THE FRENCH REVOLUTION AND "DANTON"

Anyone who has so much as gone near a book on European History will know the bare basics of the French Revolution. Marie Antoinette saying “let them eat cake”, her hair going white overnight when she is arrested, the whole gory shebang… And after that? Well, France became a democracy, the French revolution was inspiration all around Europe and in far off lands such as the United States, history was made, etc… That is the thing you see. When we wonder what happened next, popular history focuses on the effects of the Revolution elsewhere. One mustn’t forget – although it does sound like a rather silly point to make – that the Revolution had quite a few effects in France too. These effects were by no means confined to the year 1789, nor were they all pleasant. The French populace did NOT spontaneously start living in peace and harmony (one might argue that not a nation in the world has managed to do THAT yet, but let’s not split hairs). The point is, some of you might know and some of you may not, but the years immediately after the French Revolution, France was plunged into some of the worst years of tyranny and poverty imaginable. The populace lived in abject fear and for the most part poverty while the Revolutionary Council and the deputies headed by Robespierre violently silenced anyone who so much as questioned their authority… Danton is the story of one valiant attempt to bring the redress the injustices and the cruelty that the Robespierre had, perhaps unwittingly, perpetrated…
The year is 1794. Five years after the fateful events of 1789, France is far from the peace and harmony the perpetrators of the revolution had once dreamt of. Robespierre as the head of the revolutionary council – some sort of higher body of legislation if you will, making Robespierre basically the “boss” of 18th century France – is determined to stamp out every last voice that speaks up against the Revolution and thus the “good of the people”. And in this attempt no one is safe. Robespierre leads alone, he is one of the three main perpetrators of the Revolution; Marat is dead – there is a rather nice reference to the famous portrait of Marat dead in the bath being painted actually – and Danton has gone into voluntary exile after letter proving that he had sold information to the palace on crucial events of the French Revolution has been discovered. Now Danton is a businessman. (And incidentally, despite the lack of concrete evidence, based on what we do know it seems pretty certain he DID pass on information.) But he also believes in the principals of the Revolution. He sees that Robespierre has turned into a tyrant. And decides to come out of exile to try and put things right. He has two things on his side; first, he is one of the most talented public speakers of his day and quite capable of charming any crowd within minutes. Secondly he is known as a hero of the Revolution to the general population and his popularity and influence are already great… The question is will these be enough?
Now, anyone who has some basic knowledge of the post-revolutionary years in France will know that the answer to that question is no. But even this knowledge of “impending doom”, so to speak, doesn’t take anything away from the excitement and emotions created by this film… Danton is played by Gerard Depardieu, and I know that I’ve poked fun at him for being the “staple” of every single French film ever made, but credit where it’s due, here he is BRILLIANT. Danton is a “big” man in many senses of the word, he has a strong voice, he is tall with tons of personality. But he isn’t only show either; he understands politics very well, and the fact that he used to be a good friend of Robespierre makes the “match” all the more interesting. This is where the brilliance of Polish master director Andrej Wajda comes in, the first half of the film is made up of Danton and Robespierre “circling” each other, pitting their wits against each other and maneuvering. It has the potential to be boring but in fact one can’t help but watch with trepidation, as if one were watching a particularly good game of chess (if you like watching chess that is). There is a lot at stake for both sides; for Danton coming down to Paris and trying to set the world to rights is all well and good but if he doesn’t use his wits he may well end up on the guillotine. As for Robespierre, mowing down every single opponent is well and good – and there is no apparent reason why it shouldn’t work this time round – but sending a man as popular as Danton to the gallows could be political suicide, not to mention the fact that the two men used to be good friends…
I’m usually dead against saying much about the end of any film, but I have to say that I found the ending of this one cinematographically brilliant – one of the best I’ve seen yet – yet story-wise mildly unsatisfying. Ok so as you can probably guess Danton ends up on the gallows. But as he goes there he defiantly cries out that Robespierre has begun to dig his own graves and that he gives him no more than three months before he is toppled. History tells us that exactly three months after Danton’s death sentence, Robespierre himself ends up on the same guillotine in the Place de la Concorde… I’m pretty sure that that line is meant as a reference to that fact but I just wanted to clarify as it is a tad too oblique for my liking... But please don’t let this little spoiler put you off. As a film it is a true masterpiece… Whether you know the end or not…