DANTON: THE CRITERION COLLECTION - DVD review

In "Danton" (1983), politics is personal.

In the years immediately after the storming of the Bastille, when the blades were really going snicker-snack, the Revolutionaries suddenly became the establishment. Following a time-honored pattern of behavior as old as Homo sapiens, a once (mostly) unified front began to break into factions. Some embraced their new power and sought to consolidate it; others saw a new oppressor to rebel against.

Director Andrzej Wajda distills the complex politics of post-Revolutionary France into a duel of will between two architects of the world-changing movement. The leftist intellectual Maximilien Robespierre (Wojchieck Pszoniak) styles himself as a new founding father willing to do anything to maintain the health of the state (i.e. "You're either with us, or against us.") The bawdy charismatic Georges Danton (Gérard Depardieu) continues to self-identify as a freedom fighter, a man of the people, and he is horrified by the reign of terror inflicted by Robespierre and his infamous Committees. He now seeks to undo the Committee of Public Safety that he founded.

Depardieu, as always, inhabits his role with gusto, using his big lunky John Wayne-esque body to create an earthy, animalistic performance. Danton is a man of passion, a man who loves to eat and drink, a man blessed, or perhaps cursed, with the overwhelming confidence a person needs to believe that he or she is always in the right. Robespierre is his opposite in almost every way. Where Danton is a blustering bull in a china shop, Robespierre is a quiet schemer, plagued by doubt and fear. But there's an even bigger difference between the two. Robespierre is in power, and Danton is not.

As the film starts, Danton and his publisher friend Camille Desmoulins (Patrice Chereau) have officially becomes problems for the state. The kind of problems that need to be dealt with in a simple, definitive, metallic way. Robespierre resists the cries for Danton's head at first because he knows how much Danton is loved by the public. But after failing in his attempts to reconcile with or at least contain Danton, he assents to his arrest.

It leads to a spectacular trial which takes up the final third of the film. Depardieu is in fine form as he delivers one impassioned speech after another to the gallery, despite warnings from the jury. He literally shouts until he goes hoarse; Danton can barely croak his lines in the last several scenes of the film.

Of course, the verdict has been decided ahead of time, but Danton has a warning for his former friends and revolutionaries. They'll be following him soon enough. And he was right. Danton lost his head on April 5, 1794, just five days after his arrest. The citizens of France would launch the ultimate recall vote just a few months later, when Robespierre was led to the block on July 28.

Wajda doesn't provide much historical context in the film, relying instead on the conflict between his two leads. It's a convenient framework to hang a narrative on, but it's not particularly compelling drama due, in large part, to the fact that Pszoniak doesn't provide an equal dueling partner for Depardieu. It's hard to blame it all on the Polish actor because he is dubbed in French, leaving him mostly as a frail body. The sharply delineated contrasts between the two men are also convenient, too much so. Elitist vs. populist. Intellectual vs. instinctual.

Wajda adopts a fairly straightforward shooting style with few of the stylistic flourishes that catapulted him to arthouse fame in the 1950s with films like "A Generation" (1955) and "Kanal" (1957). Cinematographer Igor Luther shoots a film that is both beautiful and suitably grubby, but in many ways "Danton" looks like a generic period piece, staid, dignified, technically accomplished but uninspired. The film lacks the vitality and excitement of Wajda's earlier work.

Courtrooms are usually the place where good movies go to die, but Wajda keeps the drama moving, powered mostly by Depardieu's raw performance and the outrageous spectacle of the government's sham trial. It's really the only time we get a sense of just how close the people are to rebelling, and it's easy to understand by Robespierre feared Danton's potential to serve as a tipping point. Wajda also films the execution with minimal fanfare. It's an ugly, shameful thing done in an ugly, shameful way, and provides a strong final note for this mildly disappointing film.

VIDEO

The film is presented in its original 1.66:1 aspect ratio. The digitally restored transfer is sharp and captures the understated visual design of the film quite well. This is not a colorful historical epic, but a shabbier, more intimate piece, and the transfer doesn't try to tart it up at all.

AUDIO

The DVD is presented in Dolby Digital Mono. Optional English subtitles support the French audio. Polish-speaking actors are dubbed by French voice-overs.

EXTRAS

"Danton" doesn't have as many extras as you might expect from a 2-disc set.

The main feature is a 1983 behind-the-scenes documentary (43 min.) about the making of the film, directed by Tomasz Pobog-Molinowski. You get a good sense of what an obsessive director Wajda is.

There are also two interviews. Wajda and critic Jerzy Plazewski discuss the film's relationship to the Solidarity movement in Poland (17 min.) Jean-Claude Carrière (14 min.), one of an army of writers credited with the screenplay, talks about his collaboration with Wajda, and the importance for him of working with a non-French director who helped bring a different perspective to 1794 France.

The insert booklet contains an essay by critic Leonard Quart.

FILM VALUE

Criterion has released a one-two punch this month with "The Last Metro" and "Danton," two somewhat staid and plodding historical pieces by great auteurs, and whose chief redeeming quality is a superb lead performance by Gérard Depardieu. "Danton" tackles a complex period of French history in a direct and simplified manner. The results are mixed. It's not Wajda's finest work by a long shot, but it's still worthwhile even if for nothing more than Depardieu.