Georges Danton is given a full blown and full blooded portrayal in the film Danton by Gerard Depardieu. Danton is a joint French/Polish production and it's interesting to see the French Revolution portrayed by someone other than in the English speaking world which is always so heavily influenced by the work of Thomas Carlyle and the Tale Of Two Cities by Charles Dickens.
I don't want to write anything like a mini-Carlyle so I won't give you a whole history of the French Revolution. Let's say that as this film opens what is commonly referred to as the Terror is in full swing as the Revolution gorges itself on blood for real or imagined slights. The two guys responsible for bringing it to where it is in 1794 are Georges Danton and Maximilien Robespierre.
Robespierre is at the height of his power now and like most tyrants in the making confuses his own political survival with the principles for which the cause he espouses was started. As his rivals and potential rivals keep being denounced and keep going to the guillotine, there is only one man whose voice can make a difference, Robespierre's former colleague Georges Danton.
These guys are as opposite in character as you can get. Danton is a lusty and hard living man who takes his earthly pleasures in great quantity and that's how Gerard Depardieu plays him. Polish actor Wojcieck Pszoniak plays Robespierre one of the creepiest human beings to attain power in any country in history. Cold-blooded and aesthetic he's merciless in his drive for total control of France and sees himself on some divine mission. Kind of like Osama Bin Laden.
Danton would be surprised at how the film shows him going almost Christlike to his eventual doom. I'm sure that's not how he saw himself, still Depardieu and Pszoniak are remarkable in their work.
Danton the film if not accurate history is an interesting interpretation of some very important history.
I don't want to write anything like a mini-Carlyle so I won't give you a whole history of the French Revolution. Let's say that as this film opens what is commonly referred to as the Terror is in full swing as the Revolution gorges itself on blood for real or imagined slights. The two guys responsible for bringing it to where it is in 1794 are Georges Danton and Maximilien Robespierre.
Robespierre is at the height of his power now and like most tyrants in the making confuses his own political survival with the principles for which the cause he espouses was started. As his rivals and potential rivals keep being denounced and keep going to the guillotine, there is only one man whose voice can make a difference, Robespierre's former colleague Georges Danton.
These guys are as opposite in character as you can get. Danton is a lusty and hard living man who takes his earthly pleasures in great quantity and that's how Gerard Depardieu plays him. Polish actor Wojcieck Pszoniak plays Robespierre one of the creepiest human beings to attain power in any country in history. Cold-blooded and aesthetic he's merciless in his drive for total control of France and sees himself on some divine mission. Kind of like Osama Bin Laden.
Danton would be surprised at how the film shows him going almost Christlike to his eventual doom. I'm sure that's not how he saw himself, still Depardieu and Pszoniak are remarkable in their work.
Danton the film if not accurate history is an interesting interpretation of some very important history.