Ridley Scott couldn't care less if French critics aren’t fans of his newly released biographical war drama “Napoleon.” The film, which stars Joaquin Phoenix as Napoleon Bonaparte and Vanessa Kirby as Napoleon’s first wife, Empress Joséphine, has been attacked by several French publications for its historical inaccuracies and casting.
French GQ, for example, called it “deeply clumsy, unnatural and unintentionally funny” for the showcase to have French characters speaking in American accents. In the same vein, the daily morning newspaper Le Figaro suggested the film should instead be titled “Barbie and Ken Under the Empire.” And Napoleon biographer Patrice Gueniffey told Le Point magazine that Scott made a “very anti-French and very pro-British” rewrite of history.
