The historical record says that Napoleon Bonaparte, the bantam Corsican who became one of the most powerful men in history, died in prison exile in 1821.
The whimsical record in the movie The Emperor's New Clothes posits that the former Emperor of France escaped his British guardians on the remote island of St. Helena and lived for decades under an assumed name.
The ruse was clever and simple: Napoleon loyalists found an uncanny double, placed him in the Emperor's stead and whisked the real one off St. Helena. The original plan was for the double to reveal himself, and for the real Napoleon to reassert himself and take over France once again.
Plans, of course, have a way of going awry -- and that is the clever story presented in The Emperor's New Clothes. Napoleon is forced to remain underground in Paris, where he joins a new ragtag family group.
There is even a romance in the offing, with a gorgeous and dynamic widow (fittingly played by Dane actress Iben Hjejle). She oversees a group of peasants selling produce in the streets -- hence her nickname Pumpkin.
As history, Alan Taylor's film is bogus. There is not a shred of evidence that anything on screen ever took place. Yet, as a fanciful, fictional tale of what might have happened "if ...", the film is a charming delight.
The story is based on Simon Leys' novel, The Death Of Napoleon. The all-English screenplay, deftly written by Kevin Molony, lets actors dance with rich turns of phrase, off-beat humour and occasional moments of real poignancy.
All of those elements are seen in a glorious showpiece sequence in which Napoleon, in disguise, grandly marshalls Pumpkin's motley army of fruit-sellers to get rid of a huge pile of watermelons before they rot.
The cast Taylor assembled is equal to the task. If Napoleon was going to pontificate in English -- an oddity that is slightly off-putting, but only briefly -- then there is no one better to play him than diminutive English actor Ian Holm.
Best known in Canada for his superb performance in Atom Egoyan's The Sweet Hereafter, Holm is a consummate, skillful actor who sublimates himself and all his prior roles, leaving him free to transform himself anew.
He builds his repressed Napoleon into a complex creature brimming with arrogance and anger -- a true Emperor in exile. Yet the character is still capable of moments of tenderness and love without seeming forced. This is a considerable trick that is crucial to letting the film work its magic.
As for Hjejle, whose heart seems as big as the screen, she figures out how to bridge the age and beauty gap and makes this unlikely beauty-and-the-beast romance work.
The Emperor's New Clothes may not be proper history, but it is good entertainment.
(This film is rated PG)
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