The Emperor of Paris

A missed opportunity, if you know Vidocq's 'real' story (itself probably half-fiction), his skill at disguises and undercover work for instance. As it is, we end up with a period action drama which gleefully ignores how long it took to load period pistols to allow a number of Western style shoot-outs and various hand to hand combat, as well as at least two beautiful women to add romance. The result is somewhere between "The Count of Monte Christo" and "Cartouche", with hints of early nineteenth century political intrigue scattered all through it. There are felicities - the opening promises an earthy brutality which quickly disappears, and the views of period Paris seem well-researched. It's also a surprise to discover Olga Kurylenko, whom many Bond fans will know, but whom I last saw playing a beautiful Cuban dancer in "Magic City" as a sulphorous baronne (speaking perfect French). I hadn't seen Lucchini for decades, so was taken aback by his age. A fun film in many ways, but not really a film I would have watched had I known it was going to so blithely ignore the source material.

It was a really nice movie with great acting. Vincent Cassel was astonishing, as always!!!! However, as it was a real story and Francois Vidocq was a person that existed in real life, it would have been better if we were given further information about him at the end of the movie, that he finally accepted to be the leader of security police of Paris, he founded the 1st detective agency and he is considered to be the father of modern criminology.

It was quite hard to watch it till the end. All decorations, costumes, details are magnificent. But that's all. Characters are dull, acting is lifeless. Better watch Vidocq (2001) one more time.

L'Empereur de Paris is a nice movie that takes us back to the times of France under the rule of Napoleon. The great performing Vincent Cassel plays Francois Vidocq, an ex-con who hunts down the most notorious criminals of the Parisian underworld to get a pardon in return for his services. Fantastic settings and costumes and a very good cast take us back in time and give us a relatively close authentic portrait of the era of Napoleon. Directed by Jean-François Richet (known for a broader audience for Blood Father with Mel Gibson, and the remake of Assault on Precinct 13 from 2005) The Emperor of Paris is a fine movie if you like to watch movies/stories like Les Misérables, The Count of Monte Cristo, Oliver Twist, The Duelists, Gangs of New York, and of course the Vidocq movie with Gérard Depardieu (2001).

Cassel always takes the lead, good content and story with few good wording of French litterature