[buwaya]

It does go rather deep into the Directory politics. Paul Barras (another paramour of Josephine) is quite a prominent character, and he does quite a lot of explication. And the roles of the other Bonaparte brothers Joseph and Lucien, are prominent as well - though conflated into just Lucien in the movie. Both were power brokers. The advancement of Napoleon was part of the family business.

[Rockingham]

By most accounts, Joseph Bonaparte kept a faltering Napoleon from withdrawing rather than defending the residue of the Directory government from a mob and then seizing control. What Napoleon described as a matter of a “whiff of grapeshot” was more like Joe making his kid brother stand firm and fire his cannon. If not for that, the name Napoleon might well be no more than an obscure note in a multi volume academic history of the era.