Napoleon comes out next week, so it is cramming in as much press tour as possible between the end of the SAG-AFTRA strike and the day before US Thanksgiving. Joaquin Phoenix, Vanessa Kirby, and Ridley Scott were in London last night for the UK premiere.
Joaquin showed up in the same slightly sloppily styled suit as he always does—I admire his commitment to a loosely knotted tie, floods, and white socks with dress shoes. There is a double standard that a woman couldn’t get away with deliberately messy styling without being roasted for it, but Joaquin is entering Keanu territory of developing a standard red carpet look. For Keanu, it’s a dark suit, tee shirt, and work boots. For Joaquin, it’s dressing like an exhausted teacher chaperoning prom.
Vanessa Kirby, meanwhile, looks stunning in a red gown, which I think is Vivienne Westwood based on the construction of the bodice, but I don’t know that for sure. Also looking amazing is Ridley Scott’s wife, Giannina Facio. I love her military-inspired jacket. That kind of style was all the rage during the Napoleonic era. Maybe it’s a little on the nose for the red carpet of Napoleon, but her husband directed the damn movie, let her wear a costume!
Also present at the premiere were Jean-Christophe, Prince Napoléon, and his wife, Olympia, Princess Napoléon. As you can guess by the name, Jean-Christophe is a descendant of Napoleon Bonaparte (through his youngest brother, Jerome). Jean-Christophe and his father, Charles, are in a dispute about who is the true head of the House of Bonaparte. Charles’s father, Louis, wanted his grandson to be his heir, skipping over Charles because Charles had “republican and democratic opinions”—ironic—and because he re-married without Louis’s permission. This all happened in the 1990s. I know these people are tied up in hundreds of years of legacy and all, but they’re fighting over an abolished throne. They might as well be arguing over who gets to hold an empty box.