Presented by CCP

Renoir’s epic French Revolution period piece is one of a number of explicitly left-wing films he produced in the 1930s, when he openly supported the French Communist Party and their participation in the anti-fascist Popular Front. La Marseillaise is a fictionalized depiction of the march to Paris by the Marseillaise Fédérés, the volunteer revolutionary militia famous for popularizing the eponymous revolutionary anthem, and who, along with other fédérés militias, were largely responsible for the Tuileries Insurrection that led to the final overthrow of the Bourbon monarchy in 1792. Through a series of vignettes, the film follows the political development of a number of characters as the revolution unfolds, eventually focusing specifically on three friends who join the Marseillais Fédérés.