Danton

Scenes of the French Revolution from Danton’s speech prosecuting Louis XVI, who ended up at the guillotine, up to his conviction and execution: an early sound film, modelled after a pattern that is strongly guided by the theatre.
“Danton is cast as a ‘tribune of the people’, and Robespierre as a calculating demagogue. These biased judgments also form the basis of these two characters: While Robespierre (Gustaf Gründgens) is as sly as a fox, virtually eaten away by envy and distrust, dry and pedantic, Danton (Fritz Kortner) is sensuous, full of life, with the charisma of the darling of the masses. (...) It is one of just a few preserved documents of Kortner’s brilliant talent of language and rhetorical power.” (Fred Gehler)