FRENCH CRITICS RUSH TO SUPPORT RIDLEY SCOTT’S NAPOLEON: Director Ridley Scott Dismisses Critics: “The French Don’t Even Like Themselves.’

Ridley Scott has been typically dismissive of critics taking issue with his forthcoming movie Napoleon, particularly French ones.

While his big-screen epic, starring Joaquin Phoenix as the embattled French emperor with Vanessa Kirby as his wife Josephine, has earned the veteran director plaudits in the UK, French critics have been less gushing, with Le Figaro saying the film could have been called “Barbie and Ken under the Empire,” French GQ calling the film “deeply clumsy, unnatural and unintentionally clumsy” and Le Point magazine quoting biographer Patrice Gueniffey calling the film “very anti-French and pro-British.”

That’s good enough an endorsement for me; I’m really looking forward to seeing the film in a theater during its brief run before streaming on Apple TV.