I just finished an essay to criticize the portrayal of Saint-Just in Terror! Robespierre and the French Revolution and in my conclusion, I oppose it to the portrait shown in LTELV. I recognise the idealization, however I imagine that the contrast of the two opposites give a nice (and much better, much more accurate) idea of the real complexity of his personality. I also think that the acting of Denis Manuel could represent the way Saint-Just idealized himself and the way he tried to act. It's perfectly possible he acted like that at certain chosen times, or more often than just in "acted, theatrical" times. It's perfectly possible that some of his contemporaries, particularly during his missions, saw him like that. It's very much the portrayal I can read from his decrees and proclamations and letters during his missions, and the portrayal I can read from most of his speeches and reports as well. This is how I perceive the "self-image" he constructed for himself, this "role" everybody speaks of.
Personally, I think Denis Manuel's acting is generally brilliant and, in the Thermidor sequence, immensely poignant and touching. There's something in his eyes that amazes me, all this sense of mythical, resolute fatality that Saint-Just chose to accept in the last hours of his life, when he chose to remain silent and to shut himself out of the world.
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timeasmymeasure
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Date: 2009-07-17 08:44 pm (UTC)Personally, I think Denis Manuel's acting is generally brilliant and, in the Thermidor sequence, immensely poignant and touching. There's something in his eyes that amazes me, all this sense of mythical, resolute fatality that Saint-Just chose to accept in the last hours of his life, when he chose to remain silent and to shut himself out of the world.