The Marseillaise

Another project inspired by the success of the brief Popular Front government, LA MARSEILLAISE stars Pierre Renoir as Louis XVI. Told from the point of view of the common people, Jean Renoir's film traces the progress of the French Revolution from the fall of the Bastille to the king's abandonment of his palace in 1792. As news of the storming of the Bastille ripples into the countryside, the peasantry gain the courage to resist injustice. Outlawed by the regime, Jean-Joseph Bomier (Edmond Ardisson) realizes that he may now be able to return to society. Angry that town forts are still commanded by aristocrats, revolutionaries use the Trojan Horse technique to seize the fort at Marseilles. On the Austrian border, the revolutionaries try to raise troops to face the formidable Prussian army outside Paris, and Bomier joins the ragged army as it heads north. While on leave in Paris, he falls in love with Louison (Nadia Sibirskaia), and the couple is able to envision the political satire that widens the gulf between the king and his people. This stirring, realistic film is beautfiully photographed and wonderfully acted.