Music:
- "Carolus Rex" by Sabaton.
Film Clips (and Napoleons):
- Admiral Nakhimov, 1946 (Aleksandr Khokhlov)
- Die Deutschen - Episode 9, 2008 (Radu Banzaru)
- Edward the Seventh - Episode 2, 1975 (Julian Sherrier)
- Henry Dunant: Red on the Cross, 2006 (Tom Novembre)
- Juarez, 1939 (Claude Rains)
- Man to Men, 1948 (Jean Debucourt)
- Sisi - Episode 1, 2009 (Erwin Steinhauer)
- The Secret Diary of Desmond Pfeiffer - Episode 4, 1998 (Nick Jameson)
- The Song of Bernadette, 1943 (Jerome Cowan)
- The Story of Louis Pasteur, 1936 (Walter Kingsford)
Claude Rains -one of my favorites and in one of my favorite movies though it certainly portrayed him as the villain. It seems the filmmakers had just enough honesty to portray Maximilian and Carlota sympathetically but no more than that as they were extremely unkind (and dishonest) toward the French Imperial couple (the saintly Eugenie most of all in my view).
ReplyDeleteOddly enough, I would have likely cheered Louis all the more if he had been as he was portrayed in "Juarez"; scheming to spread monarchy in Latin America to stop the advance of American democracy. However, he had no such malice as you probably know better than most. But just imagine if you can, a history professor in a border university, addressing a class almost entirely consisting of Mexicans or Mexican-Americans being given looks of outrage when he lectured on Napoleon III, portraying him as essentially moderate, trying to steer a middle course between the Bourbon royalists on the right and the revolutionary republicans on the left. But this particular professor was a great admirer of the British Empire and the Victorian era particularly and in Louis Napoleon he saw only a Bonaparte who made peace with Britain, fought beside them in the Crimea and whose son gave his life in the service of the Crown.
Of course, not all of his motives in the 'Mexican adventure' were purely altrustic but his intervention did give that unhappy country a few years of the best government, the most progress and certainly the most stability they had known since independence. But I do go on...
My favorite of these Napoleons is Jerome Cowan, who wears a very dapper gown, though Khokhlov most resembles him.
DeletePart of Napoleon III's plan was to establish the "Kingdom of the Andes" following his Mexican plans as an essential subservient ally/puppet. Naturally the motivation is geopolitical as opposed to a celebration of monarchism necessarily, but it's telling that he'd opt for Empires and Kingdoms instead of Republics.
Ahhh, Sabaton. I actually hated all metal (and all kinds of metal) until I discovered them and their love of History. I wish more bands were like them.
ReplyDeleteYou might like Iced Earth, who do a lot of American historical songs (such as their thirty minute epic on the battle of Gettysburg), or my own "first metal band", Blind Guardian.
DeleteBlind Guardian, like Stratovarius or even Dragonforce, tend to do a lot of mythological and fantastical themes, or ones relating to themes suitable to epic narrative (Blind Guardian's seminal "Nightfall in Middle-earth for example).
Otherwise I quite like Saxon, my favorites from them are "Crusader", "Thin Red Line" (essentially the film "Zulu") or "Princess of the Night", which is about trains.
Turisas also cover a great many historical themes dealing with the Vikings and Byzantium.
Metal is an interesting kind of genre for sure.
It is, but even though I have starting listening to it I can never and will never get used to the screaming metal songs, I'd be listening to a rather nice metal rendition of celtic sounds then some asshole screams in my ear. Very jarring.
Delete