Monday, July 8, 2013

La Marseillaise (1938)

RAC (France)
Directed by Jean Renoir
My rating: 2 stars out of 4
IMDb
(DVD, Lionsgate)

Bland account of provincial French revolutionaries who band together for a march on Paris. There are many, many political speeches, all invoking words like "nation", "citizen" and "patriot". Their hatred is aimed at the aristocracy in general and King Louis XVI in particular. In Paris, they issue an ultimatum and storm the King's palace. Violence is at first averted when they convince the King's guards to join them, however when they get close to the King himself they find his Swiss bodyguards not so easily swayed.

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