A documentary film directed by Jean-François Delassus.
Last Monday with @mathildeaquisexta, I had the great opportunity to finally watch this movie, which was believed to be a lost media for a long time. Indeed, it is not: if you are in France and live close to an archive or library that provides access to INA's stored material, you can see it too on the spot.
Considering that it hasn't been uploaded anywhere online yet and that the series, which the movie is part of, Les samedis de l'histoire, was broadcast only once - it didn't have much success apparently - my friend and I didn't have very high expectations, but with our surprise, the film revealed itself to be rather decent and entertaining, with very few serious historical inaccuracies.
I'm no historian and even less a film critic, so, instead of attempting to make - and consequently fail since I'm not trained for such things - a real review, I'll simply write down my personal opinions and impressions, starting with what I didn't appreciate, to proceed with its strong points. At the end of this post, if Tumblr allows it, I uploads some pictures I took with my phone and some others I found online. They aren't of very high quality; nonetheless, I did my best to edit them so that they look decent. Unfortunately, in some instances, removing the glare and other unwanted effects was impossible with the means available. Better than nothing though, since INA hasn't agreed on giving copies of the movie upon request yet.
With that being said, let's begin!
The Bad (historical inaccuracies/bizarre filming choices/general things I didn't like)
There's no mention of Carnot's involvement in the arrest and consequential execution of Robespierre and associates. The events of 8, 9 and 10 Thermidor just include a clip of Hoche being sad in prison, while the narrator limits himself to mention that Robespierre, Saint-Just etc have been proclaimed outlaws; after their death is announced, the spectator witnesses the release of the young general. All in all, such a missed opportunity to show all the possible reasons - and there are! - why Carnot turned against his former colleagues, something that could have enriched the depiction of his character even more.
The interactions between Carnot and Barras. There's quite a number of testimonies, stating that the two often fought and didn't like each other at all; yet in the movie, not only they walk arm in arm, but they converse in a very friendly way. This is kind of inaccurate; for example: the real Carnot would have never revealed the whole delicate matter concerning his former girlfriend to somebody like Barras, but here in the movie he does.
The good (what I appreciated and thought brilliant)
Apart from the two unfortunate cases presented above, I appreciated each of the casing choices, particularly the actors playing Carnot, Robespierre, Saint-Just and Hoche.
Alain Mottet simply is Carnot. Not only his appearance matches fairly well that of the mathematician during the Revolution, but also his way of acting is rather accurate, considering all we know about him from historical accounts, which portrays him as a polite, good-mannered, hard-working person, who acts as a sort of patron for young promising military men. If my still limited knowledge on his life can serve anything, I'd say Mottet's performance comes the closest to the real Lazare Carnot.
Something similar can be said for Robespierre and Saint-Just, played by actors who represent them well both in looks and attitude. They aren't depicted as bloodthirsty dictators, not even as Carnot's sworn enemies, but as people of great talent and intellect with whom the former can interact without much issue.
As for Hoche... You're going to understand very soon what I liked about his actor.
I found the choice of adding Feulint - Carnot's younger brother - showing his influence and support in the life of Lazare's life brilliant. He gets often - almost all the time, to be fair - forgotten or treated as a marginal character with little importance.
The relationship between Carnot and Saint-Just. Oh, this is gonna be long. Since both @saintjustitude and I have started studying Carnot's life we wondered what exactly the two thought of each other and if their interactions were truly tumultuous as it's always portrayed in French Revolution related media and described in Hippolyte Carnot's memoirs on his father.
By checking some CSP decrees and letters, it seems like it wasn't the case at all, at least in the beginning, and that their relationship only started to deteriorate a couple of months prior to the events of Thermidor. Nothing confirms said theory better than this movie: Carnot and Saint-Just interact a lot; the former, in particular, gives the idea of genuinely caring about the latter: he takes time to salutes Saint-Just exclusively before leaving for Northern Austrian border; once Saint-Just and Hoche come back from Alsace, Carnot says enthusiastically how much he's proud of them for what they have achieved military-wise at such a young age. There's also a scene hinting to a certain intimacy between the two, in which Carnot goes to whisper something in his younger colleague's ear, who feels relieved afterwards.
Last, but in no way least, when Carnot gets interrogated by Courtois after Thermidor and talks about Saint-Just, he does that smiling in a melancholic way, as if he regretted the death of Louis-Antoine.
Despite the movie being favourable to Carnot, it doesn't exaggeratedly praise him; in fact, it shows that he too committed mistakes as anybody else at the time and that also whatever he said about his former colleagues who got executed in Thermidor - notably Robespierre and Saint-Just - might not be the whole story.
Some pictures (those for which there's no external link are mine)
Carnot (Alain Mottet)
Sources for the first two pictures: 1, 2 (from this one I removed the watermark)
Robespierre (Michel Favory)
Saint-Just (Maxence Mailfort)
These two above are from antoine-saint-just.fr
Bonaparte (Daniel Mesguich)
Saint-Just, Robspierre and Couthon (Michel Modo)
Prieur (Igor Tyczka), Lindet (Roland Monod) and Carnot
Hoche (Manuel Bonnet)
Bonus: Hoche with a merveilleuse (Christine Locquin), who later in the movie will present herself to him dressed as hussar for some reasons:
Yes, I took an embarrassing amount of pictures featuring him.
Collot (Christian Bouillette) and Billaud (Bernard Salvage)
I'll add some more in a reblog since Tumblr doesn't allow more than 30 pictures per post.
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Just went back from zumba with my mother and sisters. Now, i am randomly wandering, which marshal is interested in willing zumba and which one is not~?! Hmm~?
Give me your profound argument in which marshal belongs to which section, whether i am right or wrong about it. I also take criticism and funny yet eloquent joke of this chart hahahaha!
Btw, Napoleon is the doubtful section. He will do it if he is persuaded and begged.
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