Review of Danton (1983) by Frédéric B — 28 Dec 2009

A film that captures the titular essence of the Terror - not the mere force of despotism or autocracy but the corruption of the greatest revolutionary fervor ever witnessed by mankind and its transformation into one of the most heinous regimes.

Gerard Depardieu is flawless as Danton, engaging with the character's vulgarity and rhetorical flourishes with equal panache. Wojciech Pszoniak is a serpentine Robespierre, capturing both the stentorian, unilateral purity of his civic-philosophic vision and his personal desolation.

I was reminded of Ken Hughes's 1970 film Cromwell (a lesser film by all counts) with Richard Harris and Alec Guinness as, respectively, the titular Puritan and decapitation-nearing Charles I; both films are totally dominated by the conflict between the two central personalities, yet their time onscreen together is limited to mere moments.

Boguslaw Linda (hauntingly identical to the real St. Just), Patrice Chereau (sympathetic as the marginalized Desmoulins), Roger Planchon, Jerzy Trela, Serge Merlin, and Erwin Nowiaszek form a vibrant supporting cast, capturing the menagerie of personalities that was the First Republic in the final throes of its dissent into the reaction of Thermidor.

Jean Prodromides's score, steeped heavily in the atmosphere of Penderecki, adds the perfect touch to the proceedings; here is society, for a brief period the greatest ever established in humanityâ??s political discourse, now corrupted, chaotic, like a nest of primitives bowing before the "scythe of equality.

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