Napoleon and Josephine’s real relationship was intense – but they loved power more than each other

By Katherine Astbury, Associate Professor and Reader of French, University of Warwick

When Vanessa Kirby was announced to play Josephine in Ridley Scott’s Napoleon, it caused a ripple of surprise among historians. Kirby is considerably younger than the actor in title role, Joaquin Phoenix (14 years her senior), but in fact, Josephine was six years older than Napoleon.

Scott explained that he cast a younger woman so he would be able to alternate between battle scenes and what he describes as a “really interesting, prolonged love story”. The film portrays Napoleon as someone who,…

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