“Grandiose” or full of historical errors and an indictment of a national figure: opinions are divided among the first French audiences of Ridley Scott’s film about Napoleon, which received a warm reception from critics, reports AFP.

“This is shit! No, I didn’t like it,” Clément Pillet said as he left the Paradis cinema in Fontainebleau, south of Paris.

Although he admits that the British director did a “pretty good” job of “narrating the life of Napoleon in 2 hours and 40 minutes”, he was not at all convinced by the battle scenes, despite being the climax of the film. movie, “heap of shit”.

“Jean-Luc, who does not want to be named, was also very disappointed. He criticized the film for “historical errors” and for being “anti-Napoleon” played by Joaquin Phoenix.

In this work, Ridley Scott does not hide his admiration for the fate of the leader, drunk on conquests, glorified by military art or accused of setting Europe on fire.

Marie-Laure Jeanmougin also felt that this great figure of French history, “someone exceptional, whether you like him or not, was humiliated in certain scenes that were not necessary”.

But she found the film “very, very beautiful”, “as we expect from Americans, something grand”.

According to specialist website Allociné, critics in the French press shared such a warm reception, giving the film an average rating of just 2.9 (out of 5).

After the preview, several French historians took notice of Ridley Scott’s historical interpretations, some of them even accusing him of a British bias, hostile to Napoleon.

In the weekly Le Point, historian Patrice Heniffy criticized the film for being “a caricature of an ambitious Corsican ogre, a sullen boaster who also disgusts his wife Josephine”.