Why Ridley Scott’s Napoleon was originally called Kit Bag
The director really appreciated this name evoking “meritocracy”.
The screenwriter of the biopic Napoleon, David Scarpawho had already collaborated with Ridley Scott on All the money in the worldgave a long interview to IndieWire, this week. He notably talked about the little story behind the first title of the film.
“Oh, Kit Bag, was Ridley’s working title. I mean, it was never going to be called really like that. But for some reason he liked the reference to the famous saying that every corporal carries a general’s baton in his bag.“
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Indeed, the “Kit Bag” requires an explanation, unlike the name of Napoleon which is world famous: it is the term given to the practical travel bag in which a soldier stores his gear. The saying about the general’s baton means that each corporal motivates himself to rise in rank according to his merit to reach the rank of general.
“It is in fact a positive cultural notion that Napoleon gave to France, he analyzes. This idea of meritocracy, according to which any person, no matter how low in the social hierarchy, if they had the skills, should be able to progress and go from corporal to general within their army.”
David Scarpa had to carry out extensive research to understand the historical context and the military specificities of the time: “Previously, most armies in the rest of the world were run by heredity: you received a generalship based on who your uncle was or who your father was, and those people weren’t necessarily the most competent. And he (Napoleon) blew it up.” Kit Bagthe working title of Ridley Scott crystallized this notion of social as well as military ascension.
The screenwriter also recounts how the meticulous choice of battles that would appear in the film was decided based on the evolution of the figure of the emperor: “We only have three major battle scenes in the film. We start with Toulon, when he becomes a star. And then we move on to Austerlitz, which is arguably the high point of his genius, so to speak, but also, in a sense, a moral low point. And you get that with the performance of Joaquin (Phoenix). And then Waterloo has become almost synonymous with the moment when everything goes to hell.”
David Scarpa describes this triptych of battles which mark the rise and brutal fall of Napoleon as “three different stages of his psychological development.” Note that during this same interview, he also returns at length to the relationship between the Emperor and Josephine.
Napoleon is still in the cinema, with Joaquin Phoenix And Vanessa Kirby in the roles of the emperor and his wife.
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