The Bastille in Provence

Do you know what the French celebrate on July 14?
Bravo to all those of you who replied the "fête de la fédération" of 1790. Though if you thought of the storming of the Bastille a year earlier, you'd be correct anyway: this feast was in itself a commemoration.
Two years ago TF1 vidéo released a French DVD of a 1989 film depicting these events. Unfortunately, an American release is still to come even though the cast was international.

The French Revolution was a massive co-production which, for the first time, covered a large part of the History of the Revolution in only one film (a two-parter divided in 4 episodes when shown on TV). Hollywood actors are among the stars: Sam Neill (Jurassic Park) as Lafayette, and Jane Seymour (Dr. Quinn, Live and Let Die) as Marie Antoinette, portrayed on screen by Norma Shearer or more recently by Kirsten Dunst.

Today, I'm not so much discussing a lost film (although it IS still unreleased on home video), but rather lost monuments on film, and how to achieve that.
In this movie, many monuments of Paris are seen, but you could hardly find them if you tried. The palace of the Tuileries, burnt and destroyed in the late 19th century, was were the royal family took refuge after they left Versailles; the prison of the Temple where they were held, was destroyed by Napoleon to avoid a pilgrimage of royalists. The town hall which shares its emplacement with the current building was replaced in 1874 by a new one with a different style. Last but not least is the famous Bastille, a Royal prison whose neighborhood has kept its name.

So how is that possible? 3D animation? In 1989, don't make me laugh. To each problem a solution, to each monument its representation. Thus if the facade of the Place of the Tuileries resembles that of the castle of Fontainebleau, that's because it IS Fontainebleau.

The menacing tower of the Temple, is sometimes shown as what very much looks like a painting on glass, and other times as the dungeon of Vincennes which is still there. The booklet of the French DVD tells us that the top of the tower was built as a model, like the town hall .

But one of the best recreation is the Bastille. Haven't you wondered what the church behind the governor was doing there? With its stone rooftop so typical of southern France in a place where no ancient print keeps any record of a church? It is called Sainte-Marthe of Tarascon, a charming town in Provence, in which you can find the castle of King René.

The Bastille

This castle was ideal to stand for the Bastille: other than the fact that it resembles it, the castle is extraordinarily well preserved, located between a big lot where the sets of Parisian houses could be build and the Rhone river that could stand for the Seine. Should you be lucky enough one day to visit it, I suggest you see the Beaucaire castle facing it on the other side of the river.

For the record, if the resemblance between Marie Antoinette and her children seemed striking, it's because Jane Seymour had her own kids play the parts of Marie Thérèse Charlotte and Louis Charles of France (Louis XVII).

To conclude, I invite you to buy Georges Delerue's awesome soundtrack which themes for the Royal Family and Jessye Norman's Liberty song represent the highest point.




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That's all for today, folks!