All language subtitles for Napoleon.In.The.Name.Of.Art.1080p.HDTV.x264.AC3.MVGroup.Forum

JEREMY IRONS: On 26 May 1805,

this square was jam-packed.

The bells were ringing out

across the city.

(BELLS CHIME)

And it would have been difficult
to elbow your way

through the yelling crowds
as they jostled and shoved.

(CHORAL MUSIC PLAYS)

Then, Napoleon arrived

on a four poster bed,

carried aloft by clerics.

He entered here,
into the Duomo, Cathedral of Milan.

The Emperor of France now desired
to be the King of Italy, too.

Now, this was the robe worn
by Napoleon that day.

And its train was held
by General Berthier,

one of Napoleon's most trusted
and courageous of officers.

Among the regalia he brought with him
is his sceptre,

the symbol of absolute power...

..but also something that was one
of his favourites,

The Hand of Justice,
which stood for law.

Now, he was particularly fond
of this because his civil code

has established the rules
of family life,

individuals and commerce
that shaped French society

as we know it today.

He was a child of the Revolution

and the civil progress
it brought about.

So, now, we were all equal

before the law.

But most importantly,
the crown worn that day.

Now this is an iron crown
that has already graced the heads

of the Lombard Kings,

and it's regarded as sacred

and is said to contain one
of the nails

from Christ's crucifixion.

After Jesus Christ, Napoleon
is the most famous man in history.

Over 170,000 books
have been written about him.

But how was it that such
an unlikely little lad

became such a successful
and powerful icon?

An example for today's statesmen

and even corporate managers.

A model for future strategists

and communicators.

In Corsica,

he'd been a precocious,
lonely and irksome child,

short and with a large head,

often getting into fights,
which he usually lost.

As a young soldier in France,
his poor command of the language

didn't endear him to his colleagues,
and even the woman he gave his heart

to was unable to return his passion.

Not much of a recipe for success,

you'd think.

And yet, he succeeded,

perhaps as much, if not more,

than any man in history.

And even when it was all over
for him, he spent his days

in an awesome
and uncompromising solitude.

Napoleon, a brilliant
military leader,

but also a great social organiser
and motivator,

a man with the vision
of a national unity,

a creator of dreams,
nourished on cultural energy,

and the seductive power of art.

Art that was his passion,
that he financed,

and lest it be forgotten, looted
from the countries he conquered.

26 May 1805 was a Sunday.

Napoleon was just 36 when he stepped
inside this cathedral.

The ceremony was a majestic affair.

Original music had been composed

for the occasion.

Four orchestras
accompanied the coronation.

A specially-composed Te Deum
was played for the first

and last time, since the score,
for more than 200 years,

was presumed lost.

# Dun-dun, dun-dun-dun

# Dun-dun, dun-dun-dun... #

To understand Napoleon,

what better place to begin
than Milan and the Braidense Library?

An exceptional work

is conserved here -

La Description De L'Egypte,

23 massive volumes,
the largest of them

measuring a metre and a half.

A publishing venture that lasted

over a decade.

They reveal a little-known
characteristic of Napoleon

that is fundamental
to our understanding of the man -

his obsession with books,
science and art,

an obsession that he'd carried
from his youth.

So, when his thoughts first turned
to a military expedition in Egypt,

he decided to invite 167 savants
to join his army.

Scholars, scientists, chemists,
engineers, historians, architects,

archaeologists and artists -

the country's academy-educated
cultural elite.

They set off alongside illiterate
soldiers whose knowledge stretched

to little more than weaponry.

Never before, a military expedition
seen professors lined side by side

with fighting men.

Yet, despite all the difficulties,

it was an opportunity

to widen cultural horizons.

Everyone wanted to travel to Egypt
alongside the Napoleonic Army.

One of the savants was Gaspard Monge,

mathematician,
the inventor of descriptive geometry

and one of the expedition's
older members.

