Culture chat: ‘Napoleon’ with Simon Schama

Life and Art from FT Weekend

Forhecz Topher

Tv & Film, Arts, Society & Culture

4.6 • 601 Ratings

🗓️ 9 December 2023

⏱️ 26 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Historian Sir Simon Schama and FT deputy arts editor and film expert Raph Abraham join Lilah to discuss the historical epic ‘Napoleon’. Ridley Scott’s new two-and-a-half-hour-long film stars Joaquin Phoenix, and documents a lot: Napoleon’s rise and fall, some of his most famous battles, and his relationship with his wife, Josephine. But how well does it represent his character? We discuss what the film got right and wrong (historically and dramatically), why Napoleon continues to loom so large in culture, and whether historical epics still satisfy us.

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We are still collecting your cultural predictions for 2024! What’s one thing you think will happen (or want to happen) in culture next year? Write us. You can email us at [email protected] or message Lilah on Instagram @lilahrap.

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Links (all FT links get you past the paywall):

– Simon’s FT Weekend essay on Napoleon, and why so many writers and filmmakers try to depict him: https://on.ft.com/4861gbn

– the FT’s official review of Napoleon by Danny Leigh: https://on.ft.com/484moPh

– An essay from Janan Ganesh on why Napoleon still matters: https://on.ft.com/3uWF8Sj

– Simon recommends the 2012 movie ‘Lincoln’, directed by Steven Spielberg

– Raph is a fan of Pablo Larrain’s ‘Jackie,’ from 2016, and the Leonard Bernstein biopic ‘Maestro’, directed by Bradley Cooper and available on Netflix on December 20

– We interviewed Pablo Larrain in 2021 about his creative process: https://on.ft.com/3oofjVO

– Lilah wrote a column about learning to draw: https://on.ft.com/46NBaZt

– Simon is on X @simon_schama

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Special FT subscription offers for Life and Art podcast listeners, from 50% off a digital subscription to a $1/£1/€1 trial, are here: http://ft.com/lifeandart

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Original music by Metaphor Music. Mixing and sound design by Breen Turner.

Read a transcript of this episode on FT.com

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to Life and Art from FT Weekend. I'm Lila Raptopoulos, and this is our Friday chat show.
0:08.1	Today we are talking about the film Napoleon. That's Ridley Scott's $200 million, two and a half hour epic, which is in theaters now.
0:16.6	In it, Joaquin Phoenix plays the notorious French emperor, and the film follows his rise and fall.
0:22.8	Today, we will talk about the film and The Myth of Napoleon with two very special guests.
0:27.4	First, we have the esteemed author and historian, Sir Simon Shama.
0:31.4	You may know him as the host of a number of BBC series, including A History of Britain.
0:35.9	He's also the author of many books on European and
0:38.1	American history. In the words of the film, he's not built like other men. Simon, welcome to the show.
0:43.8	Hello. And joining us in London is our deputy arts editor and resident film expert,
0:49.3	the great Raff Abraham. He found the crown in the gutter and the people put it on his head. Hi, Raff. Welcome.
0:56.2	Hi, Lila. Such a pleasure to have you both here. So before we get into the history, I would love to
1:01.3	just get your top line thoughts about the film. In this version of the story, we watched Napoleon
1:07.7	lead a number of famous battles. We spend time in his pretty kinky relationship with his wife, Josephine, played by Vanessa Kirby.
1:15.5	Did you like it?
1:16.5	Did you hate it?
1:18.1	Simon, why don't we start with you?
1:20.1	Could have been worse.
1:23.6	It may not sound like a massively ringing know, massively ringing endorsement.
1:29.1	You know, I'm not one of those historians who goes to history movies in order to spot
1:33.8	the mistakes in chronology or costume or whatever, really.
1:39.2	It is, after all, a movie.
1:41.1	Yeah.
	...

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