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In
1794, Etienne Clary, a prosperous Marseille silk merchant, is horrified to
learn that his impetuous younger sister Désirée has made the acquaintance of
a Corsican named Joseph Bonaparte and invited him and his brother, Gen.
Napoleon Bonaparte, to call upon the family the following day. Désirée
quarrels with Etienne, her mother and sister Julie, but the next day, Julie
and Joseph are immediately attracted to each other, and the forceful
Napoleon is taken with Désirée. The naïve girl is bemused by
Napoleon’s blunt talk of his great destiny, and his admission that the poor
Bonaparte brothers need the rich dowries of the Clary sisters, but quickly
falls in love with him. Later, Désirée is in the family shop preparing
Julie’s wedding dress when Napoleon is arrested and taken to Paris.
Napoleon eventually returns to Marseilles and
tells Désirée that he has been cleared of charges of treason, but has been
ordered to track down royalists in Paris. Désirée begs Napoleon to
leave the Army and join Etienne in business, but the arrogant young general
scoffs at the idea of becoming a ribbon merchant and instead proposes
marriage. Although Etienne refuses to bless the union, Désirée accepts
and lends Napoleon the money to return to Paris.
Napoleon tells her that he will always love her
and will return soon for their wedding but, as the months pass, Désirée
begins to doubt him. After hearing Napoleon’s sisters gossiping about
the hedonistic lifestyle that he is leading in Paris, Désirée goes to the
city and tries to attend a party at the home of Madame Tallien, who is a
friend of Napoleon. When a servant refuses to allow Désirée to enter
unescorted, she asks for help from General Jean Baptiste Bernadotte, who
gladly escorts the pretty girl inside. Heartbroken to discover that
Napoleon is engaged to the wealthy, socially powerful Josephine de
Beauharnais, Désirée throws a glass of champagne at her and flees.
Bernadotte follows her to a bridge on which she is contemplating suicide,
and gives her a ride to her lodgings in his carriage. Bernadotte falls
in love with Désirée during the journey, but she refuses to give him any
information about herself or to see him again.
Later, in 1797, Napoleon, now France’s leading
general, has succeeded in conquering Italy, and Désirée lives in Rome with
Julie and Joseph, who has been made an ambassador of the French Republic.
Désirée tires of the gloomy palace in which they live, however, and decides
to return to Paris, even though her family worries that she still has
feelings for Napoleon. Désirée dismisses their concern and attends a
party at which Napoleon, who is now married to Josephine, compliments her on
her stylish, adult appearance. During dinner, Napoleon announces that
he will be leaving soon to lead his campaign to conquer Egypt, and
Bernadotte, who is thrilled to see Désirée again, questions Napoleon’s
position that conquest is the way to establish peace between the East and
West. Afterward, Napoleon talks alone with Désirée and defends his
war-like policies by stating that he is the true spirit of the French
Revolution. Napoleon makes a veiled request for Désirée to become his
mistress, but she runs from the room and is once again rescued by
Bernadotte, who takes her to "their" bridge. There, Bernadotte
proposes marriage and assures Désirée that he will not mind that she first
loved Napoleon.
By July 4, 1799, Désirée and Bernadotte have
happily settled into married life and have a son, Oskar. When
Josephine and Napoleon pay their respects to the new parents, Josephine
sadly confides in Désirée how much she envies her her son. In the
other room, Bernadotte continues to challenge Napoleon’s autocratic methods
and states that he will not support him in establishing a dictatorship.
On November 9, 1799, however, Napoleon is proclaimed First Consul of the
French Republic and, when Bernadotte reports to his office the following
day, Napoleon asserts that his appointment has averted civil war, then asks
Bernadotte to join his council of state. Intrigued by Napoleon’s
promise to enact civic improvements such as a unified code of laws and a
bank of France, Bernadotte agrees, but warns that while Napoleon will have
his loyalty, he will never have his affection.
Several years later, Napoleon engineers to have
himself proclaimed emperor, and stuns the crowd at his coronation when he
takes the crown from the hands of Pope Pius VII and crowns himself.
Five years later, desperate to have an heir,
Napoleon divorces Josephine, and Désirée comforts her former rival, before
Napoleon’s upcoming marriage to the eighteen-year-old Marie Louise of
Austria. As time passes, Napoleon involves France in more wars, and
Bernadotte is lavished with medals and honors for his heroic acts.
After he is wounded and sent back to Paris, Bernadotte is approached by
representatives of the king of Sweden, who wishes to adopt him and make him
the heir to the throne. Désirée is stunned by the news that she will
one day be a queen but supports her husband, who understands Sweden’s need
to have a ruler capable of maintaining independence from Napoleon.
When Bernadotte petitions to give up his French citizenship, however,
Napoleon explodes with rage and demands that Bernadotte remain loyal to him.
Bernadotte maintains that Sweden’s interests will always be his first
concern and, eventually Napoleon allows him and Désirée to leave Paris.
In Stockholm, the independent Désirée fails to
fit in with the convention-bound royal family and, realizing that she is an
embarrassment to Bernadotte, asks to go home so that he can continue with
the vital business of repulsing Napoleon’s hostile advances.
Eight months later, Désirée attends a ball in
Paris, and there Napoleon shows off his new son by Marie Louise. As he
dances with Désirée, Napoleon makes veiled threats about Bernadotte’s
alliance with Russia and, when Désirée supports her husband’s politics,
Napoleon announces to the crowd that she will be held hostage to ensure
Sweden’s support while his army marches through Russia to Moscow.
Later, after Napoleon’s army has been defeated,
he visits Désirée and asks her to write a letter to Bernadotte, requesting
his help. Désirée realizes that Napoleon, who still loves her, came to
see her more than to seek her husband’s support. Soon after,
Bernadotte leads one of the armies that overwhelms Napoleon, and the
triumphant general reunites with Désirée before returning to Sweden.
Napoleon’s exile to Elba is short-lived,
however, and after the battle of Waterloo, Napoleon retreats with his
personal army to Malmaison. Hoping to avoid further bloodshed,
representatives of the allied armies ask Désirée to speak with Napoleon, in
the hope that she can persuade him to surrender. Napoleon agrees to
speak with Désirée alone, and muses on what his destiny would have been if
he had married her. Napoleon proclaims that he has given his life to
protect France, but Désirée gently tells him that he must do as France asks
and go into exile on St. Helena. Commenting on how strange it is that
the two most outstanding men of their time had fallen in love with her,
Napoleon gives Désirée his sword in surrender, and assures her that her
dowry was not the only reason he proposed to her many years ago in
Marseilles. |
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