid base. . .
‘Napoleon’ Trailer: Joaquin Phoenix and Ridley Scott Reunite for Action Epic
Scott and Phoenix return in this first look at Sony's historical epic about the French Revolutionary Wars commander.
Ridley Scott returns to the historical action epic genre in this first trailer for his sweeping Napoleon, which reunites the director with his Oscar-winning Gladiator star Joaquin Phoenix.
Napoleon is described as capturing “Napoleon Bonaparte’s relentless journey to power through the prism of his addictive, volatile relationship with his one true love, Josephine (Vanessa Kirby), showcasing his visionary military and political tactics against some of the most dynamic practical battle sequences ever filmed.”
“I’m the first to admit when I make a mistake,” intones Bonaparte (Phoenix) at one point in the trailer, “I simply never do.”
The trailer shows multiple sweeping battlefield scenes chronicling the French military commander and political leader who rose to prominence during the French Revolution and led several successful campaigns during the Revolutionary Wars, eventually becoming the Emperor of France in 1804.
In addition to Phoenix as the original short king, the film stars Ben Miles, Matthew Needham, Tahar Rahim, Youssef Kerkour and Phil Cornwell, among others.
The project also released a poster with the marketing tagline: “He came from nothing. He conquered everything.”
Hollywood has been eyeing a definitive Napoleon biopic for decades. Stanley Kubrick famously developed a project in 1969, but financial backers pulled out after another project titled Waterloo flopped. In 2021, Scott told Deadline, “Napoleon is a man I’ve always been fascinated by. He came out of nowhere to rule everything — but all the while he was waging a romantic war with his adulterous wife Josephine. He conquered the world to try to win her love, and when he couldn’t, he conquered it to destroy her, and destroyed himself in the process.” He added, “No actor could ever embody Napoleon like Joaquin. He created one of movie history’s most complex Emperors in Gladiator, and we’ll create another with his Napoleon.”
The film’s original title was, oddly enough, Kitbag, which was reportedly based on the obscure expression, “There is a general’s staff hidden in every soldier’s kitbag” — a reference to how there’s the potential for greatness in every fighting man.
Napoleon is from Sony Pictures and Apple Original Films. Napoleon will be released in theaters Nov. 22 by Sony Pictures and then will stream on Apple TV+ at a later date.
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