Film Review: La Marseillaise (1938)

Historical films, especially those with epic scope or ambitions, are seldom used for experimentation. Priorities of propaganda or commercial consideration often preclude filmmakers from trying things that are too different. One of the rare filmmakers that actually experimented with a historic epic is Jean Renoir whose 1938 film La Marseillaise is considered one of his less successful works.

The film deals with the first three years of the French Revolution. The plot begins on 14th July 1789 at the Versailles Palace when King Louis XVI (played by Pierre Renoir) is informed that Parisians have stormed the Bastille. A year later, France is a constitutional monarchy, but the forces of the old and the new are still clashing. Jean-Joseph Bomier (played by Edmond Ardisson) and Honoré Arnaud (played by Andrex) are two ordinary men from Marseilles who support the latter and take part in seizing the fort previously controlled by the aristocratic Monsieur de Saint-Laurent (played by Aimé Clariond) who decides to emigrate to Germany. There he joins many aristocratic exiles whose hopes of return are increased when France in April 1792 becomes entangled in war with Austria and Prussia whose rulers want to crush the Revolution. The war initially goes very badly for France because mostly aristocratic officers openly support the enemy, while the King appears unable or unwilling to support radical measures. Radical supporters of the Revolution all over the country form their own volunteer battalions, including one in Marseilles which would be joined by Bomier and Arnaud. They march on Paris and, along the way, the battalion adopts the "War Song of the Army of the Rhine" as its unofficial anthem that would become popular among the majority of French people. On 10th August 1792, the "Marseillais" would take part in the storming of the royal palace of the Tuileries, the last remaining stronghold of the ancien régime.

When he made La Marseillaise, Jean Renoir enjoyed a reputation as the greatest French filmmaker of his time and one of the most renowned filmmakers in the world. Unlike The Grand Illusion, his previous film, which had received great success and now enjoys a reputation as one of the best films of all time, this one failed to meet high expectations and was generally seen as a disappointment. That can be partially explained by Renoir's ambitions that were too high even for a filmmaker of his stature as well as the left-wing political beliefs he wore on his sleeve. While the idea of dealing with the French Revolution – one of the most important and consequential historical events in the last quarter of a century – wasn't particularly original, Renoir originally wanted to cover it in its entirety, with the film having multiple parts and a running time of twelve hours. Just like Abel Gance with Napoleon a decade earlier, Renoir realised that this would simply require too much time and money and had to scale down the scope of his project, in this case to the period between the iconic storming of the Bastille and the Battle of Valmy.

Renoir began to work on the film after the 1936 elections that brought the Popular Front – a broad coalition of left-wing parties – to power in France. The new government brought a series of far-reaching labour and social reforms, much to the delight of the leftist intelligentsia. Renoir, who was an enthusiastic supporter of the Popular Front, saw parallels between the changes that were occurring in his time and the changes that had occurred during the Revolution. Through La Marseillaise, Renoir tried to give indirect support to the new government and a possible new revolution by directly supporting its historical predecessors and role models. Renoir's film, despite being meticulously researched and, for the most part, representing a faithful recreation of historical facts, presents the Revolution in the best possible light. There is relatively little violence in the film (except near the end) and some of the most questionable episodes of the Revolution (the Terror and fratricidal factional struggles between revolutionaries) are deliberately left out. Characters are clearly divided based on their relation to the revolution, with radical Jacobins being heroes and treacherous counter-revolutionary aristocrats being the villains.

Renoir initially wanted to depict the Revolution in a traditional manner, by showing grand events featuring revolutionary leaders like Danton or Robespierre. But, along the way, he took a different approach, which some credit to the influence of Sergei Eisenstein whose films preferred the masses as a collective protagonist rather than the Great Men of History. While La Marseillaise features historical characters like Louis XVI (played by Renoir's brother Pierre) or the arrogant and treacherous Marie Antoinette (played by Lisa Delamare), the emphasis is given to ordinary people – both as representatives of the oppressed masses rising during the Revolution and as someone ordinary audiences can sympathise with. Renoir makes a casting coup with the then relatively unknown Edmond Ardisson who plays Bomier as an imperfect but ultimately likeable character whose heart is ultimately in the right place. Andrex, a popular singer who would later co-star with his friend Fernandel in his comedies, is also quite effective as Bomier's more erudite, perceptive and leader-like friend Arnaud.

La Marseillaise is a well-directed, well-written and well-produced film, with the storming of the Tuileries being one of the more spectacular and effective historic reconstructions of 1930s cinema. It is often described as a "newsreel" treatment of the French Revolution. However, if that was Renoir's idea, it wasn't realised well, because the closest the film comes to the newsreel is during the relatively short segment that depicts various newspapers of different factions in 1792 Paris. The rest of the film is more conventional. Renoir, like with The Grand Illusion, shows less ability to choose proper music, relying on an odd mix of Joseph Kosma's more modern score and 18th Century classics that, at times, seems a little bit anachronistic.

When it finally reached the cinemas, La Marseillaise failed to connect with the French audience. This was due to the failure of the Popular Front government to significantly improve living standards in a country still affected by the Great Depression, and parallels between revolutionary chaos and bloodshed with the civil war that was raging in neighbouring Spain didn't help either. Today's viewers, however, might find the film somewhat confusing if they aren't at least familiar with the most important events of the French Revolution which puts some references, lines of dialogue or the fate of certain characters in their proper context. On the other hand, even with such flaws, La Marseillaise represents one of the finer works of Jean Renoir and 1930s cinema.

RATING: 7/10 (+++)

Blog in Croatian https://draxblog.com
Blog in English https://draxreview.wordpress.com/
Leofinance blog https://leofinance.io/@drax.leo

Unstoppable Domains: https://unstoppabledomains.com/?ref=3fc23fc42c1b417
Hiveonboard: https://hiveonboard.com?ref=drax y
Bitcoin Lightning HIVE donations: https://v4v.app/v1/lnurlp/qrcode/drax
Rising Star game: https://www.risingstargame.com?referrer=drax
1Inch: https://1inch.exchange/#/r/0x83823d8CCB74F828148258BB4457642124b1328e

BTC donations: 1EWxiMiP6iiG9rger3NuUSd6HByaxQWafG
ETH donations: 0xB305F144323b99e6f8b1d66f5D7DE78B498C32A7