Tolstoy & Napoleon; Two great men on film

Napoleon and Tolstoy; Two greats on the screen

The Last Station
Rialto Cinemas

Napoleon

DVD Release
Vendetta Films
RRP $49.95

Creating honest accounts of historical figures on film is always fraught with problems for both the makers and the audience.

A film full of facts, dates and set piece historical reconstructions often doesn’t give much account of the private life and on the other hand get too close with the personal relationships and it can trivialise the person.

Two recent releases show there ways of dealing with major figures. One is an account of the last days of the Russian writer Leo Tolstoy while the other is a six hour mini series on the life of Napoleon Bonaparte. Both try to bring together politics, social change, as well as the impact of family and personal life on their careers and the life of their respective countries.

“The Last Station” focuses on the last days of Tolstoy leading up to his death in the little train station at Astopovo.

The title is also an allusion to the fact that Tolstoy was perceived as an almost Christ like figure in Russian history. The authorities were both proud of the great man but fearful of his revolutionary social and political ideas, so his death becomes a form of crucifixion.

The story of his impact on Russian society is intertwined with his long term relationship with his wife Sofya and the parallel love story of one of his private secretaries Valentin (James McAvoy) and Masha one of the workers from Tolstoy’s experimental farm.

Sofya who preferred to be called Countess even though Tolstoy was opposed to any notion of rank must have loved her husband; after all she copied out forty drafts of “War and Peace.”

While some of the exchanges between Valentin and the feisty Masha are the stuff of romantic melodramas, Toltsoy’s conversations are riveting. Over the final years his every word was scribbled down by friends, private secretaries, biographers and state spies which means that his conversations are generally verbatim.

Playing the role of Tolstoy is Christopher Plummer of Sound of Music fame. At the start of the film he looks like Christopher Plummer masquerading as the writer but within a few minutes he is totally convincing as is Helen Mirren as his inspiring and conspiring wife.

Much of the film concerns the battles between Sofya, Tolstoy and his agent Vladimir Chertkov (Paul Giamatti). Tolstoy and Chertkov want his works given over to the people of Russia while the countess wants to hold onto the ownership and copyright of his books.

It is an intelligent film which managing to capture many of the issues of pre revolutionary Russia as well as the issues which arise between the aims and aspirations of gret men and their families.

The same sorts of conflicts are at the heart of “Napoleon,” a French mini series which has never screened here and is over six hours of remarkable history. The series was made for both English and French audiences with no subtitling and no dubbing. When it was produced in 2002 it was the most expensive European television series ever. When it screened in America is was sanitised two hour version.

The film follows the career of the man from his early participation as an unpaid General during the revolution though to his death on St Helena in 1816.

The film manages to mix the history of France, Napoleons’ rise to power, his mild form of megalomania, his devotion to his family, his love of Josephine and his other dalliances.

Christian Clavier as Napoleon conveys a man both controlling his destiny and in the thrall of the events and decisions he makes. So his involvement with the Polish Countess Marie Walewska (Alexandra Maria Lara) commits him to seeking to establish a separate Polish state as well as providing him with a male heir he has to keep hidden.

The conqueror of Europe is happy to make war when forced to it but his motives are to rescue the underclasses from servitude and to create a democratic and open-minded society, saying to the Tzar that they could never be friends while the poor of Russia remained oppressed.

But he is also portrayed as one who wants to bring science and education to the masses and who saw the evils of the monarchy and religion. At one point talking to the Pope who has come for his coronation he says “France needs a religion but it does not need a god”

Most of the cast are not well known although Isabella Rossellini plays Josephine Anouk Aimee plays Napoleons mother and Gerard Depardieu is the menacing Minister of police and head of security. The lead English speaking actor is John Malkovich who gives a stunning portrayal of Talleyrand, the great diplomat who managed to survive thirty years under royal and revolutionary governments

There are some interesting pieces of historical inclusions such as the Roustam (Jacky Nercessian), Napoleon's Mameluke bodyguard who accompanied him through most of his career, sleeping at his door and tasting his food.

There are some sumptuous settings, great battles with casts of thousands and a genuine attempt to portray the history of the time.