March 29 - Danton

This movie is a biography with a scene that happens on March 29. I hope you will enjoy this film and watch it tonight.

DANTON                              

In the spring of 1794 Georges Danton returns to discontented Paris and a rapturous welcome from the common citizens. Maximilien Robespierre orders the secret police to shut down a newspaper run by Camille Desmoulins that had been supporting Danton since Robespierre thinks Danto is plotting a coup d’etat. However Robespierre opposes trying to get rid of Danton, as he fears this will cause the middle class to rise up against the government. Danton’s friends want him to actually launch a coup, as they are convinced the government is about to move against them, but Danton refuses. After the convention orders the arrest of the head of the secret police, on March 29, 1794 [34:50 to 48:28] Robespierre has dinner with Danton and asks him to join forces with him, but Danton refuses. Desmoulins also refuses Robespierre’s offer to join with him. Robespierre now orders the arrest of Danton and his supporters. Although Danton is warned, he does not flee, is arrested and jailed. He does not want a civil war. The Convention is outraged at this but Robespierre’s speech turns opinion around, especially after   François Louis Bourdon, a supporter of Danton deserts him and supports Robespierre to save his own neck. At his trial Danton’s oratory sways the crowd in his favor and he mocks the proceedings as being a show trial. When Robespierre fabricates a plot by Desmoulin’s wife and others to intimidate the court, Robespierre gets a decree that Danton may not speak ant his trial if he speaks out of turn. He does and along with the other defendants is removed from the courtroom. In their absence they are found guilty. All of them, including Danton die by the guillotine.

An interesting political biography. This film is able to explain the complicated politics of the French revolution. Shows the dangers of letting the ‘ends justify the means’ become a factor in government.     

Citizens: A Chronicle of the French Revolution by Simon Schama (Alfred A. Knopf, New York, 1989) at pages 816 gives the date of the dinner

Producer - Margaret Ménégoz

Director - Andrzej Wajda

Screenplay - Jean-Claude Carrière

Runtime - 2 hours 16 minutes

Released – January 12, 1983

Cast – Gérard Depardieu as Georges Danton

Wojciech Pszoniak as Maximilien Robespierre

Anne Alvaro as Éléonore Duplay

Patrice Chéreau as Camille Desmoulins

Bogusław Linda as Louis de Saint-Just

Angela Winkler as Lucile Lucile Desmoulins

Andrzej Seweryn as François Louis Bourdon

Copyright by Ivan Walters 2014.