Marlon Brando Movie:

Desirée Reviews:
At least a point of departure for a study of a great French leader...
2007-03-20 - Henry Koster directed many films with considerable charm and flair... His attempts at drama were for the most part less successful but always visually pleasant... He was nominated for an Academy Award for directing "The Bishop's Wife" in 1947... His reputation as a skilled artist led to his assignment as director of the first film in CinemaScope, "The Robe."

Koster does manage to keep the dynamism of "Désirée" and is excellent on both the technical level as on the screen acting... The film won Oscar Nominations for Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Color & Best Costume Design...

His high moment of the film was 'The Coronation Ceremony' where after the blessing of the crowns Napoleon seizes the crown from the Pope Pius VII and crowns first himself, then Josephine (Merle Oberon), Napoleon's first wife... (This petite brunette looked particularly ravishing as the empress).

Marlon Brando proved his versatility playing the great French soldier-statesman, a man insatiably ambitious, exceptionally intelligent, prompt to make decisions... Brando's performance is cool, calculating, compulsive, using a calm, measured English accent, providing the role its wise temperature of the most celebrated personage in the history of France & Europe...

British actor Michael Rennie plays the revolutionary general Jean-Baptiste Bernadotte with a noticed antipathy for his rival... Bernadotte shifts his allegiances, forming alliances with Russia, Great Britain & Prussia, contributing in the defeat of Napoleon at the Battle of Leipzig...

Jean Simmons - lovely as ever with her delicate beauty - gives the story fluid charm of a seventeen-year-old girl to a self-confident woman... We see her running through the streets of Marseilles, growing up in the outcome of the French Revolution, recording her daily written account of events, witnessing Napoleon's arrest...

Rescued from the threat of a jump into the Seine, Désirée rejects Napoleon's advances, and marries Count Bernadotte, now a Marshall of France...

Désirée was a romantic figure involved with two opposite characters: one as Emperor of France with an eternal search for wars and glory, and a king, uncertain sometimes about his capacities, with the necessity of a beloved queen besides him...

If not viewed as a history lesson, this fictionalized biopic is good entertainment and at least a point of departure for a study of a great French leader...



What was he Thinking?
2005-09-25 - I am a fan of Marlon Brando; the actor, not the man. I have seen many of his pictures and his abilities as an actor can make a good picture great and a great picture a classic. I remember seeing "Desiree" as a kid on "Saturday Night at the Movies". I didn't recall much about it except that it was about Napoleon Bonaparte and his lover. I saw that it was showing on the Fox Movie Channel so I taped it the other day. I had to watch it in three different sittings. The movie was so bad that I couldn't handle it all at one time. I would have dropped it entirely except that I kept thinking that there was SOMETHING I liked about it years ago. Alas, there couldn't have been. This movie could only be of interest to the serious Napoleonic history buff. I'm a history buff and it was of no interest to me.

I guess the biggest problem with "Desiree", for me, was that Brando's acting was the worst aspect of the movie. It seemed as though he was trying to be Laurence Olivier with his proper British accent (where was that in "Julius Ceasar" where it could have done some good?). A previous reviewer (Inframan) called it embarassing and, frankly, I can't think of a better word to describe it. I thought about the movie for awhile after I saw the conclusion. I did so mainly to figure out why Brando would take such a role and allow himself to be out-acted by Michael Rennie (and just about everyone else in the cast). I came to the conclusion that, in Brando's grandiose view of himself, it was only natural to believe himself to be Napoleon. Why not make some money while acting out his own self-image? Nothing else seems to explain this turkey.

Desiree my favorite movie
2004-12-31 - This is my favorite Brando film and basically my favorite movie. The depiction of Napoleon by Brando was excellent. I had read the book Desiree prior to seeing the movie, and felt that the movie was true to the book. It is a very romantic depiction of Napoleon and Desiree, and shows a very interesting side of Napoleon. I recently returned from France and vividly remembered Napoleon as depicted by Brando where ever I ventured.

The Things He Did For Love?
2004-07-07 - This was a great historical romance set amongst the ambitions of one man and the love he let get away. Get out your kleenex before you watch.

What a terrible film!
2003-10-31 - Hard to believe that anyone could take this overly romantic nonsense seriously. It has little to do with history, even less with cinema. Most of the budget seems to have gone on the stars - the scenery looks cardboard, the costumes are probably left over from previous films, there is no sense of the era, much of the acting is way beyond being merely wooden. Lots of stiff, unconvincing dialogue - little spectacle (flags moving across the screen represent a battle). Of course, the film is based on a best-selling novel of the 50's and, by rights, should have focused on Desiree as played (uncertainly) by Jean Simmons. But the casting of Marlon Brando as Napoleon throws everything off balance. I have read a fair amount about Napoleonic history but none of those accounts revealed that the Emperor mumbled like a method actor. Indeed, Brando seems particularly uncomfortable with both his role and his costumes. Similarly, the ever-stiff Michael Rennie is...well, stiff. On the other hand, Merle Oberon was an inspired choice to play Josephine - if only they had remembered to write a part for her to play. The whole thing looks cheap and not especially cheerful. Napoleon deserves better. So does anyone who tries to watch this film.