YOU GUYS. THIS WAS SO GOOD. La Révolution Française is a two-part film made in 1989 for the bicentennial of the French Revolution. It had some major stars, including Jane Seymour as Marie-Antoinette and Sam Neill as General Lafayette. And it bombed, and so it’s been totally off the radar and scarce. But it’s SHOCKINGLY good and, most importantly, tried REALLY hard to be historically accurate. And these may be some of the most accurate 18th-century costumes I have EVER seen on film. EVER.
I think the big problem at the time, aside from an apparent lack of interest in the bicentennial, was the fact that this is two, 2.5 hour films. Luckily, now you can think of it as a 5-hour miniseries, which really isn’t so bad. It would be hard to sit through all of this in the theater, but luckily you can now chunk it up however you like and watch it from the luxury of your couch.
The film tries to tell a balanced story of the French Revolution, from just before the fall of the Bastille in 1789, through the fall of Robespierre in 1794. It focuses on Louis XIV and Marie-Antoinette, General Lafayette, and revolutionaries Desmoulins, Danton, and Robespierre. Although the film tries to be balanced, you do end up getting a clearer view and larger focus on those three revolutionaries. Of course, some characters die or go into exile about halfway through things, which removes them from the story.
In general, you follow the internal politics of the revolution (in an interesting way, not boring!) and also see the fall of the Bastille, the writing of the constitution and the Rights of Man, the women’s march on Versailles, the aftermath of the royals’ attempted flight to Varennes, the execution of Louis XVI and Marie-Antoinette, and the Reign of Terror. None of those things are fully fleshed out, however, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing. It would be hard to cover them all in detail, and this hits enough of the highlights but connects them logically. I’d say the only thing I felt was omitted was the effects on the aristocracy. You see what happened to the royals and the revolutionaries (and through them, some of the common people), but you don’t really see much about the aristocracy.
In terms of performances, I’d say Jane Seymour was very good as Marie-Antoinette (even if she was a bit too out-of-touch in the earliest scenes), Jean-François Balmer was very good as Louis XVI (nice to see him not portrayed as a total idiot, just, as a guy not totally cut out for the role and unsure how to proceed), and Sam Neill as General Lafayette acquitted himself well. I’m not sure if Seymour and Neill’s dialogue was dubbed into French, but if not, the two had REALLY good accents. The standout, however, was Klaus Maria Brandauer as Danton — a really riveting performance.
But let’s get down to brass tacks, shall we?
The Costumes in La Revolution Francaise:
Oh, the costumes. They were SERIOUSLY AMAZING. Like, SO SPOT ON. They were designed by Catherine Leterrier, who has done a lot of French film, including Coco Before Chanel and The Messenger: The Story of Joan of Arc.
I had literally ONE quibble, and that was:
Otherwise, please allow me to rave:
Now, we need to talk about two very important topics: Hats and Hair.
Now, yes, most of the main characters in this are boys, so we should talk about them too.
You can watch the whole thing on YouTube, and I highly recommend that you do.
The Atelier Caraco Canzeou made the dress. You can check here: http://www.ateliercaraco.com/main_fr.html
(on the top: realisations, then on the left: spectacles, then on the right: La révolution Française on the scroll bar).
This movie is my absolutely fav (with Barry Lyndon): it was on the TV for the Bicentenary (1989), I was 8 but fall in love with it.
Me? fascinated by the le late 18th c? Nooooooo!
Great timing, I was in need of something pretty to watch while I make a pair of stays. Good motivation too!
Wow, this looks so amazing, I can’t believe I never heard of it before. Thanks for sharing!
I know, right? I’d seen images of Jane Seymour as Marie Antoinette floating around, but other than that, didn’t really have any clear ideas!
A friend of mine that studies the period recommended this to me but I could not find it until now. Everything looks so gorgeous!
(Also I might need to ask her on Saint-Just and the earrings, just in case)
Looks awesome! We need to have a marathon viewing party. With champagne and strawberries. Who’s up for it?
ME!
Yeah, several sources mention that Saint-Just wore earrings. Some of the drawings/paintings of him show them…he was kinda cheesy.
Okay, I guess I can live with historically accurate cheesiness…
It’s not quite clear, however, whether he really wore earrings or whether this was part of the image of “cheesy villain” his political ennemies wanted to present of him after his death.
Erm, no. There is one in-period red chalk/pastel profile drawing which may be him which shows a large earring. This was copied in 19C history paintings as depicting him, but the sitter’s identity is by no means certain.
The portraits which are definitely him do not show earrings, and indeed, his hairstyles would tend to hide earrings, which takes away the point of wearing them.
Philippe Le Bas definitely wore earring/s, though.
Interestingly, a biographer has pointed out that the 19C depictions of Saint-Just with earrings emerge when they were increasingly feminising his image (as in 19C, earrings were more exclusively a woman’s item of jewellery).
The pastel portrait of Saint-Just which had belonged to Élisabeth Le Bas (née Duplay) is the best contemporary portrait of him (Musée Carnavalet). Not remotely “cheesy’, whatever you mean by that.
Thank you for bringing this to my attention. It is now on my “Watch later” list on YouTube. Hurray!
Another thing about this film is the lace trim on everything is sublime. I wonder if it was antique..
Okay, late here, but had to comment. I remember watching this on tv back in the early 90s (my early teens-self had a crush on Jane Seymour!) and it was soo long. Everything was in English but the French version (on youtube) is actually better. I think it was a miniseries but started out as a feature length film. There are more Marie-Antoinette-scenes in the longer one. Anyway, loads of inspiration for a new Robespierre-style wig! (Trivia: the Dauphin and Princesse Royale were played by Jane Seymour’s real kids.)
I have loved the film (or series) since I came to love the French Revolution. I still adore Andzej Severin as Robespierre, I think this was the first time that he was actually shown as the very humane, sensitive and struggeling revolutionary he was (except for my favourite depiction “La Terreur et la Vertu”). And yes, Klaus-Maria Brandauer is an outstanding actor. But when it comes to historical correctness, I am afraid that the series looses some of it towards the end. The presentation of 8-10th Thermidor is false, simple as that. It rushes through events, presenting them as if they happened in one day (it were three days, actually), just to give Danton the final word. Meh! Apart from that, the presentation of Saint-Just was not very much in line with historical research (in fact, he was very reflective, more moderate and far more cooperative than Robespierre).
I really enjoy reading your appreciation of the costumes in several films I also analyse for my MA thesis on period pieces set btw. 1789 and 1871 (approxiamtely the life-time of the german count Fürst Pückler who I’m interested in). Reading this I just noticed that you meant Louis XVI and not XIV. Oops, I get confused with the period sometimes too…
Best regards
Raphaël