The Emperor's New Clothes

The Emperor's New Clothes updates the Prince and the Pauper story to take a twist on the story of Napoleon played wonderfully by Ian Holm, a role he had played many years before in the Terry Gilliam film Time Bandits. Although this is of course a made up story, I have to admit it does feel like it could be real. It would have been quite easy to have swapped Napoleon for someone else without anyone knowing and who's to say that they didn't?
 
After his defeat at Waterloo, Napoleon is exiled to the island of St. Lucia and after six years of 'English food' together with his colleagues he concocts a plan to gain control of France again. He switches places with a lowly deckhand Eugene (Holm in dual roles) and makes his way to Paris to overthrow the Bourbon Dynasty. As he travels, he sees how distorted and abused his legacy has become with the battlefield of Waterloo transformed into a tourist trap. On his journey, he tries to find an old friend, but upon discovering he has died he strikes up a bond with his wife Nicole (Iben Hjejle). While this is all going on, Eugene takes a shine to acting like Napoleon, which is hilariously funny to watch until he unexpectedly dies. This leads to a problem when his British captors realise it is not actually Napoleon. They must decide to either announce that he has escaped or to claim that he has died. Which of course, causes no end of problems for the real Napoleon too.
 
The Emperor's New Clothes is such a wonderfully warm film. The performance of Holm as Napoleon and Eugene is some of the best acting I've seen from him and is worth a look for those who only know him from Alien or The Lord of the Rings films. The rest of the ensemble cast Tim McInnery, Iben Hjejle, Chris Langham amongst others are perfect in creating characters who I can relate to and pull for to succeed. It seems odd that despite the high value of the production in terms of sets, costumes and so forth, it was decided that though characters will say French words, they would not adopt the accent. In a way I suppose this is a blessing to not have to listen to a film full of 'Allo Allo' style accents which may have ruined what is all round a perfect film.
 
It is such a delight, that this film is packed with special features: Interviews with Ian Holm, Iben Hjejle, Director Alan Taylor and Producer Uberto Pasolini all give a great insight into the making of the film. This is bolstered by two short behind the scenes featurettes and the mandatory trailer.
 
I was pleasantly surprised by this film. The story was simple, but effective and you can clearly see the work put in by everyone involved in this production. Though the whole premise of the film may indeed be a lie, it is no lie that you should not miss this film!
 
 8/10