I can see why you like it now, and (probably) why you get so annoyed with other dramatic productions of the French revolution ... It helps that it's in these two parts so they didn't feel they had to WRAP IT UP GUYS after Danton's demise which has happened before. And so you get all the nuances about the relationships within the revolutionary committees which I have never seen before on screen. I'm interested in the revolution in general, but I actually don't know much about the Terror period so I don't know how true it is.. I mean, I didn't know that the Ventose laws were so important to Saint Just or that they in any way split the committee.. is that true? Because some things I've read tend to really dismiss them as unrealistic as though they never had any intention of putting them into action anyway.
I'm also not very good at French so I kept having to rewind it to hear what they were saying properly.
The only thing though, I suppose because they play the Robespierristes so sympathetically (it was really nice portrayal of Couthon as well, I really liked that aspect) was that I think the Thermidoreans come across as kind of evil mastermind types. I kind of feel a bit sorry for them; my impression is that they have a worse press than robespierre and nobody ever cares about them because they didn't do anything interesting
What you have all been saying about saint just's motivation and sort of.. character is very interesting. From the little that I have read about him or by him, I found it very hard to understand him or have any sense of his personality at all. But I did get the sense that he seemed to have an idealised view of himself and what his role should be as a representative. And while I agree with you that the idea of him being a sort of teenager (because 26 is a perfectly sound age! when I reach 26 I hope I consider myself a responsible adult) I think that might have some connection with him being young.. when you haven't really had all of your experiences and you don't perhaps know yourself as well as you might do in the future, I think one often has to construct a sort of... ideal oneself to live up to, because you still don't know your real self. I don't know if I'm just projecting impressions that I have of my own experiences onto other people.. but do you know what I mean? I've also just been re-reading Le Rouge et le Noir by Stendhal and that's what I liked so much about the character of Julien Sorel because he has this huge constructed ideal of himself, and he's so sure about his goals, but really it just shows how young and inexperienced and unsure he is about everything. - so that also might have something to do with it as well. x3
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I'm interested in the revolution in general, but I actually don't know much about the Terror period so I don't know how true it is.. I mean, I didn't know that the Ventose laws were so important to Saint Just or that they in any way split the committee.. is that true? Because some things I've read tend to really dismiss them as unrealistic as though they never had any intention of putting them into action anyway.
I'm also not very good at French so I kept having to rewind it to hear what they were saying properly.
The only thing though, I suppose because they play the Robespierristes so sympathetically (it was really nice portrayal of Couthon as well, I really liked that aspect) was that I think the Thermidoreans come across as kind of evil mastermind types.
I kind of feel a bit sorry for them; my impression is that they have a worse press than robespierre and nobody ever cares about them because they didn't do anything interesting
What you have all been saying about saint just's motivation and sort of.. character is very interesting. From the little that I have read about him or by him, I found it very hard to understand him or have any sense of his personality at all. But I did get the sense that he seemed to have an idealised view of himself and what his role should be as a representative. And while I agree with you that the idea of him being a sort of teenager (because 26 is a perfectly sound age! when I reach 26 I hope I consider myself a responsible adult) I think that might have some connection with him being young.. when you haven't really had all of your experiences and you don't perhaps know yourself as well as you might do in the future, I think one often has to construct a sort of... ideal oneself to live up to, because you still don't know your real self. I don't know if I'm just projecting impressions that I have of my own experiences onto other people.. but do you know what I mean?
I've also just been re-reading Le Rouge et le Noir by Stendhal and that's what I liked so much about the character of Julien Sorel because he has this huge constructed ideal of himself, and he's so sure about his goals, but really it just shows how young and inexperienced and unsure he is about everything. - so that also might have something to do with it as well. x3