Desiree

Schoolgirl’s-eye-view of revolution and empire, with Marlon Brando as Napoleon and Jean Simmons as the protagonist. I remember watching it on tv as a schoolboy, and it may have gotten me interested in Napoleon’s biography. He jilts her as a young girl for his “destiny” and winds up after Waterloo handing his sword to her and accepting exile -- she gets him to surrender in a way Wellington never could. The production may be drowned in Fifties Cinemascope luxe, but it still looks cheesy to me, except perhaps for the gowns. Desiree snares Marshal Bernadotte (Michael Rennie -- “klatu barada nictu”) on the rebound, and winds up Queen of Sweden. Merle Oberon is Josephine and gets crowned in a tableau straight out of the David painting (which is too immense to be part of the Clark’s current exhibition, “Jacques-Louis David: Empire to Exile,” but is represented in the galleries by preliminary drawings and full-scale reproduction of details.) There may not be a close-up in the whole film, as the characters rattle around the widescreen frame, so there is no psychology at all in Brando’s performance, but he does strut convincingly. I don’t regret not having my “Citizens and Sovereigns” film series to show this in, but it is not without amusement. (1954, FMC/T, r.) *4+*