Welcome to 1789...

Finally!! I just found an extract online of the amazing La Terreur et la Vertu, near the ending of the second part "Robespierre".

This is the antidote needed after Terror! Robespierre and the French Revolution.

This is Saint-Just -- with natural authority, dignity, and a grand, tragic, resolute and sublime aura:

Robespierre et Saint-just 9 thermidor
envoyé par star_vin. -

My translation of the dialogue:

COUTHON – Yes, write. (reciting) “Citizen-soldiers, generals and officers, armies of the Republic. The National Convention has fallen in the hands of rascals...”

(Couthon's voice fades, as Robespierre slowly walks to Saint-Just, who's standing near the window of the Hôtel de Ville.)

ROBESPIERRE – Why don’t you say anything?

SAINT-JUST – You know it. “In the name of the French people…” What people? It is not here.

ROBESPIERRE – Why did you follow me?

SAINT-JUST – “You, who sustain the fragile patrie against the torrents of despotism and intrigue… I do not know you, but you are a great man. You are not only the deputy of a province; you are the one of humanity, and of the Republic.”

ROBESPIERRE – What is this?

SAINT-JUST – You don’t remember?

ROBESPIERRE – No.

SAINT-JUST – One day, back in 1790, a young man from Blérancourt wrote a letter to a deputy he admired through his speeches. This deputy; it was you, Robespierre. This young man; it was I.

ROBESPIERRE – So, you wrote to me?

SAINT-JUST – And I did not change.

ROBESPIERRE – I was the loneliest man of the Constituante. And now, I am alone again. Always.

SAINT-JUST – And I…

ROBESPIERRE – Everything is lost, isn’t it?

SAINT-JUST – Yes, it is lost. It could not be otherwise. Considering who we are, both of us. Considering what we think.

ROBESPIERRE – Why didn’t you help us? Give us any advice?

SAINT-JUST – We possessed seventeen companies of gunners and thirty-two cannons. The Convention only had one company. We had to, at 19:00, lead two companies in front of the main door of the Convention; at the East door, one company; at the West door, two companies. We had to, at 19:30, invade the committees and immediately arrest all the members. We had to, at 19:45, invade the Convention, proclaim the Constitution of 1793 and outlaw Tallien, Fréron, Barras and all the other rotten scoundrels. We had to send, at the School of Mars, two companies to rally the students, the officers and the troops. We had to, at 20:00, in Paris, proclaim the triumph of the Commune. And the Insurrection of the Apathetic would have been crowned the Insurrection of the Bold.

ROBESPIERRE – And you did nothing?

SAINT-JUST – If I had, would you have approved it?

ROBESPIERRE – No…

SAINT-JUST – The People of 10 August had the right to invade the Tuileries. The People of the 31 May and of the 5 September, had the right to invade the Convention. Not the armies.

ROBESPIERRE – Yes…

SAINT-JUST – Today, all that was left to us was the dictatorship of the armies. The military dictatorship. We would have been suspended in a void. Robespierre, consul of the Republic. Saint-Just, consul of the Republic.

ROBESPIERRE – Of which Republic?



Edit: And if someone feels adventurous enough to watch it all in French without subtitles, I think I just found the whole second film online: http://www.dailymotion.com/playlist/xrrkt_star_vin_la-revolution-francaise

This is brilliant. And how apt.

Following screencaps found here: http://antoine-saint-just.fr/films/charny.html




...

.........

*horrified choked gasp of death*

*falls dead*

Sorry, but all I can say is: OH MY FUCKING SUPREME BEING.

Rant: Where is their source that says Saint-Just wore make-up à la Pompadour? I want to know. Not even Lamartine/Michelet/Nodier/Duval wrote that.

And, apparently, Saint-Just is still being "farouche". Duval's description lives:


Here's a translation of what the website has to say about it (for those who can't read French): The character of Saint-Just has a minimal and mute role in the series "La Comtesse de Charny", shown on TF1 in june-july 1989 for the Bicentenial. He doesn't even appear in the end credits. However, whoever has read the homonymous triology by Alexandre Dumas will recognise him in this dark, prim and excessively made-up young man, at the side of Robespierre. Dumas is clearly inspired by Michelet: his Saint-Just is a beautiful, effeminated young man, but not soft, leaving the impression of an automaton with his unnatural rigidity and, especially, bearing a cold and gloomy look as a being that just escaped from a grave. A real "Archangel of Death"... and it's exactly the image that the series present us.

In his novel, Dumas makes Saint-Just appear in the beginnings of the Revolution as he passes an initiatic rite to a masonic lodge, then during the September Massacres, which he coldly justifies to an emotional Robespierre, before quietly going to sleep, the night when hundreds of men die. In the series, we see him the first time on 17 july 1789, when Louis XVI goes at the Hôtel de Ville. He is welcomed by Bailly, of course, but also by Marat (!), Danton (!!) and Robespierre (!!!) next to which we see this silent and haughty "beauty" which isn't difficult to identify. After, we see the same characters reunited in a sort of Committee of Public Safety before the time, where Saint-Just always keeps his place next to the Incorruptible, mouth shut and fierce looking.


*chokes*

It's Stepford!Saint-Just.

I'll make a different post for this.

I also bring to you some sound extracts (no image) from the film. juliesaintjust made them. Once again, I only uploaded them. However, I was crazy enough to translate them. You’ll find the transcriptions of my translation under the cuts. :D

I have more sound extracts, but now I'll start with those I have about 9-10 thermidor.

Click on the pics (matching the scenes) to download the sound extracts.

( Night of 8 thermidor: Le Bas, Saint-Just, Élisabeth. )

( The morning of 9 thermidor. )

( 9 thermidor: the insurrection of the Hôtel de Ville. )

( 9 thermidor: Robespierre arrives at the Hôtel de Ville. )

( 9 to 10 thermidor: last hours of the insurrection. )

( 10 thermidor: a farewell with the Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizens of 1793. )

Wajda’s Danton: a film that some of you must have seen. I believe the annoying voice of the historian must be heard, once again: this film is no sheer amusement, it is politics. And, whenever politics are involved – especially more so with the French Revolution – it demands sufficient information from every point of view in order to participate to the creation of critical sense.

This said, I post my translation of Michel Vovelle’s review of Wajda’s Danton. I prefer to let him speak and to describe the film, considering I am much more insulting and find it repulsive in all aspects – especially since the watching of that movie made me ill for a week. The only way in which I found that movie good is how it did prove Wajda’s mental trauma caused by Polish communism. Nevertheless, I shall stop here. Because Vovelle is more neutral, where I completely fail to be. He also enlightens us greatly with the summary of the historiographical debates around Danton and Robespierre, as well as why the Enragés and Hébertistes could be ignored in Wajda's film.

Also, forgive my translation: it's very likely far from being perfect but, again, I tried to translate it with some sense, while keeping as close as possible to the original text...


( In this point of view, the temptation was to return, in spite of ourselves, in spite of the inner fight that can be felt all through the film, to a black and white opposition: on one side Danton, or the Revolution with a human face, on the other Robespierre, or the cold-hearted and dehumanised Revolution. And this is what troubles me when I watch this very beautiful film which will be, for thousands of people, the discovery of the French Revolution. )