King Louis XVI didn't recognize at first the importance of this day (July 14) when a mob of French folk stormed the prison where he kept people locked way at his whim...but in France of course this is celebrated as "Bastille Day", the beginning of the French Revolution.
Here is a somewhat ahistorical 1970 dramatization of events taking place in the Royal Confines on that very day. The actors are High Griffith (as Louis; Griffith was featured in "Ben Hur" and "Tom Jones"), Billie Whitelaw (as the "pure at heart" Queen Marie; she would go on from trashing royalty to make a major theatrical splash in London doing the demanding plays of Samuel Beckett) and the great Victor Spinetti, who was the harried television pop music show director in Richard Lester's "A Hard Days Night"
Remember, as you watch this, that the time is 1789. That's important. There will be a mid-term on this next month.
A historical dramatization? I think they have the year and some of the players correct.It was an interesting/ funny movie
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure there was an evil Count Escargot, but there certainly should have been. It is a funny film, one of my favorite comedies from that time, although I can't imagine what French audiences thought of all those "Anglo-Saxons" making fun of the grand entry into poitical modernity.
ReplyDeleteOne thing we know for sure...the time was...1789!