Vive la France

John

All bombast and broken promises. Doesn't hold a candle to ours.

Faceless Bureaucrat

Ah! - fair brings a tear to my eye every time I see that scene. When are we going to dump our current dirge of a National Anthem and replace it with something equally stirring like 'Land of Hope & Glory' or 'Jerusalem'? Anyone feel a campaign coming on?...

Max Usher

It is indeed a fantastic national anthem. Such a shame we cant have either 'Land of hope and glory' or 'Vow to thee my country'- which are comparably good and not nearly as blood-thirsty. The second verse of La Marseillaise actually implores the French citizens to water the fields with the "impure" blood of their enemies!

David Boothroyd

Interesting film trivia: The song the Germans are singing was to have been the much more significant Horst Wessel Lied, until it was discovered to be in copyright. Michael Curtiz could not bear the responsibility of paying its Nazi composer for using it, so found a patriotic folk song that was out of copyright (Die Wacht am Rhein) instead.

C Powell

Of all the scenes in all the films in all the world, you had to pick this one.....

EyeSee

It is great, very French. But you know, I get fed up of the sniping at our National Anthem. Best tune or not, it represents Britain and it makes me proud. And I hear it at the start of every ice hockey game!

PJ

Rule Britannia is by far the best patriotic song we have and the only one that is anything like as good as the Marseilles. And it's much less bloodthirsty too:

- the Muses still with freedom found
- the haughty tyrants ne'er shall claim
- Britons never never never shall be slaves

Craig Strachan

Yes, La Marseillase would be in my top three national anthems, along with Oh Canada! and Hatikvah.

Fergus Pickering

Nothing wrong with our National Anthem (good enough for Beethoven, good enough for me). Frog anthem but a bit bombastic as you might expect. Best anthems old German one (good enough for Haydn, good enough for me) and Russian one. Very stirring. Best verse of Rule Britannia is of course the one about crushing rebellious Scots. Very apposite.

Rush-is-Right

I think La Marseillaise is a horrible tune with awful words. There is great French music about but this ain't it!

Guinty

Wholeheartedly agree, James. The rendition of La Marseillase during the World Cup final in July 1998, when France won the, was the stuff of dreams. I remember standing on the street with a few hundred French folk in Fumel, with the hairs standing on the back of my neck. With the exception of Land of My Fathers, all the home nations anthems pale in comparison.

Mark

It beats trying to persuade a fictional being to preserve a monarch using a song which is a bit of a dirge.

Lee Jakeman

I'll take Israel's Hatikva (The Hope) any day.

cuffleyburgers

France, quite, one of the victors of the second world war, a remarkable effort considering they gave up right at the start.

And a country whose national day commemorates the day they overthrew one tyrant to replace him with another leading eventually to that great adornment of liberty, Napoleon admired by frenchmen, esecially short ones, to this day (imagine a German prime minister with statues of Hitler on his desk and you get my drift).

Great food and fit birds, but a tinpot national anthem which doesn't hold a candle to ours.

Robert

I prefer the Russian national anthem.

Russia — our sacred stronghold,
Russia — our beloved country.
A mighty will, a great glory —
Your heritage for all time!

Tim Lee

Fergus approaches the subject, I fear, in a cloud of xenophobia thick enough to obscure his reading glasses ('frogs', indeed, hmmm). The line about crushing rebellious Scots is in fact a non-used verse of the National Anthem, and is not taken from Rule Britannia...

peter reid

I am unsure why there has to be such a focus on the words when the music has a far greater impact. Why else is it that people without any French can be moved to tears upon hearing the Marseillaise?

HJ

Personally, I think our national anthem is far more powerful and dignified.

The Marseillaise is all peacock strutting and hot air.