Terror! Robespierre and the French Revolution (2009)
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.
Director: Carl Hindmarch
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Jan Pearson as Narrator (voice) |
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Stephen Hogan as Maximillian Robespierre |
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Ed Stoppard as Herault |
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Brian Pettifer as Couthon |
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David Andress as Self - Author 'The Terror' |
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Martin Hancock as Collot |
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Colin Jones as Self - Author 'The Great Nation' |
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Jonny Phillips as Carnot |
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Slavoj Žižek as Self - Author - 'In Defence of Lost Causes' |
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Simon Schama as Self - Author - 'Citizens' |
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Marisa Linton as Self - Author - 'The Politics of Virtue' |
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Hilary Mantel as Self - Author - 'A Place of Greater Safety' |
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Ruth Scurr as Self - Author 'Fatal Purity' |
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George Maguire as Saint-Just |
| Directing | Carl Hindmarch | Director |
| Camera | Neville Kidd | Director of Photography |
| Writing | Mark Hayhurst | Writer |
