FILM :FRENCH REVOLUTION
LIBERTÉ, ÉGALITÉ, FRATERNITÉ
Scene synopses
SCENE 2: ENLIGHTENMENT (5 MIN.)
Time period: early reign of King Louis XVI, shortly after his 1774 ascension to the throne
Place: ParisVersailles, France
In Paris, another world is dawning, the Enlightenment.
Newly crowned King Louis XVI & Queen Marie-Antoinette leave the palace at Versailles to make their first royal visit to Paris. The royal couple visit Louis le Grand College and are greeted by a student delegation headed by the young Maximilien Robespierre who is given the honor of offering a formal welcome speech.
Meanwhile, France is witnessing growing discontent as the huge social divide between the three social classes or Estates, becomes more evident.
Paris becomes the center of a new movement in the 18th century, the Enlightenment. This movement challenges established traditions and thinking. It is a movement that values human knowledge and reason , distrusts authority and demands equality for all men
French citizens began to ask themselves, “Why are aristocrats the only ones with privileges?” New ideas challenge the existing “natural order” of a social hierarchy where the tiny minority of upper class citizens, nobles & clergy, enjoyed the most privileges.
Enlightenment ideas were spreading throughout the world. These new ideas influence the American Revolution which then becomes a model for other revolutions to come.
Louis XVI commits troops and large amounts of money to support the American colonies in their fight for independence from Britain, France’s traditional enemy. Louis’ support of the Americans is an important factor in the bankrupting of France..
King Louis XVI, France
Queen Marie Antoinette, France
SCENE 7: FOREIGN ASSISTANCE (10 min.)
Time period: May, 1791
Place: France
In May of 1791, Maximilian Robespierre appeared before the as part of the Jacobin Club and made their demands. Louis XVI was now forced to share power with the Assembly. The King’s power was fading and so was the power of the Church.
Realizing his delicate position, the King decides he needs outside help to get his country back. He disguises himself and his family and attempts to flee the country. On June 21, 1691, the royal family is discovered in Varennes, just across from the Austrian border and placed under arrest.
The King and Queen were now considered traitors; the bond between the ruler and his people had been irreparably broken.
Robespierre in the meantime, continued to press the Jacobin demands in the Assembly: universal suffrage, abolition of slavery and the death penalty and the end to brutal punishments for prisoners.
In a parallel development, the guillotine is created at the suggestion of Assembly member Dr. Joseph-Ignace Guillotin as a more humane method of execution because of its swift & efficient design.
All condemned persons, regardless of class, would now be beheaded by the “National Razor”. It was used against internal and external enemies.
In April 1792, France declared war against Austria. A growing sense of nationalism swept through France and many believed the King and especially the Queen, were aiding the enemy. The monarchs of Prussia and Austria mobilized against France threatening destruction if any harm came to the royal couple.
On August 10, 1792 , 27,000 armed citizens attacked the TuilieriesPalace, in Paris, residence of the King. Hundreds died and the last of the King’s guards were beheaded. The FrenchRepublic was born and Robespierre believed its birth required the death of the King.
Execution of Louis XVI of France
SCENE 8: DEATH OF A KING (10 min.)
Time: August, 1792-January 23, 1793
Place: France
In August 1792, the two major revolutionary factions, the Jacobins & Girondins were fighting for control. The streets were swarming with discontented “sans-culottes”, ordinary citizens like artisans & shopkeepers who refused to wear the short pants or “culottes” fashionable among the aristocrats
The French army was still losing to AustriaPrussia. Royalist traitors were arrested by the thousands. As Prussian troops advanced on Paris. Georges Danton, a Jacobin leader, urged citizens to ”save the fatherland”. Paris was defenseless & there were concerns that thousands of prisoners might be let loose & join the invading Prussian army. Marat wanted them all killed.
Fear and paranoia spread and finally erupted into a massacre of prisoners and priests by the “sans culottes” in Sept. 1792. Over 1,600 were killed within a few days, many in brutal ways. As word of the violence spread through Europe, Europeans reacted with horror. Many foreign supporters of the Revolution now turned against it.
Robespierre believed things had gone too far and that he must rule with an iron hand. He demanded the head of the King over the objections of the Girondins who were a minority in the Assembly. Louis XVI was tried & convicted of treason. On January 23, 1793 he was beheaded & his wife heard the shots announcing his death in her own cell in the TemplePrison.
SCENE 9: NOBLE BLOOD (10 min.)
Time period: End of 1792-1793
Place: France
At the end of 1792 the Jacobins were steering the Revolution toward more violence. The Girondins, moderate revolutionaries mostly from regions outside of Paris, wanted to slow the bloodshed.
Marat stepped up the radical rhetoric in his newspaper & called for the head of anyone considered a “counter-revolutionary”. In July 1793, a young Girondins woman from the provinces, Charlotte Corday, slipped into his apartment & stabbed him to death. He was now immortalized as a martyr of the Revolution especially in the famous painting by Jacques-Louis David which in its composition calls to mind the death of Christ. Corday was unrepentant and was quickly executed.
Robespierre now turned to other matters. Marie-Antoinette, 37 yrs old had been in prison since the failed escape attempt. She fell into a deep depression after her husband’s death and the forced separation from her children. It was decided that she would go on trial. She was charged with treason, emptying the national treasury and for incest with her son. This last charge mobilized her to a strong defense in the Assembly as she appealed to all women to stand up against this false, hateful accusation. She gained many women sympathizers as a result but she had too many enemies. She had become the symbol of a corrupt and decadent court culture that was out of touch with the masses. On Oct. 16, 1793 she too was beheaded.
SCENE 10: DEFENDING THE BORDER
Time period: Sept. 1793
Place: France
In September, 1793 France was torn apart. European armies were eating away at its borders and it was increasingly isolated.
Danton & Robespierre implemented martial law and terror was the order of the day as a way to root out counterrevolutionaries. Spies were everywhere – the constitution was suspended. A new body, the 12-man Council of Public Safety led by Robespierre, acted as a collective dictatorship.
Robespierre an early opponent of the death penalty, now embraced it. He instituted censorship and with the help of Jacques Hebert, called for the de-Christianization of France. They believed they needed to destroy the Church to save the Revolution. A new non-Christian calendar was instituted and churches were plundered.
In Lyons, counterrevolutionaries were killed en masse – 100,000 were killed in the Vendée alone in a peasant uprising against the Revolutionary government in 1793. However, the French army was now experiencing victory. A young Napoleon helpedforce the British navy to retreatat Toulon.
France was experiencing war on many fronts- an insurrection in the Vendee, the battle between Girondins & Jacobins in Paris and the war with their main European enemies – Great Britain, Prussia, Austria, & Spain.