Scene from The Young Mr. Pitt (Conversation with Talleyrand)

[foxitewhig]

Yes, I agree with you about Talleyrand. I rather admire him in a Guilty Pleasures type of way. Not hot on political consistency, but he was absolutely loyal to the interests of France. And his own, of course.

[foxitewhig]

Note the date of the film. This scene is not really about Mr Pitt but about Mr Churchill. Note that Talleyrand speaks not with a French but a German accent and his shiny black clothes are reminiscent of a nazi uniform. In effect he is presented as a sort of 18th century Goebbels. This is a nice piece of history-as-wartime-propaganda!

[gnlwth]

I agree that this movie is more about Churchill than Fox. Albert Lieven speaks with a german accent because he was a german actor who fled Nazi-Germany in 1936; it is also true that he often played Nazis in english movies. But Talleyrand was everything but a 18th century Goebbels - he always wanted a peaceful Europe consisting of sovereign countries, and eventually contributed to Napoleon's downfall when he realised Napoleon's lust for hegemonial power would rather destroy Europe than unite it.

[Azkea]

I would be very happy if you found out how to rip it.

I'm writing about William Pitt the younger in a school project of mine, and this movie would certainly be of good use.

[gnlwth]

Thanks for your interest!

Let me find out how to rip it - I didn't manage to with VCL on two Macbooks and eventually decided to actually film the two scenes from the screen with a camera - but of course I can't do that with the full movie. As soon as I found out how to rip it (if that's possible with the DVD I have) I will post it here.

[Jennytheshipper]

Awesome. This movie is rare and almost impossible to track down. Can you put the whole thing on Youtube?

[firstofakind]

@Jennytheshipper

Agreed. I would love to see the entire film. What a rare gem.