TITLE: La Victoire En Chantant
GENRE: Historical-esque, Action,
SUBGENRE: Military Battles, Struggles, Twisted Hero's Journey, Napoleonic Wars
FORMAT: Film 1-3 Hours
BASIC PROMPT: Follows One Artillery Officer Napoleon Bonaparte in Toulon, and his journey to his death in the decades to come. (At important words, locations, etc. It would be said in French with English subtitles (when first introduced), but the rest of the movie is spoken in English.
Plot (My Proposed one):
Act(ung) One
The movie starts with the Siege of Toulon, with the camera focused on the battle as attempts to kick the British out of the city failed, then the screen pans into Napoleon where the sun is shining on him, casting a shadow on the ground and camera, the camera sees the shadow and Napoleon's back, creating an illusion of the man being larger than expected.
The camera then pans towards the retreating men from the right battery formation while he sighed in exasperation, galloping on his horse towards the retreating units. The Camera follows through and begins to be back to standard until said otherwise.
He tells the fleeing artillery units that were abandoning their positions that the position they were holding is named 'La Batterie des Hommes sans Peur', where the subtitles states out its English meaning: 'The Battery of Men without Fear'.
The screen then shows the men's determination to be part of the battery of men without fear, thus they quickly returned back to the exposed battery position to keep shelling artillery fire on the enemy artillery.
He wrinkled his eyes as he saw the Coalition forces quickly rushing towards the less defended units in the north, prompting him to tell his forces to keep at it and rode off towards the north to rally some units to push back and advance towards the fleeing enemy after the arrival of him and General Dugommier. The capture of the general who surrendered to Washington in the American Civil War is shown with his injury.
The point of this scene paints Napoleon as a person who knows his audience and foreshadow of his life later.
The Siege of Toulon act then sees the French's assault on the enemy positions during rain, there is a small scene of the water making Gunpowder wet and when a French Line Infantry uses it to fire the musket, it fails. Forcing the forces around him to place on the bayonets once they arrived on the enemy, with some using the musket like clubs.
The camera turns to see Napoleon with two groups of soldiers to charge into the enemy positions as a second wave. It is during a camera switch to focus on Napoleon with shots including his soldiers, and how his horse died and was stabbed at the thigh, showing that while Napoleon can be seen as this great man, he is also human at heart.
Injured, he was told by a soldier of his to stop as the enemy was finally overturned by the French and made rapid retreats while the French took their positions and the cities that Napoleon suggested to capture to force a British Withdrawal.
The camera point of view then changes to Admiral Hood finding out the French's checkmate on their ships, causing him to order an evacuation of the coalition army to escape the city.
Many camera shots are made with a focus on the Spanish and British teams, with many of them having the bright idea to burn down the city of Toulon during their retreat back to the ships. The next scene then paints the desperation of the citizens as many of them attempt to escape to the ships that are sailing off. The ships took as many as they could, but many are left to face the wrath of the revolution.
Act One ends with the French forces pulling a robespierre on the citizens, while the troops that Napoleon used and himself aren't the ones executing the operation. Instead the camera then shifts back to Napoleon where he and his forces attempted to ignore the cries and screams, but the faces of restlessness and anguish could be seen on their faces.
Writer's Notes: Act One introduced Napoleon to the audience, as an officer who was promoted twice in the same siege, a man that knew his audience well, and a human. Hopefully introduces the relationship of brotherhood between Napoleon and his soldiers.)
Act Two
The second act starts with Napoleon overseeing a force of demoralised, hungry, and dirty troops while he looks at them with concern. He walks back to the command tent of his army to look at the map of Europe. The camera pans at the map from his shoulder to see the agreed plans of having the Rhine Armies of the French attacking the HRE, while his army is focused on attacking Italy.
He reached for a note as he started reading what seems to be correspondence of his scouts that also brought back maps for him to study, which there are different tables with fresh ink on them.
He walks back to his demoralised army with determination as he makes a speech of promises of food, riches, and glory once they complete the thought to be 'impossible'. After the speech, he himself helped to cook and hunt for food to give to his troops, who looked at him in shock at the fact that a higher commanding officer is helping his soldiers. The scene then ends with Napoleon sleeping outside on a chair facing the stars above. The night time troops looks at him with respect and wonderment.
The scenes then flipped from a little of the Battle of Mondovi with a paper that signifies the Sardinian surrender with the Austrian army on the retreat.
The next important scene shows the Battle of Lodi, where it takes the POV of a soldier who was open firing on the enemy forces. He quickly ran back to the supply area of the siege to reload gunpowder and bullets. He then quickly ran back just to see Napoleon's clothing dirtied, yet kept encouraging and commanding the Artillery portion. He looked to his fellow peers to just see awe in their eyes. Then, he orders a charge on the bridge leading to the village, with many soldiers calling war cries as they charge towards the enemy. Galvanised by this move and his call to action, the POV soldier rushed in with a bayonet charge while some of his peers were shot on the spot, however the soldier managed to stab multiple soldiers with more soldiers closing in. The camera shakes as Cannons open fire at the enemy, forcing them to retreat. The end of the scene shows the forces celebrating, but Napoleon is seen planning out further advancements into Italy.
