D�sir�e Blu-ray Review
Is that your hand in your jacket, or are you just glad to see me?
Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman, April 10, 2012
Napoleon Bonaparte is having something of a film comeback of late, with the much talked about San Francisco exhibition
of the restored version of Abel Gance's silent masterpiece
Napoleon, and now on a considerably smaller scale,
this new Blu-ray release of the 1954 20th Century Fox CinemaScope feature
D�sir�e. The name of Napoleon
has become so iconic that its mere mention conjures visions of the petite Emperor, with hand thrust enigmatically in his
waistcoat (a proclivity that has led to all sort of semi-hilarious theories, including everything from Napoleon suffering
from ulcers or eczema to more mundane "solutions" attributing the position to him winding his watch). And many of the
people who surrounded Napoleon, for good or ill, during his lifetime have also entered the public lexicon: Robespierre,
his wife Josephine, his brother Joseph, and many others. But few other than rabid historians know about one D�sir�e
Clary, n�e Bernardine Eug�nie D�sir�e Clary, a fascinating woman who often appears as a footnote in biographies of
Napoleon but who herself led a life of some accomplishment, at least with regard to her romantic life. D�sir�e was born
in 1777 to a wealthy silk merchant in Marseille, and it was indeed her fortune, as expressed in the then current form of
a dowry, that may have attracted an up and coming young French General, who had a position of some authority but no
money of his own to speak of. This was not an unusual situation in that era, and in fact managed to somewhat balance
the inequalities between the sexes, at least in the courting arena, when a potential suitor needed to mind his "P"'s and
"Q"'s before his (or more correctly
her) "F"'s (as in Francs) were securely tucked away in his pocket post-
marriage. A fictionalized autobiography of D�sir�e's life became an international bestseller in 1951, and it seemed to be
the sort of perfect lavish period opportunity that suited the new widescreen "phenomenon" of CinemaScope, which was
finally giving Fox honchos a little sense of relief after several years of box office attrition due to the increased popularity
of television.
Henry Koster was a journeyman director with several big hits to his credit, as well as a number of interesting career
sidebars like helping Deanna Durbin and Abbott and Costello find their filmic sea legs, but he never seemed to rise to
the
top echelons of his profession. His films are almost always well crafted, often with exceptional (and Oscar-nominated)
performances, but they just as often lack a certain flair. Koster had directed the first CinemaScope feature, 1953's
The
Robe, which became on of Fox's biggest hits of that era. Koster moved directly on to
D�sir�e in 1954. Fox's
1954 slate of CinemaScope offerings featured two films with some interesting connections.
The Egyptian was another quasi-religious epic like
The Robe, albeit pre-Christian (though the Pharoah in the film was espousing monotheism), and seemed tailor
made for the opulent widescreen vistas that CinemaScope offered. A certain Marlon Brando was initially cast to play the
film's lead, the title character, a physician named Sinuhe. Brando dropped out of the Michael Curtiz directed epic
(Edmund
Purdom took his place, not exactly a fair trade) and matriculated over to
D�sir�e, a film which on its surface
offered
some of the epic scale that was already beginning to define the CinemaScope era, but which at its core presented a
much
more intimate story of a woman brushing up against a variety of historic characters.
Jean Simmons seemed to be the Queen of CinemaScope in the early days of the format, co-starring in three of the first
Fox
films utilizing the process,
The Robe, The Egyptian and
D�sir�e. Simmons is in fact the focus, if not the
ostensible star, of the film, as its title should suggest. D�sir�e is a willful, somewhat impetuous young French woman,
kind of like a Gallic Scarlett O'Hara in a way, and one who is out from the film's very beginning to find both herself and
her sister suitable suitors. That has led her to the brother Bonaparte, Joseph (Cameron Mitchell) and Napoleon (Marlon
Brando). (In the somewhat hilarious department, yes, that
is Richard Deacon�Mel from
The Dick Van Dyke
Show show�somewhat improbably cast as D�sir�e's older brother Etienne). Napoleon makes it no secret that he
and Joseph need wealthy wives with considerable dowries to further their ambitions, but he also makes it clear that his
attraction to D�sir�e is not based
solely on her wealth.
That sets the film on its main central course, where initially Napoleon and D�sir�e are engaged, but each moves on to
marriages that, if not completely ones of convenience, don't exactly produce sparks of animal magnetism, either.
Napoleon weds Josephine (Merle Oberon) while D�sir�e ends up with older General Jean-Baptiste Bernadotte (Michael
Rennie).
D�sir�e therefore becomes a study in contrasts, with the star-crossed duo of Napoleon and D�sir�e
putting their own wants on the back burner as they attempt to forge new relationships with their spouses. D�sir�e's
marriage is ostensibly the happier one, and in fact Merle Oberon's Josephine is a study in wistfulness and perhaps
something approaching clinical depression. D�sir�e has her own issues with maladjustment when Bernadotte accepts
a request to become the King of Sweden and she follows her husband to a court for which she is equipped neither
culturally nor emotionally. In the meantime, Napoleon's megalomania has led to increasing conflicts within the French
hierarchy, and he soon resorts to desperate measures with regard to D�sir�e in order to further his aim to conquer
Russia.
As hard as it is to imagine Brando as
The Egyptian's Sinuhe, it's perhaps just as difficult to preconceive the iconic
actor as the legendary Napoleon, but the fact is he does a rather convincing job in portraying the introspective, moody
and emotionally conflicted side of the legendary character. Though some might argue with his choice of a cultured
English accent (probably done to match that of Jean Simmons' similar idiolect), from a pure performance standpoint
Brando is remarkably restrained and surprisingly effective. His final scenes with Simmons are especially affecting, as the
two would be lovers look back over a lifetime of missed opportunities. Simmons is once again her usual stunningly
beautiful and poised self, but she also brings a sense of both the steeliness and the vulnerability of this real life woman
who is too often relegated to footnote status when she certainly deserves more than mere cursory examination.
D�sir�e is a big, sumptuous film with opulent production design and costumes (both of which received an Oscar
nomination), and excellent performances by all of the leading cast. That still can't quite save the film from its somewhat
lethargic pace, as well as the major bugaboo that seems to haunt most films about legendary characters. When the
people populating the film are already so much larger than life, expanding that grandiosity into widescreen splendor
only serves to further remove them from a real connection to the audience. It's like watching a tableau: it's elegantly
arranged, gorgeous to look at, but there isn't a wealth of emotional impact, despite the film's efforts to invest the story
with some intimate touches of humanity.
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