Tribeca Interview: Paolo Virzi, Director, 'Napoleon and Me'

Italian director Paolo Virzi is a hard man to get in touch with -- after seeing his new film Napoleon and Me at this year's Tribeca, I attemped to track him down for an interview, but he would only consent to being emailed questions and responding thusly. So I sent him questions, and I'm happy to say I got a response back a few days later. For those who didn't get a chance to see it at the festival, Napoleon and Me is a historical drama that tells the story of Napoleon Bonaparte's brief exile-imprisonment on the Italian island of Elba, before he escaped with a loyal following and was eventually captured once again. Here are Virzi's answers to my questions about the film: I have to say I love the fact that in response to my question about whether or not he has any ambitions to work in Hollywood, he said that the "Californian majors" are not looking for him to come to Hollywood. I think Californian Majors would be a good title for a movie, don't you?


Talk a little about the casting of Monica Bellucci -- was it easy to get her involved in the project? How did you view her character? Also, did getting her involved help sell the movie to the financiers?

PV: Monica and I had repeatedly promised each other for a long time that we would work together, and the role of the Baroness, who is malicious and vulgar, infantile and wise, sentimental but a bit of a whore immediately seemed the right occasion. I also enjoyed the opportunity to ironically work against the myth of her picture-perfect beauty that has made her a global icon of Italian glamour. I made her speak in an unusual mix of literary Italian, broken French and Umbrian dialect. I also asked her to assume the manners of a spoilt, gossipy idler. Working with Monica I learned a lot, but it was also a lot of fun. I was struck by her modesty, her great dedication to the film and the intelligent self-irony thanks to which, especially here in Italy, she managed to give the impression that she was making fun of herself, too.

Do you think the film presents a positive view of Napoleon? To some, he is considered as much of a tyrant as the tyrants of the 20th century -- what's your view of him, from a moral position?

PV: The film certainly did not have the ambition to propose the umpteenth portrait of Bonaparte. My aim was to get the Emperor off his pedestal and to use his exile on Elba to examine the character and psychology of a powerful man from a closer and more domestic perspective that lets you see his vanity, the irresistible tendency towards self-celebration but also to self-pity. And I wanted to contrast these traits with the idealistic ardor of a very young man. I am not a historian, but the figure of Napoleon to me has always included light as well as shadow: he was a great modernizer, he great unbiased military strategist, but he also had an idea of controlling public consent that in some ways anticipates the European tyrants of the 20th century.

What kind of research did you ask Daniel Auteuil to do for the film? Did you give him books, or send him to historical locations, or show him other films and interpretations of Napoleon?

PV: I asked Daniel to search this, our, Napoleon within himself and to imagine him as a great actor preoccupied with having reached his personal Sunset Boulevard. I asked him to find exactly that in the role of Bonaparte: the ego of an actor, the vanity and sadness of an old glory of the stage. Daniel, who is an actor of astounding talent and range, told me he was very excited to look at the role in this irreverent spirit. It seemed typically Italian to him to use this approach with a figure who in France is celebrated as a national hero

Would you ever consider returning to this story -- a sequel on St. Helena?

PV: No, honestly not. Generally, I am not fond of sequels.

What is your next project after this one? What are you working on right now?

PV: I am working on a new film set in contemporary Italy about the difficulties of a philosophy graduate while looking for a job; in short, the adventuress of a highly cultured girl in a world of ignorance and vulgarity. I am going to shoot it next summer.

Talk about the writing of this script, along with your co-writers -- what was the writing process like and how long did it take and what was the most difficult obstacle?

PV: The screenplay for "Napoleon and me" takes Ernesto Ferrero's novel "N" on Napoleon's exile on Elba as a point of departure. The screenwriters and I have transformed the character of Martino from a mature intellectual to a passionate young schoolteacher and invented the people around him, his family and Maestro Fontanelli, the mentor who prefigures the historical carbonari, Italian social revolutionaries. The work lasted for about two years between the research and the various drafts.

Do you have any interest in doing English language, Hollywood-style projects in the future?

PV: Shooting films in English is a possibility I would never rule out, but in my style, not that of Hollywood. At any rate, the question is not in the air right now; it is not as if the Californian majors are running after me.