La Marseillaise
La Nuit de Varennes
In the wake of Sofia Coppola’s stylized interpretation of the life of Marie Antoinette, this double feature includes two very different takes on the final days of the French monarchy. Jean Renoir’s La marseillaise is a rather propagandistic portrait of the period, for which he forwent his usual writing practice and relied heavily on historical documents. The patriotic tone of the film was designed to inspire the French in the 1930s as the impending threat of Nazi Germany loomed. Ettore Scola’s La nuit de varennes imagines what would have happened if the coach carrying Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette as they attempted to flee from France crossed paths with one carrying a coterie of intellectuals and celebrities including Thomas Paine (Keitel) and Casanova (Mastroianni).
PROGRAM
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La Marseillaise
Directed by Jean Renoir.
With Pierre Renoir, Lise Delamare, Leon Larive.
France, 1938, 35mm, black & white, 130 min.
French with English subtitles.
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La Nuit de Varennes
Directed by Ettore Scola.
With Jean-Louis Barrault, Harvey Keitel, Marcello Mastroianni.
France/Italy, 1982, 35mm, color, 133 min.
French and Italian with English subtitles.
Part of film series
Screenings from this program
Tol’able David / To the Last Man
Buffalo Bill and the Indians... / The Ballad of Cable Hogue
Daydreams / Drifters
The Silent World / In The Pink: Faded Films
