Jeremy Irons in Brera to tell the story of Napoleon: Nexo documentary in theaters

Napoleon narrated by Jeremy Irons, the great actor who won an Oscar in 1991: November 8, 9 and 10 Napoleon arrives in theaters. In the Name of Art, the documentary produced by 3D Produzioni and Nexo Digital in partnership with Intesa Sanpaolo and Gallerie d’Italia, on a subject by Didi Gnocchi, who signs the screenplay with Matteo Moneta, with an original soundtrack by Remo Anzovino and directed by Giovanni Piscaglia.

During “the anguished drift of St. Helena,” before his death, Napoleon thought (we read this in his memoirs) that posterity would admire him not only for battles, but for bringing culture and beauty to the people, creating the public school and the modern idea of a universal museum. A failed writer, compulsive reader, admirer of art and its power of communication, Napoleon was driven to his exploits by the lust for power and glory, but also by the need for knowledge and the ambition to associate his image with the great civilizations of the past. During his military campaigns, he promoted research, colossal thefts of works and archaeological excavations, especially in Italy and Egypt, from which resulted discoveries such as that of the Rosetta Stone and the founding of the world’s first public museums: the Louvre in Paris and, following his example, the Pinacoteca di Brera in Milan. Tireless mind, prodigious memory, passionate about every discipline, Napoleon (Ajaccio, 1769 - St. Helena, 1821) transformed his natural sense of superiority into paternal instinct: the citizens of the Empire were for him children to be educated, with paintings, sculpture, music, and theater. To the conquered territories he brought scholastic reforms, architectural and town-planning revolutions, and a new understanding of classicism: the Empire Style, an integral part of which is the figure of the sovereign, effigyed in marble busts, coins, and snuff boxes, or only mentioned through the famous N.

Thefilm’s starting point is Napoleon’s coronation as King of Italy in Milan Cathedral on May 26, 1805: a moment that underscores the close ties with the Greco-Roman world, the Renaissance world, and even the Lombard heritage, represented by the Iron Crown that Napoleon wished to wear at the climax of the ceremony. In addition, for the first time since then, Francesco Pollini’s Te Deum, which was composed and played for the coronation and was only recently found among the papers of the State Archives, was transcribed, orchestrated and performed in the cathedral: in the film we see it performed in dress rehearsal at the Sala delle Cariatidi of the Palazzo Reale and then in the cathedral of Milan by the Orchestra Fondazione “I Pomeriggi Musicali,” conducted by Marco Pace, with mezzo-soprano Giuseppina Bridelli. For the occasion, it will also be possible to follow the restoration of the mantle worn that day by Napoleon and the ceremonial objects that accompanied him, a valuable recovery work linked to Intesa Sanpaolo’s Restituzioni project.

Milan, chosen as the first capital of the Kingdom of Italy and a city of strong Napoleonic sympathies, is a key location for the film. From the Biblioteca Nazionale Braidense (with the autograph manuscript of Manzoni’s Il cinque maggio and the volumes of the Description de l’Egypte), to the Pinacoteca di Brera, one of the hubs of the narrative. If in fact, starting with the Italian campaign, the peninsula was the object of meticulous spoliation of works of art, it is true that with Brera the first Italian “universal museum” was founded, a sort of “little Louvre” where the best of Italian production was intended to converge. If Milan was a center for receiving and sorting works, Rome was certainly a privileged place of “extraction,” as well as a portal through which to reconnect with the myths of Alexander the Great, Augustus and Hadrian. From the Museo Pio Clementino and the Capitoline Museums, the film recounts the odyssey of works that left for Paris and returned home, quietly, at night, in 1816, thanks to Canova’s efforts. These are some of the most important works in the Western tradition: the Apollo of the Belvedere, the Laocoon, the Dying Galata, and even the Capitoline Brute, which became in Paris an icon of republican freedom and tyrannical struggle and was carried in triumph in the processions celebrating Robespierre’s death. In the halls of the Louvre it is possible to delve into the scientific and encyclopedic criteria with which the display of works was organized and to admire the coronation of Napoleon and Josephine de Beauharnais on December 2, 1804, in Notre-Dame, a monumental work by Jacques-Louis David. A Tuscan interlude then leads the viewer to San Miniato, the Bonapartes’ place of origin, and toElba Island, where the books the Emperor took with him into exile allow us to talk about his obsessive love of reading, his exceptional memory.

In order to fully understand the figure of Bonaparte, the film includes talks by: Luigi Mascilli Migliorini, Historian, University of Naples and Director of the Italian Journal of Napoleonic Studies; Salvatore Settis, Archaeologist, art historian and President of the Scientific Council of the Louvre; James Bradburne, Director Pinacoteca di Brera; Ilaria Sgarbozza, Art Historian; Ernesto Ferrero, Writer, author of the novel “N,” Strega Prize 2000; Cynthia Saltzman, Art Historian and writer; Jean-Luc Martinez, President-Director Louvre Museum; Assem El-Dessouki, Historian of Modern Egypt; Aude Semat, Department of Egyptian Art, Metropolitan Museum, New York; Alberto Antonio Banti, Historian, University of Pisa; Charles Bonaparte, last descendant of the Bonaparte family; Peter Hicks, Historian, Fondation Napoléon; Chantal Prévot, Historian, Fondation Napoleon; Laurent Alberti, Curator of the Arc de Triomphe du Carrousel; Christophe Beyeler, Curator, Château de Fontainebleau; Marco Pupillo, Napoleonic Museum, Rome.

The film’s soundtrack will be released worldwide on Friday, November 5, 2021 by Sony Classical and marks Remo Anzovino’s seventh collaboration with Nexo Digital’s Nexo Soundtracks project. For fall 2021, La Grande Arte al Cinema is distributed exclusively in Italy by Nexo Digital with media partners Radio Capital, Sky Arte, MYmovies.it and in collaboration with Abbonamento Musei. La Grande Arte al Cinema is an original and exclusive project of Nexo Digital.

Pictured: Jeremy Irons at the Braidense Library.

Jeremy Irons in Brera to tell the story of Napoleon: Nexo documentary in theaters

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