Historical figures in film Danton

(You may want to print this page and use it as a reference during the film.)

Other than Georges Danton and Maximillien Robepierre, the principle characters in the film are:

Among the associate of Danton:

Camille Desmoulins--Danton's closest associate, a member of revolutionary Cordellier club, a talented rabble rouser and journalist political career was made by being a revolutionary.  At the opening of the film his newspaper (propaganda sheet?) the Vieux Cordellier, calls for an end to the Terror and is closed down by henchmen of Robespierre.

Lucille Desmoulins--Camille's courageous wife.

Pierre Philippeaux--a representative in the revolutionary assembly called the Convention.

Fabre d'Eglantine--not really one of Danton's allies, but a corrupt politician place on trial with Danton and his associates to discredit them in the public eye.  Prior to his descent into revolutionary corruption, Fabre was one of the architects of the revolutionary calendar.

Members of the Committee of Public Safety (the twelve-man committee that exercises a revolutionary dictatorship in the name of the Convention):

Saint-Just--the "Angel of Death."  The youngest member of the committee and Robespierre's closest associate, Saint-Just was idealistic, militant and uncompromising, a model revolutionary terrorist.

Georges Couthon--another associate of Robespierre, but more moderate than Saint-Just.  A victim of spinal meningitis. He is confined to a wheelchair. 

Billaud-Varennes--one of the most radical members of the committee.

Collot-d'Herbois--a former actor; Collot is vain, foppish and probably the most ruthless terrorist on the committee.  Send to repress a counter-revolutionary movement in the provinces; he executed masses prisoners using cannon fire.  His actions were so extreme that the Committee was forced to recall him and send the more moderate Couthon in his place.

Robert Lindet--the only member of the Committee who refuses to sign Danton's arrest warrant.

Other revolutionaries:

Jacques-Louis David--revolutionary artist who devoted his considerable artistic talent to revolutionary propaganda and designing revolutionary festivals like the Festival of the Supreme Being. He is referred to as "the pageant-master of the revolution."  Pay attention to the scene in his workshop in which he eliminated a fallen revolutionary from one of his paintings.  (Stalin did the same thing in offficial photographs of revolutionaries in Russia.)

Fouquier-Tinville--president of the Revolutionary Tribunal in which Danton and his associate were tried.  One of the workhorses of the Terror.

Eleonor Duplay--member of the Duplay family in whose household Robespierre resides, caregiver to Robespierre, and guardian of her younger brother.  What is the significance of Eleonor's punishment of her brother when he is unable to recite the Declaration of the Rights of Man?

All of these historical figures were members the revolutionary Jacobin Club.  They had earlier been associates in the revolution.  The film explores why they turned on each other, why "revolutions devour their children."