This 2018 movie was something I just happened to stumble upon, almost accidentally, some weeks ago. But it was about the French Revolution, a topic that always fascinated me, and the 14th of July (France's national holiday, or Bastille Day, as it is known in English) was approaching. It seemed intriguing, and so I began watching it.
Then, just like that, it was gone. I had watched maybe half of it, and it just stopped. But I was able to watch it at home, although it had to be broken up into two days. it had seemed a bit of a strange movie at first, very different from the other movies about the French Revolution that I had seen. That said, by the time I saw it at home, I knew much more what to expect.
Unlike the other movies about the French Revolution that I covered here, this one feels more abstract. There are fictional characters here, which is rare in those other movies that I recently reviewed. And these characters feel like stereotypes on some level, almost illustrations of the ideal, and ideally idealistic and very politically active people of the time.
At times, this reminded me of Les Misérables. There is a character, Basile, who at times, reminds me of Jean Valjean. He is not free, imprisoned presumably quite severely in a typical manner that did not fit the crime. Basile is a mystery at first. He seems a vagabond, without a past and without any family, without even a hometown. He seems to know nothing, understand nothing. Yet, he gets caught up in the Revolution, which finds him going from the countryside to Paris, the heart of the revolutionary events that had altered the country.
Basile finds a home with a hospitable family living under the shadow of the Bastille, which of course was recently overtaken by Parisians, and which is already in the process of being torn down. We see the people on the streets below, celebrating the deconstructing of the Bastille, seeing the sunshine in their neighborhood for the first time, the imposing towers of the bastille no longer an obstacle to light and warmth, in some obvious examples of symbolism.
At his new home, with the father figure of L'oncle, a glassmaker, Basile finds himself suddenly, surprisingly, in a love affair with Françoise, a beautiful young woman who recently lost a child just before the Revolution really got going. She and Basile give birth to a new baby, and new hope for the new age.
L'oncle makes glass, and this adds a modern, scientific element to this movie. The imagery feels much more modern than what we expect for a film that is supposed to take place during this pre-Industrial Age era. It represents light both literally and figuratively, of course, as well as the coming age of industry and machines and progress.
We see the city of Paris starving, while we also see out of touch politicians debating. Some seem inspiring, some others depressingly attached to the old order and way of doing things, and too scared to commit to any serious change. Eventually, we see them take the final choice of what to do with King Louis XVI, or citoyen Louis Capet, as he came to be known. Once they commit to taking the action of beheading the king, figuratively and literally, there is no turning back.
This is an interesting movie, showing glimpses of the prominent revolutionaries to come just a little bit later in the Revolution. Men like Robespierre, Danton, and Marat, who figures quite prominently in this movie. It is a decent movie, and entertaining. Recommended.
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