Between Jean Renoir's deeply humanistic 'La Grande Illusion' and the doom-laden 'La Bete Humaine', undisputed masterpieces both, comes this depiction of 1789, that monumental year in France's history, which is oddly devoid of drama and historical bias in its quest of documentary-like authenticity. A collective enterprise, financed mainly by the French trades unions, it is essentially Renoir's call to arms to a country facing the Fascist menace. Suffice to say it did not have the desired effect and proved a costly failure, was dismissed as politically naive, recouped a mere one-tenth of its 10,000,000 Franc budget and marked the end of the director's love affair with the utterly ineffectual Socialist/Communist coalition known as the Popular Front, for which he had earlier made the propogandist 'People of France.' The film was restored pretty much to its original length in 1967 by the Cinématheque Francaise but remains arguably of interest only to cinéphiles and Renoir devotees.
Despite being somewhat didactic and uneven it is performed with ésprit and contains a few marvellous scenes, notably the splendidly choreographed storming of the Tuileries and an effective little shadow play courtesy of animated feature pioneer Lotte Reiniger, in exile from Nazi Germany. As one would expect from this director, the emphasis is mainly on the individual and there are especially appealing performances from Edmond Ardisson as Bomier, representing Everyman and Nadia Sibirskaia as the girl he loves. Renoir being Renoir, he has chosen to demonise neither the aristos nor the Monarchy and as played by his brother Pierre the character of Louis XV1 is hugely sympathetic and whose observation "The leaves are falling early this year" whilst making his fateful way to the National Assembly is one of Cinema's most poignant moments. Lise Delamare as the much-maligned Marie Antoinette is imperious but at the same time rather pathetic. Aimé Clariond and a suitably somber Louis Jouvet have telling cameos.
Writer Joseph Conrad had no illusions regarding revolutions and maintained that they simply allow narrow minded fanatics and hypocritical tyrants to come to the fore and betray revolutionary hopes and ideals. One cannot but help agreeing with him.
Despite being somewhat didactic and uneven it is performed with ésprit and contains a few marvellous scenes, notably the splendidly choreographed storming of the Tuileries and an effective little shadow play courtesy of animated feature pioneer Lotte Reiniger, in exile from Nazi Germany. As one would expect from this director, the emphasis is mainly on the individual and there are especially appealing performances from Edmond Ardisson as Bomier, representing Everyman and Nadia Sibirskaia as the girl he loves. Renoir being Renoir, he has chosen to demonise neither the aristos nor the Monarchy and as played by his brother Pierre the character of Louis XV1 is hugely sympathetic and whose observation "The leaves are falling early this year" whilst making his fateful way to the National Assembly is one of Cinema's most poignant moments. Lise Delamare as the much-maligned Marie Antoinette is imperious but at the same time rather pathetic. Aimé Clariond and a suitably somber Louis Jouvet have telling cameos.
Writer Joseph Conrad had no illusions regarding revolutions and maintained that they simply allow narrow minded fanatics and hypocritical tyrants to come to the fore and betray revolutionary hopes and ideals. One cannot but help agreeing with him.