The film covers a fairly short period of the French Revolution, up to the Declaration of the Rights of Man.
But this allows the director to dissect the mechanism of this period in some details: the king's procrastination, external factors, agitation and revolutionary tactics, etc.
The acting and costumes are credible, helped by the absence of large-scale scenes in a film that primarily exposes the alcoves of power.
The main flaw is the following: a bias exclusively in favour of the Revolution: the only philosophical arguments presented are those of the Revolution's supporters; the word of the conservative party is reduced to considerations of maintaining social order, and is therefore by nature approached on a systematically inferior level of argument.
But this allows the director to dissect the mechanism of this period in some details: the king's procrastination, external factors, agitation and revolutionary tactics, etc.
The acting and costumes are credible, helped by the absence of large-scale scenes in a film that primarily exposes the alcoves of power.
The main flaw is the following: a bias exclusively in favour of the Revolution: the only philosophical arguments presented are those of the Revolution's supporters; the word of the conservative party is reduced to considerations of maintaining social order, and is therefore by nature approached on a systematically inferior level of argument.