The next small scene shows the French forces pillaging lands of the Austrian Rich to fund the war effort and also give the poor soldiers actual money, proving more loyalty towards Napoleon as they don't need to go hungry in the streets any longer. More scenes also show the Austrians kept retreating back towards Vienna while Napoleon's army followed suit with the man at the helm.
An important scene shows him arriving at the city of Vienna as it surrenders to the French, Napoleon himself was there during the treaty signing as he was the one negotiating for the French Nation.
The next scene sees Napoleon, his men, and the scholars he hired to go with him in the city of Alexandria that was surrendered to the invading force. There he encourages the scholars to learn forth from Egypt's past, architecture, the works that's been kept from the Europeans since Ottoman conquest of the region.
The scene starts with the bickering of French Parliament members as they walked into the new meeting place the military told them to go to escape a potential uprising in Paris (pronounced: Parii). Then after some time the doors closed, with a sudden incoming of French troops with Napoleon at the front, the muskets pointing towards the members of parliament..however everything became chaotic as nobody knew what they were doing. There is a shot of Napoleon being punched at the face by one of the members until his brother made everyone stop and have things back on schedule. The scene ends with Napoleon declared as the First Consul.
Another scene shows him and his army on the alps..with Napoleon riding on a mule. The camera then pans backwards as a painter is seen painting an image on the canvas before finishing, he called Napoleon over to view it, which he did. The camera then looks from their shoulders to see the well-known picture of Napoleon going through the Alps.
The next bit shows a POV from an Austrian general who received information after Napoleon's crossing, he and his fellow peers then discussed potential plans of attack with the general agreement at the end being the French leader going to Genoa. Satisfied, they all went back to their quarters..only to be awoken at midnight to be told of Napoleon's taking of Milan. The final scene then ends with the generals getting their armies to head towards the French positions to take back their supply line.
The Scene then changes to the Austrians, a distance from the village of Marengo, defeating the invading French army with cheers being held while they ran after the retreating French forces and stopped once they felt that it was enough. It was only a few hours later the French returned with Napoleon at helm.
(At the Battle of Austerlitz, Once it is seen Napoleon wins, a triumphant and fast version of
Chant du Depart.)
And so on and so forth, Act Two ends with Napoleon's surrender and exile towards Elba. On the island, Napoleon contemplates how things could be different, thinking about what he should've done before..he receives word (or letter) how France would still welcome him to lead the nation and not be under the Bourbons once more. He crunched the letter as determination fueled him once more, looking at the skies with a sun going over him with a field of dark and grey clouds in the sky.
He turns towards the camera, his eyes piercing into everyone's soul, before turning back and beginning the formation of his plans to escape and return back to his homeland. Some scenes show him being humble to the British, claiming his time is over, however there are also scenes of French visitors and correspondents preparing for the great escape.
(
A Quiet, yet solid version of this song is played as the ship sets sail to France.)
After one British reporter, Neil Campbell, returns back to England, the final scene shows Napoleon gathering his loyalists on the island on a British-painted ship as he heads inside the ship, and the screen slowly fades as Napoleon's ship fades over the horizon of water.
Writer's Notes: Act Two is meant to show Napoleon's journey, growing from every battle and facing his greatest, first, and multiple failures the more he got older. The Elba scene is meant to show his confusion, frustration, and want to not become forgotten. His determination comes to him as he plans and later escapes the island.
Act Three
Napoleon, compared his more emotional upbeat youth, his more subdued yet serious as he led the Battle of Waterloo. The Imperial Guard looking stoic as they watch with their commander of the battles ahead. He looks at the seeming to win the French army before many mistakes were made, and that due to the fact his army is made mostly with recruits, not the veterans he led in his past. He looked down as he got on a horse and headed towards Paris..
(The Final Scene of the Movie)
He looks down from his seated position on the bed with a sad look, the camera pans to his shoulder facing down to see a notebook with words written in French, a reference to the diaries/journals he made at the end of his life.
A Slower, subdued, and Instrumental version of this edition of the song is heard as Napoleon turned his head towards the door of his house with a sigh. He walks out slowly as the music continues from a soft and rising tension. The scene ends with the climax of the song as he steps his left leg on a boulder, hands clasped behind him while he stares at the setting sun, the camera watches both man and sun. The song ends after a few seconds of Napoleon looking at the distance, when it ends with the drums the screen becomes dark at the same time, ending the film.
Writer's Notes: The ending is an echo of Napoleon's earlier scene where the younger had cast a larger shadow and high sun, signifying the true start of his journey, while the hills around him at the end of the film casts a shadow over him instead with a setting sun, signifying the end of Napoleon's journey.
(Scene Change)
You woke up with your face on a solid surface, this made you jump back in surprise and stiffness at your neck. You look at a pile of notebooks with some loose paper going out of them, with books related to the Napoleonic Wars and Napoleon himself.
"Did I go overboard again?" You chuckled as you remembered your effort towards creating a much better version of that Waterloo story, but instead you utilised the concept of
'A Hero's Journey' made by Professor Campbell. Showcasing Napoleon as the Emperor, General, and Man, and his soldiers as well.
"Probably, probably not" a voice says out while placing a bowl of lucky charms and milk on the table. You turned to see Carrie smiling fondly at you as she grasped your hand softly. "But what I know is that you're just using the passion that you made yours – To create life from a mere few words, sounds, actions, and images."
N/A: Never knew that would be where La Victoire would end up as. Added a little Carrie and Bruce moment at the end.
