Jacquou le Croquant and the Bastille Siege

For those of you who are fond of reading world history, you are undoubtedly familiar with the siege of the Bastille before the actual start of the French Revolution….Now, who is Jacquou???

Translated: Jacquou Crunching It

             Jacquou le Croquant

1815. Jacquou, jeune paysan du Périgord, vit heureux avec ses parents.

Par la faute d’un noble cruel et arrogant, le comte de Nansac, il devient orphelin et misérable.

Jurant de se venger, Jacquou va grandir et s’épanouir sous la protection du bon curé Bonal qui le recueille. Grâce à des amis sûrs et à Lina, une jeune fille patiente et lumineuse, il deviendra en quelques années un jeune homme déterminé et séduisant.

Il saura transformer son désir de vengeance en un combat contre l’injustice, et prouver qu’un simple croquant n’est pas dénué de grandeur(http://www.allocine.fr/film/fichefilm_gen_cfilm=55569.html.)         

1815. Jacquou, young person country of Périgord, lives happy with his/her parents.

By the fault of noble cruel and arrogant, the count de Nansac, it becomes orphan and miserable.

Swearing to be avenged, Jacquou will grow and open out under the protection of the good Bonnal priest who collects it. Thanks to sure friends and in Lina, a patient and luminous young girl, it will become in a few years a determined and tempting young man.

He will be able to transform his desire of revenge into a combat against the injustice, and to prove that simple crunching is not stripped of size.(http://www.allocine.fr/film/fichefilm_gen_cfilm=55569.html.)

As I was watching this French film last Sunday, I have noticed the plot’s semblance to the French Revolution, particularly the scene wherein the commoners, led by Jacquou, attacked the Count de Nansac’s castle and burned it. Many of his allies were able to penetrate castle premises and were able to have access to the Count’s arsenal. This scene was similar to the seizing of the Bastille which was the start of the French Revolution.

The storming of the Bastille in July 14, 1789 was a momentous event for the French people for it marked the beginning of the French Revolution.

The Bastille was originally built to serve as a fortress but was later on turned into prison for people whom the nobility and its officials found to be displeasing to their eyes.

Prisoners were freed and the fortress was torn down as an enormous Parisian crowd seized the fortress in search for arms and ammunition to be used as defense against the king’s army. An account of the said event by a newspaper  in Paris described how the Bastille fell into the hands of the people and how the governor suffered such horrible fate in the hands of the raging mob: 

First, the people tried to enter this fortress by the Rue St.—Antoine, this fortress, which no one has ever penetrated…the cannon fired on the town,…a large number of individuals were killed or wounded;…meanwhile, they tried to locate some cannon;…The fighting grew steadily more intense; the citizens had become hardened to the fire;…[and so the Bastille fell and the governor, De Launey, was captured…On arriving at the square, the people,…allowed neither De Launey nor the other officers to reach the place of trial; they seized them from the hands of their conquerors, and trampled them underfoot one after the other. De Launey was struck by a thousand blows; his head was cut off and hoisted on the end of a pike with blood streaming down all sides. . . . This glorious day must amaze our enemies, and finally usher in for us the triumph of justice and liberty. In the evening, there were celebrations.^{(The Fall Of The Bastille)}

I have no idea how I came to compare these two, but there is a possibility that the original story that was written was inspired by the true events – those that occurred during the Revolution.

I haven’t gone over the author’s background, nor have I read the purpose for writing this novel, but this is definitely a beautiful movie, contrary to what other critics have been saying that it’s such a waste of time and money.

Sources:

“The Fall of Bastille” (July 14, 1789), quoted in Jackson J. Spielvogel,Western Civilization: A Brief History (1999) 13 May 2004. <http://www.historyguide.org/intellect/bastille.html> (17 March 2006)

“Jacquou le Croquant”.http://www.allocine.fr/film/fichefilm_gen_cfilm=55569.html. (2 April 2008)