13/02/2003 - The film about the Emperor's last days on Saint Helena starring Philippe Torreton and directed by Antoine de Caunes. When history and legend meet...

Read the Special Berlinale 2003

“I didn’t want to play an emperor. Professionally speaking, I have always been interested in people. And here again, I tried to do that. It’s impossible to count the number of books that have been written about Napoleon, so I tried to go beyond that and approach the man. That was the most difficult part of my job.”
Philippe Torreton is the star of Monsieur N (a.k.a. Napoleon).
The film is an imaginary dramatisation of his exile and death on the island of Saint Helena and was directed by Antoine de Caunes.
“Saint Helena represents a distinct period in Napoleon’s life and not all that many films have been made about it. I wanted to portray the man right after his fall from grace and I wanted to tell the story from a British point of view. Napoleon’s death is still veiled in mystery: some people believe that he was poisoned, others that a double took the disgraced emperor’s place, enabling him to escape. What we do know – and this was the starting point for my story – is that the body of Napoleon’s friend, Francesco Cipriani, has never been found. Cipriani died two years before Napoleon, also on Saint Helena.” Co-produced by IMG Production, StudioCanal and France 3 Cinema, Monsieur N was made on location on Saint Malò.
“We made the film on location in South Africa and on Saint Malò. We would have loved to work on Saint Helena but planes cannot land there,” said producer Marie Castille Mention-Scharr. “It was not easy to find a location with the same setting and atmosphere, in the end we found a place in South Africa and spent 10 weeks there. It was a great experience to work in South Africa and one that I am sure we will repeat sometime in the future. ”
“We wanted to show a man at the end of his life,” said fellow producer Pierre Kubel. “Napoleon was a man who did some good things, but he also started some really stupid wars. I am really happy to be here in Germany and see our young people finally coming together to condemn the new war that may soon begin as another really stupid war.”

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