La rivoluzione francese

This is absolutely the best film on French revolution, and maybe on any revolution. Unfortunately, it is very hard to find, very very hard. I have been trying for years. A must. Brandauer is absolutely believable and stunning. He is my favorite actor anyway and he is, by far, the best Danton, although I do love Depardieu's performance. I saw this film ten years ago in France and still cannot forget it. Since then I have been trying to purchase it for my classes and for my students and have been unsuccessful so far. They keep it like a big secret. I never understood why. Maybe because the revolution was shown in its true colors? Even in France this film is not shown very often, hard to find and not known enough. The dialogs are fantastic, all acting fabulous. Highly recommended.

Although I was forced to watch this one, I quite liked it; it was surprisingly good. The cast was well chosen with the likes of Sam Neill and Jane Seymour. A good movie, a bit long, but still entertaining. The best French Revolution movie to date.

Let me say first that there is no "official" version of this film with English subtitles. I got creative and indeed found the French language version with English subtitles. It was well worth the effort. This is a story of the French Revolution, and it shows how ordinary and historically well-known individuals were affected by the turn of events. The characters of those individuals are well-acted, not overly-melodramatic. I would say that the acting was toned down a bit and displayed basically how you would expect people to react under the similar situations. There was none of the "Ah, tis a far, far better thing I do, ..." histrionics or gesturing, as if the characters were speaking for history. Of all the FR pictures I have seen, the movie depicts the great chaos and energy the Revolution triggered. It is historically accurate, but it avoids the sterile type of presentation found in other docu-dramas or documentaries and has the unusual ability to grab your attention, even for its five and a half hour length.

I loved this film, both the English and French versions! The detail was astounding, and the film managed to tell this complicated story without dropping any threads. Jean-Francois Balmer is touching as the hapless Louis XVI, a well-meaning but out-of-touch ruler totally out of his depth in the political and social upheaval that was to destroy him. The three main revolutionaries, Desmoulins, Danton and Robespierre are shown as genuine human beings with emotional ties to each other, but who start going their separate paths, at a time when disagreement leads not to estrangement but to death. The film is divided into 2 halves, "The Years of Light", describing the political changes taking place in France as the revolution approaches, and "The Years of Terror", beginning with the arrest of the King and proceeding through the Terror through to the death of Robespierre. The second half is better, with more action and suspense, as familiar characters become swept up in the destruction and insanity of a Revolution going out of control. Andrej Seweryn is superb as the cool tyrant sending his enemies and their families to their bloody deaths, while gently describing his view of the world as one governed by a spirit of goodness and virtue. His sudden fall from power in the National Assembly is spellbinding, and the movie roars to a conclusion as the first of the revolutionaries becomes the last victim of the guillotine. The only jarring performance in this film is that of Peter Ustinov in the first half, who tends to play himself rather than the great moderate, Mirabeau. The rest of the international cast is wonderful.

This was the first movie I watched about the French Revolution. It gives you a very good introduction to the happening of events from this time. Highly Recommend giving this movie a watch. Some of the music (soundtracks) are very nice. There used to be on youtube an upload with the music, but now they're long gone.