19 - The Napoleonic Wars in European Cinema

Summary

For many decades, the Napoleonic Wars were among the most popular subjects of historical films. In its approximately 125 years of existence, European cinema brought these wars, and their various historical figures and facets, back to life on the screen in more than 250 feature films.¹ And Napoleon Bonaparte, the chief protagonist of these events, is one of the most frequently filmed historical figures ever.² A major cause for this popularity, and for the high number of films produced, was the enormous, pan-European dimension of the historical events depicted. Filmgoers from Lisbon to Moscow saw stories that not only dealt with decisive turning points in the lives of Napoleon’s contemporaries but also resulted in social and political upheavals reaching to the remotest corners of the continent. The Napoleonic Wars represented an epochal threshold that permanently changed the everyday lives and imaginations of millions of contemporaries and had an enduring impact up until the era of the picture palaces of modern Europe in the twentieth century.