Danton (Film 1983)

Danton is a 1983 French-Polish film depicting the last weeks of Georges Danton, one of the leaders of the French Revolution. It is an adaptation of the 1929 play The Danton Case by Stanisława Przybyszewska. Audio in French with English subtitles.

Danton takes place in the spring of 1794, almost five years after the fall of the Bastille and immediately following a period when the revolutionary government, facing internal enemies, conspirators, and the advance of foreign armies on French territory, created the Committee of Public Safety and the Revolutionary Tribunal to repress its enemies and raise additional military forces. Robespierre and Danton became the Revolution’s leading figures, and huge numbers of suspects were arrested and executed, including Marie Antoinette and the liberal-thinking Duc d’Orléans, during what became known as the Reign of Terror.

But the Revolution began to turn on itself, with Robespierre gradually gaining ascendancy over Danton and establishing dictatorial control through the tribunal and the committee. Robespierre believed that “terror is nothing other than justice, prompt, severe, inflexible,” while Danton and his faction gradually turned against the Terror and the dictatorship. Soon after the committee had eliminated the extremists under Jacques-René Hébert (an atheist and proponent of the working class), it turned on Danton and his faction, the Indulgents.

The film barely touches on these historical facts, however, except for Danton’s execution, focusing instead on the conflict between Robespierre and Danton.

The film stars Gérard Depardieu in the title role, with Wojciech Pszoniak as Maximilien Robespierre, and Patrice Chéreau as Camille Desmoulins. It was directed by the Polish director Andrzej Wajda and was an international co-production between companies in France, Poland and West Germany. All supporters of Danton (with the exception of Bourdon, who would later betray him) are played by French actors, while Robespierre's allies are played by Poles.

Principal Cast & Characters:
Gérard Depardieu as Georges Danton
Wojciech Pszoniak as Maximilien Robespierre
Patrice Chéreau as Camille Desmoulins
Bogusław Linda as Louis de Saint-Just
Angela Winkler as Lucile Desmoulins
Emmanuelle Debever as Louison Danton
Andrzej Seweryn as François Louis Bourdon
Serge Merlin as Pierre Philippeaux
Roland Blanche as Jean-François Delacroix
Jacques Villeret as François Joseph Westermann
Anne Alvaro as Éléonore Duplay
Roger Planchon as Antoine Quentin Fouquier-Tinville
Franciszek Starowieyski as Jacques-Louis David
Alain Macé as François Héron