Un peuple et son roi

An inspired perspective about French Revolution. Beautiful cinematography. Admirable performances. And the sparkles of the change in realistic manner exposed. It is easy to critic it but it is not Danton , not the expected fresco , only a courageous exercise of reflection of small histories and their clash against National Ansembly. It is the film of memorable scenes. And that does it more than interesting, maybe useful for feel old events - fundamental bricks of the our present reality.

Historical film dealing with notorious events of French Revolution from Bastilla assault 1789 to king death : 1793 King Luis Capeto execution. These happenings full of tumults that shaked France brought the end of the ancient society or Ancien Régime and the birth of democracy and a regime of freedom and human rights . Including creation of the newly established Assemblée National, massacre at the camp of Mars , the National Convention 1792 , detention king in Varennes , his confinement in Palace of Tullerias and his subsequent execution at the Concorde Square , Paris . From now on , 1793 , the Terror begins in France, Georges Danton, a champion-of-the-people and founder of Cordeliers club , returns to clash against Maximilien Robespierre and his extremist party . The Committee for Public Safety, under Robespierre's incitement, has begun a series of massive executions, The Terror.

A historical film reenacting the first and main years of the tumultuous French Revolution that caused thousands of deaths . The picture especially narrates the happenings surrounding the revolutionary people , and about King Louis XIV, as his posterior fall , as his subsequent execution . Interweaving historical facts and appearance of notorious characters with the anonymous people who participated in the revolution such as Gaspard Ulliel as Basile, Adele Haenel as Francoise and Olivier Gourmet as the Uncle. Here shows up various known roles, usually speeching at the National Assembly and Convention such as Saint Just, Desmoulins , Robespierre well played by Louis Garrel, Marat finely performed by Denis Lavant and, of course, Louis XVI magnificently acted by Laurent Lafiitte who gives the best scenes about to be executed at the gallows. And even other French kings as Louis XI, Henry IV, Louis XIV King Sun , all of them appearing while Louis XVI is dreaming and reckoning with him due to his negligency for the violent revolution.

It displays a colorful and evocative cinematography by Julien Hirsch. As well as sensitive and atmopheric musical score by Philippe Schoeller. The motion picture lavishly produced , approx. 17 million Euros, being professionally directed Pierre Scholler. Pierre is a good writer and filmmaker who has written and directed a few but decent films as Versalles, Les anonymes, The Minister and this Un peuple et son roi or world wide title : One nation, one king. Rating 6/10. The picture will appeal to history buffs and French Cinema lovers.

First, the title is wrong: the king is absent of the movie and carricatured when shown. The link between the king and the people is not shown or analysed.

Second, even if the episodes or the short stories are well depicted and in a way interesting, it doesn't make a film. Where is a story? Where is something to care about? It's not even a documentary. It's not much...

Third, the « left wing » (populist?) vision of a people betrayed by the « elites » is boring.

A visual feast, if a little too 'clean', in its production design. As much as I enjoyed the view I was ultimately disappointed by this film. Where's the story to engage me? I tried to let that aspect take a back seat in hope that the directors vision/world view would become clear. It didn't appear. A juxtaposition of beautifully executed scenes (though overlit imo), does not make a gripping film. For the major finance behind this project it feels like a wasted opportunity.

I'm French and I just reread the chronology of the Revolution, so the names and events are pretty fresh in my mind... at least they were until I saw this movie. The main problem is that it doesn't seem able to find its genre and goal. Not focused enough to be family drama, not precise enough to be a documentary, not nervous enough to be an historical action movie, not neutral enough to be a political movie... In short, it never decides what it wants to tell and ends up not telling much. It's a succession of scenes, each quite OK but not making much sense together. The family we follow is a symbol of course, but come on, the same people being present at every single major event and political assembly of the era? Plus several things are shown in a strange way, like Robespierre being a calm and peaceful person? Marat (very well played!) as an actual friend of the people? Danton (not nearly ugly and fat enough) as a sort of enemy? Technically speaking the music sometimes feels off and is too present, and many filming tricks, down to the very font of the title panels, but also the framing and lights, are cheesy and seem to be from the 90's. Showing the Revolution from an ordinary family point of view would have been a very good movie. Seeing it from the kings' office was nice too. Making a documentary about the Convention, yep, it could work. All at once? Sorry but nope. It ends up too messy and confusing to be enjoyable, despite very good actors and pretty decent sets and costumes.