Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
There is a certain joyful glee upon the face of Dr. Richard Clay as he talks of revolution and the overthrowing of church and state in B.B.C. 4’s The French Revolution: Tearing Up History. It isn’t the smile of a man revelling in the blood and gore of history but rather the knowledge that art and perhaps its wilful destruction during times of great political upheaval, is a doorway to understanding the past that can only be rivalled through its literature and music.
No matter the stage of your education, the imagery of The French Revolution is one that surely sticks in the mind as being the first vestiges of hope of doing away with one system of Government in favour of one that actually might work. Like all revolutions though, the images it creates also stick in the mind. Whether you frame the thought of Washington crossing the Delaware River, the scene of Lenin being greeted off the train as he returned from exile to lead the Russian Revolution or indeed the final minutes of Louis XVI as he fell to the Guillotine, all revolutions lead to their own interpretations of art.
Dr. Richard Clay’s look at the city of Paris was one of enlightenment, of edifying information and of potency. The revelation that all that remains of the large symbol of the Revolution, the storming of The Bastille, is little more than a pile of rocks somewhere underneath the city and only visible from the Paris underground was one that captured the heart of all who surely saw the programme.
One shining example of the iconoclastic approach was the pointed way Dr. Richard Clay showed a small piece of art that had been placed by an artist called The Invader on a prominent monument in the heart of Paris and then looked painfully at the camera to express utter contempt for the law that made it illegal and yet the same people in charge had allowed the most frightful piece of advertising to take up as much room as three houses placed together just for a car. One perhaps considered revolutionary and against decency, even though to the ordinary viewer it looked kind of cool and in keeping, the other, desecration allowed by corporation. There must have been many watching the programme to state that The Invader piece was far more attractive and beautifully in keeping.
Iconoclasm, the tearing down of symbolism, both religious and state, and the space it leaves behind is just a powerful notion as that of creating a monument to a long dead corrupt politician. In the search for the new, the raising of any of monument to a past cause will surely in the end become a symbol in itself, a symbol that can also be the rallying point to a new revolution.
The French Revolution: Tearing Up History was a great exercise in making audiences aware, even if they have no interest in art, that revolution, not only affects the human spirit but can lead to the old order’s potent subliminal messages being wiped away also. Stirring television!
Ian D. Hall