Terror! Robespierre and the French Revolution
2009
0 minutes
Overview
In 1794, French revolutionary Maximilien Robespierre produced the world's first defense of "state terror" - claiming that the road to virtue lay through political violence. This film combines drama, archive and documentary interviews to examine Robespierre's year in charge of the Committee Of Public Safety - the powerful state machine at the heart of Revolutionary France. Contesting Robespierre's legacy is Slavoj Zizek, who argues that terror in the cause of virtue is justifiable, and Simon Schama, who believes the road from Robespierre ran straight to the gulag and the 20th-century concentration camp. The drama, based on original sources, follows the life-and-death politics of the Committee during "Year Two" of the new Republic.
Top Cast
Jan Pearson
Narrator (voice)
Stephen Hogan
Maximillian Robespierre
Ed Stoppard
Herault
Brian Pettifer
Couthon
David Andress
Self - Author 'The Terror'
Martin Hancock
Collot
Colin Jones
Self - Author 'The Great Nation'
Jonny Phillips
Carnot
Slavoj Žižek
Self - Author - 'In Defence of Lost Causes'
Simon Schama
Self - Author - 'Citizens'
Marisa Linton
Self - Author - 'The Politics of Virtue'
Hilary Mantel
Self - Author - 'A Place of Greater Safety'
Ruth Scurr
Self - Author 'Fatal Purity'
George Maguire
Saint-Just