Showing posts with label Waterloo. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Waterloo. Show all posts

Friday 1 December 2023

Couldn’t Escape if I Wanted to


Escape is Not His Plan --
I Must Face Him, Alone.

WATERLOO - 1970 - FAN CUT in Full HD



This full HD version is taken from a PAL TV transmission and therefore runs slightly faster. Using stills and exerts from the script to indicate four short scenes that never made the final cut of the film.

Some notes

Scene 1. The battle of Ligny. Looking at the script, the French army marching past the windmill used later in the film, looks like it was meant to be used as the battle of Ligny. Blucher is on the march! The Prussian cavalry charge used later in the film was almost certainly meant to be used earlier. In the film the images are ‘flopped’ so the charge goes from left to right, to maintain screen direction. In the battle scenes the french generally attack right to left and the allies left to right. This is good film direction.  The scenes were almost certainly moved later to beef up the Prussians arriving at the end of the battle. In the Fan cut the ‘corrected’ charge then goes to a still of Blucher unhorsed. This explains why he is wounded a few scenes later.

Scene. 2. Wellington and Mercer discuss why his guns are aimed at a hollow in the ground. 
This explains why the french horses appear to fall over a crevasse in the next scene.

Scene. 3. In the script a messenger rides to tell Napoleon that The Farmhouse has fallen, then promptly dies. These pictures appear to be that scene. Certainly Napoleon looks very similar in the next scene.

Scene 4. Wellington and Blucher meet. Cutting this scene into the film it was very obvious why it was cut. The triumphalism seems at odds with the sombre mood created in the finished scene. That said it does payoff the narrative of Napoleon nemesis.


Tuesday 12 July 2022

The Duellists












The Duellists (Dir. Ridley Scott, 1977) | Interview with actor Keith Car...



Surely you will not turn down
the opportunity of a brigade.
The Emperor is Our Hope and Strength.
We belong to him.

D'Hubert :
I have entertained the notion that...
I may belong to myself.

It has been said that you 
Do Not Love The Emperor.

D'Hubert :
By whom?


By General Feraud.
He knows you well, I believe.

D'Hubert :
General Feraud has made
occasional attempts to kill me.
That does not give him the right
to claim my acquaintance.

And it is also said that he fought you...
in defence of The Emperor's Honour.

D'Hubert :
That is impertinent trash!
You have My Answer to Marshall Grouchy.
I shall write to confirm it at once. Good Day.

Colonel, do you sometimes
meet with General Feraud?

Now and again.

D'Hubert :
Ask him what The Honor of The Emperor
has to do with Madame de Lionne?

Madame de Lionne?

D'Hubert :
I think that was The Lady's name.
He should remember better than I.


*****

Feraud :
Damn his impudence.


That was The Lady's name, sir.

Feraud :
Madame de Lionne. Yes.
Get your backside off that table.
Fine woman. A cultivated woman.
She had nothing to do with The Emperor.


I do not believe that The General 
was suggesting an ilIicit acquaintance 
between The Emperor and this woman.

Feraud :
Then what was he suggesting?
What? Out with it.

Sir, I took him rather to imply that this lady...
not The Emperor, was the prime cause 
of your quarrel.

Feraud :
I have called him out near
to half a dozen times.
The Cavalry knows. Would I have
done that for some petty nonsense?

She was a lady I held in high esteem.
Her salon was very well known in...

Strasbourg.

Yes, now I recall something else.
He said to me in a public street--

I have it burnt in my mind.
He said to me...

"For all that I care, They can
spit upon Napoleon Bonaparte."

Who were 'They'?

Feraud :
They, They!

When did The Emperor
not have enemies?

D'Hubert is a turncoat!
That is a fact!

I say more. I say he never loved
The Emperor! Never!

He saw a fair deal of campaigning....

Feraud :
When you meet him again, tell him
I will prove The Truth of it
at the first opportunity.

To The Emperor -- Good Luck to him
and to those that love him.

But in less than 100 days,
Napoleon was defeated,

And I offer you another toast.
Let us give thanks for the safe return...
of His Sacred Majesty, Louis XVIII.
God Save The King.

And Devil take The Ogre...
to St. Helena.
This side of The Grave, it seems
a fit and proper place for him.

Come, sir --
You're A Royalist now...
Like the rest of us.
Where else would 
you wish him to be?

One celebration at a time, sir.
Don't you think?

No, I Do Not.
The Boy's A Royalist.
And I can give you more good news.

He has been summoned to attend
upon Marshall St. Cyr in Paris.

He will have a command
in The King's Army.

So Tell Us
What Fate would 
you choose 
for The Ogre?

D'Hubert :
I believe The Emperor
chose His Own Fate :
It was his habit to do so.

I learned My Trade in His Service,
as did MarshaIl St. Cyr.

The King's Army will have
more Realists than Royalists.

I have just agreed to terms
with this lady...
and I'm much too tired
for further questioning.

Well done.



Good Day, Colonel.
D'Hubert, isn't it?

D'Hubert :
That's right.

You took care to play safe, eh?
Very spruce you look too.
Very tame and spruce.

Found a nice place with His Majesty, have you?
Now, Gabriel Feraud was right.
Poor devil. He always said 
you were a slippery fellow.

D'Hubert :
How is General Feraud?


You don't know?

D'Hubert :
It interests me very little.
In fact, I do not know.


Feraud was arrested.
They have him on 
The Butcher's list.

D'Hubert :
He's to go before 
The Commission?


Yes. Now, there was a man
who would ride straight at anything.
He ends up at the mercy
of that sewer rat. Fouche.
He's as good as dead.

Joseph Fouche :
Come a little closer, please.
I'm all attention.

D'Hubert :
I believe Your Excellency
has chosen a list of officers...
to be tried for Treason
by the special court.

Joseph Fouche :
I... am The President 
of The Commission
that chose them, yes.

D'Hubert :
I've come to petition that the name
of General Gabriel Feraud
be removed from that list.
I have letters of introduction --
Marshalls St. Cyr and MacDonald.

Joseph Fouche :
Have you indeed?
By all accounts, he is 
rabid Bonapartist.

D'Hubert :
So is every Trooper and 
Grenadier in The Army...
as Your Excellency knows.

General Feraud hasn't the brains
to make himself dangerous to anyone.
Rather, he could not conceivably 
Hurt The State.

Joseph Fouche :
He has a busy tongue.
He talked himself on to our list.
we could not keep him off it.

I am something of 
A Virtuoso in Survival.

You will be aware 
of that, I think.
Besides, I despise these nobodies...
who offer their neck to The Block.

At least this is in My Control,
because if it were not...
My Own Name would 
most certainly be on it.

Our New Masters 
and Their Ladies
bless them, are out for 
a Deal of Blood.

Please be seated.

You have an honest 
Soldier's Face, General...
but you have come here
to intrigue with me.

Is that not so?
Have you not come here
to intrigue with me?
Is this fellow a relation of yours?

D'Hubert :
No.

Joseph Fouche :
Intimate friend?

D'Hubert :
No, not exactIy.
We've had a... 
long association.

Joseph Fouche :
MysteriousStill, you have 
two marshals at your back.

Yes, there's your man.
Feraud, Gabriel Florian.

He will live in the provinces
under police supervision.
You realise that, of course --

But he will live.

Take a pen, my dear fellow,
and cross out The Name.
I can't do everything for you.

D'Hubert :
Your Excellency, I must beg you
to keep my interference a secret.
Most particularly from 
General Feraud.

Joseph Fouche :
General Feraud, Alive or Dead,
is not worth a moment's gossip.