Review of Conquest

A mediocre film with an exciting and promising beginning that is affected by a boring ending, without dynamism and even seems to be meaningless or a filler that is too long.

How little I liked:

• As I said at the beginning, it has a promising beginning showing a woman developing a certain political and patriotic thought. This is very interesting to me since I have not seen these inquiries in characters themselves and less feminine in those years.

• A production design that contextualized well.

• The performances were good beyond that the script did not help them. Greta Garbo is phenomenal playing 'Marie Walewska', a strong woman of ideal but weak of heart. Her character is not the one that has evolved the best during, but Garbo's accent and cold looks with a certain passion at the same time conquer.

Charles Boyer as the historical 'Napoleon Bonaparte', frivolous and with only one ideal on his mind: the revolution. Superb performance that earned him his first nod for 'Best Actor' at the 1938 Oscars.

Maria Ouspenskaya steals the screen with her hysterical and crazy character, her scene going crazy while playing cards with Napoleon is the best of the film.

I did not like:

• Yes, a good start but one that is totally muddy due to its development. The script seems messy and not on a temporal level but on facts and states of the characters. Hardly any decision Marie made was sensible and consistent with her character arc in the story. She was a totally ruined character, she could have maintained the cunning and intelligence to link with Napoleon to achieve the freedom of Poland but no, in their second meeting she falls madly in love for no reason and is no longer interested in her ideals (????). Napoleon another character who was well played but who was very warm shown and nothing special for how colossal his role in history was.

A stupid love story that has as an excuse to tell and bundle characters with strong political ideals but it is the least projected.