It's reported
that before his departure,

he had a huge argument with his wife,
who told him,

"You're too old
for such adventures."

Well, during the campaign in Italy,

Monge was the man who carried away
some Arabic typefaces

from a palazzo of the Roman Curia,

which were later drawn upon
to make proclamations in Egypt.

Imagine, if you will,

280 ships carrying 54,000 sailors
and soldiers...

..arriving in the baking-hot
Egyptian port of Alexandria

on July 1 1798.

Napoleon chose to land in the city
founded by Alexander the Great,

whose magnificent library
had been the ancient world's largest

until its demise, half way through
the 7th century, AD.

MAN:

On the Giza Plateau, Napoleon made
one of his most celebrated orations.

"Soldiers, from the heights
of these pyramids,

"40 centuries look down upon you."

The French overran the Mamluk troops
with ease, and while the fighting

raged all around them,
the 167 savants sheltered

in an infantry square.

The moment the battle was over,

the explorations began.

(CHEERING)

Down the Nile, travelled the savants,
as far as Thebes and Luxor.

The most important discovery
came about by chance in the winter

of the following year.

During excavations in a place
in the Delta

called Rashid or Rosetta.

A French officer stumbled
upon a dark stone covered

by inscriptions
in different languages.

It was to be the stone that allowed
Jean-Francois Champollion

to decipher hieroglyphic script
in 1822.

The key to unlock a long lost world

had been found.

European culture would change
forever.

By the end of the 19th century,

trips to the Nile were all the rage,

and filmmakers,
like the Lumiere brothers,

were not far behind.

Egypt, after Napoleon, would

never be the same.

In reality, Napoleon's expedition
had turned into a disaster.

The English Navy sank
the entire French fleet

at the Battle of the Nile
and overcame the French army on land.

Napoleon escaped to Paris.

But in the annals of history,
the discovery of this

ancient Egyptian civilisation
and its monuments transformed

the military catastrophe
into an archaeological

and historical triumph.

Napoleon later wrote,

"The months I spent in Egypt
were the happiest of my life

"because they were incomparably rich
in fervour of idealism."

Look at this picture.

During that Middle Eastern campaign,
Napoleon had found himself

in Jaffa, Palestine, with his army

stricken by the plague.

A few years later, he would ask
the painter Antoine-Jean Gros

to depict that episode.

And for the first time, perhaps,
we see a modern myth in the making,

the magical power of a great leader,
who doesn't fear to touch

the suppurating sores
of an infected victim.

LICIA SIRCH:

(PIANO PLAYS)

"Once upon a time in Paris,
there lived a happy man.

"He was an old man by the name
of Vivant Denon."

Now, these are the opening words
of a book written by Anatole France

at the end of the 19th century.

That man, Denon, was with Napoleon
in Egypt, and would become the first

director of the Louvre Museum.

Napoleon was just six years old
when Denon made these sketches.

He'd gone to visit the father
of the Enlightenment, Voltaire,

then, 81 years of age.

He depicted him
with his night cap on,

his decrepit-looking face resembling
that of a monkey.

A major scandal ensued.

Denon was a multitalented aristocrat,
witty and well-read,

an artist, writer and libertine.

During the years of the Revolution,
he would have ended up

on the guillotine had it not been
for his undisputed charm.

The French were scandalised

when he published a series
of erotic drawings,

but not the young general,
Napoleon Bonaparte.

They met in 1798, at a party held
by the aristocrat Talleyrand,

French Foreign Minister
during the Revolution,

another chameleon-like character
who was able to adapt

to each regime change.

MAN:

So, it was with that glass
of lemonade, that Vivant Denon

became Napoleon's go-to man
in the world of art.

The recently-concluded
Italian campaign demonstrated

how strategically important
art had become as a weapon

in his quest for power.

Military operations on the peninsula
had been a blinding success,

a year of battles
that had given birth to the myth
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