Wade Crosby as Danton, Richard Baseheart as Robespierre; Reign of Terror, Anthony Mann, 1949
Wojciech Pszoniak as Robespierre, Gerard Depardieu as Danton; Danton, Anrzej Wajda, 1983
Two versions, two visions. Mann’s indie B‑picture is pulp history, a string of suspense set-pieces and aptly noirish visual flourishes (the cinematographer is John Alton, with whom Mann collaborated on a series of amazing B&W contemporary noir pieces, including immortals such as T‑Men and Raw Deal). “Don’t call me Max,” Richard Basehart’s Robespierre imperiously commands his enforcer Fouché (Arnold Moss, here looking like a shrunken Pete Townshend on a meth bender). It’s that kind of movie.
Wajda’s film is a far more somber account of revolutionary fervor, revolutionary practice, revolutionary tragedy. The much-bruited parallels to the then-struggling Polish Solidarity movement are there, for sure, but one of the strengths of the movie is the way it registers even when you push that particular point in 20th-century history from your mind. And Depardieu’s lively, impassioned performance is one of his defining ones. Defining him as really great, I mean.
It’s always fun to watch two films whose themes are more or less the same, but whose tones diverge so widely, even crazily. (Especially, I think, when they’re both the work of, you know, auteurs—as is the case here.) The recent DVD releases of these pictures (even the respective labels they’re out on tell a story of their differences: the Wajda is a Criterion disc, while Reign Of Terror is part of a VCI-released two-picture disc also featuring the Alton-shot The Amazing Mr. X) make for one head-spinning double feature. Readers are invited to cite similarly odd couples in the comments.
I used to select odd double features for a small group of friends.
One of my favourite pairings, though they actually share a certain degree of stylistic bombast: “What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?” and “Man With the Golden Arm”. Both films are about a woman in a wheelchair who lies about it (in “Baby Jane”, about how she got there; in “Man”, about the need to be there at all) in order to guilt someone into taking care of them.
Also: “F For Fake” and “Usual Suspects”, both being not about “the relative nature of truth” or any such nonsense but rather about sly trickery, imagination, and the joy of storytelling. Only, you know, “F for Fake” is actually jouyous and, um, good while the overrated “Suspects” exists merely to pull the rug out from underneath you. “F for Fake” does the same but it does it with gusto, skill, and wit.
And, actually, you could also put “The Illusionist” up against “Suspects” (a much better pairing than “Illusionist” and “The Prestige”; both are about big con games and both end with an authority figure, um, figuring it all out. But there is such a huge difference between Palminteri dropping the coffee mug, his mouth slightly open in abject terror as it dawns on him and Giamatti’s ecstatic smile as he pieces it together.
(Not that I’m trying to pull a “I hate irony and cynicism in movies! All movies should be positive and joyful! Armond White smash!” but rather that I’m more inclined to enjoy a good con game when the director isn’t rubbing it in my face, “look how stupid you are, you fell for it, you rube”. There’s far more wit in Welles and Burger.)
Taking your premise of “two films whose themes are more or less the same, but whose tones diverge so widely” a little more literally than Tom just did, I can come up with a few such pairs.
Clouzot’s “Le Salaire de a peur (Wages of Fear)” & Friedkin’s “Sorcerer”
Godard’s “À bout de soufflé (Breathless)” & Jim McBride’s “Breathless”
Bergman’s “The Virgin Spring” & Craven’s “The Last House on the Left”
Zinneman’s “High Noon” & Hyams’ “Outland”
Kurosawa’s “Yojimbo” and Leone’s “A Fistful of Dollars”
Antonioni’s “Blow-up” & Coppola’s “The Conversation” & De Palma’s “Blow Out” (wait… that’s three)
Ford’s “The Searchers” & Scorsese’s “Taxi Driver”
Kubrick’s “The Killing” & Tarantino’s “Reservoir Dogs” (that one’s a bit of a stretch)
Mann’s “Thief” & Mann’s “Crime Story” & Mann’s “LA Takedown” & Mann’s “Heat” (alright, he’s gonna get it right sometime)
Hitchcock’s “The Man Who Knew Too Much” (1934) & Hitchcock’s “The Man Who Knew Too Much” (1956) (okay, he finally got it right)