AllMovie

In this documentary on the filming of director Andrzej Wajda's movie Danton, Polish director Tomasz Pobog-Malinowski went to France and documented the filming of the confrontation between Robespierre and Danton in the French National Assembly and the guillotine scenes (both men were guillotined a few months apart, in 1794). In focus is how director Wajda intensely involves himself in all details of the action: cameras, actors, and technical support, yet he never loses respect for anyone. On a more subtle level, a Polish actor plays the violent Robespierre who promoted the infamous "Reign of Terror" when thousands were guillotined, and a Frenchman plays the moderate Danton, who wished to curb the bloodletting. Other subtle parallels are drawn between the French Revolution of the 1790s and the Polish upheavals led by Solidarity in the early 1980s.