French Rev Books and Moves Question?

[commissarmoody]

I was wondering what if any are some good books and movies to check out on the French Revolution and the wars of the first collation?

Looking for ones with an adventures slant and not just the massed ranks marching in lines sort of thing.

[General Roos]

The BBC series "The Scarlet Pimpernel" from 1999. Robespierre is a real super villain! 

I also strongly recommend the more historically correct "La révolution française", from 1989. Unfortunately it hasn´t been released on DVD yet.

[SgtPerry]

This one?



It exists in french
http://www.amazon.fr/r%C3%A9volution-fran%C3%A7aise-Partie-Robert-Enrico/dp/B001UTVP7M

[Plynkes]

A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens. Most printed English story, so they say.

Despite the fact that I was studying it for an exam, I really, really enjoyed this book when I was 16. Of the movie versions the Dirk Bogarde one is good. Can't remember much about the others I'm afraid.

[Aaron]

That Scarlet Pimpernel suggestion is a good'un. IIRC you can get a free audiobook of the original novel through librivox or archive.org. They are great to listen to while painting up your troops.

There was also an episode of the BBC/A&E Horatio Hornblower series set during the era. Horatio helps land a party of Royalist emigree troops and fights with them to hold off a column of revolutionary troops I think (it has been a while!)

[Plynkes]

That episode of Hornblower is called The Frogs and the Lobsters.  It's all a bit of jolly fun in the usual style.

There's a little of this...






And a bit of this...




Of course, some of this...


And then as an added bonus you get...

..."Nicole" from those 90s Renault Clio adverts! She was all the rage back then. Appearing here as H's mandatory bit of totty (and it looks like she's just told him she's up the duff, she's already told "Papa" and H is wondering where the nearest exit is in that picture).

Worth a watch. The fellow playing the French aristocrat is very annoying, but then again I think he's meant to be.

Hornblower isn't BBC, by the way. It was on commercial television (but that's not important  ).

[Steve F]

Guaranteed historically accurate.   

If you're interested in The Scarlet Pimpernel, Baronness Orczy's original novels are still very readable.  The best film version I've seen is the 1934 one, with Leslie Howard and Merle Oberon.  It's also worth catching the thematic sequel set in WW2, Pimpernel Smith, if only for the scene in which Howard disppears in a swirl of cigarette smoke.

[ushistoryprof]

If you can find a copy, watch the 1927 silent movie classic "Napoleon" by Abel Gance.  It tells his story from youth, through the Revolution to his battles in Italy. It is well worth the time to watch-330 minutes!

[commissarmoody]

WOW! thanks for the big turn out ever one, I will put Scarlet Pimp and Hornblower on my Net flex quew.

I kind of recantly fell into this era of swash and buckle and want to get as much into the fun side as I can. 
Now to figure out how to get Mad Anthony Wayne and the American Legion to fight against some of the national militia. A little bit of Tomahawks and sabers. 
I like the idea anyways.

[Aaron]

Well if you don't mind a bit of alternative history Louisiana was still French during the (French) revolution, so it's possible!

[General Roos]

This one?



It exists in french
http://www.amazon.fr/r%C3%A9volution-fran%C3%A7aise-Partie-Robert-Enrico/dp/B001UTVP7M

Yes, that one. I´ve seen it dubbed in english. Any subtitles on that DVD?

[predhead]

WOW! thanks for the big turn out ever one, I will put Scarlet Pimp and Hornblower on my Net flex quew.

I kind of recantly fell into this era of swash and buckle and want to get as much into the fun side as I can. 
Now to figure out how to get Mad Anthony Wayne and the American Legion to fight against some of the national militia. A little bit of Tomahawks and sabers. 
I like the idea anyways.

Try looking up the Whiskey Rebellion.  The Legion was in play during this period, although not directly involved with the putting down of the rebellion, but it could make for some interesting story lines!

[AWu]

There is very good movie about the rise and fall of Georges Danton



You absolutely have to see Chouans!



There is also Italian movie Luisa Sanfelice (I was unable to watch fully as I dont know a word in Italian - but its on Youtube
And it features among other battle between Neapolitanese and  French in 1789

[Patrice]

French comedy "Les Mariés de l'an II" (1971) with some well-known French actors...

[shandy]

Victor Hugo's novel 1793 revolves around a battalion of Revolutionary troops tasked to take down Vendée insurgents - I read it about 20 years ago and really liked it at the time, but it deals mainly with the Vendée.