The Politics of History

Andrzej Wajda’s Danton engages the subject of the French Revolution in a daring way. The Polish director took a very dim view of the events, a rather controversial perspective in France, where it was made, in 1983. In interviews on our recent DVD release, both Wajda and screenwriter Jean-Claude Carrière talk about reaction to the film among contemporary French, all the way up to then Prime Minister François Mitterrand. We were still curious about this ongoing argument, so we invited Edward Berenson, professor of history at New York University, to stop by the office recently to explain how the film fits into the changing landscape of thinking about the revolution, and especially, the Terror.