Loosely based on poet André Chénier's tragic life ,one of the innocent victims of the revolutionary tribunal (along with,among others ,great scientist Lavoisier),the screenplay has undergone some changes.To secure a romantic ending,the heroine (Antonella Lualdi) sacrifices her life to follow Chénier (Michel Auclair)on the guillotine ;actually she was not executed and ,to put it mildly,she did not care that much about her mate who wrote " La Jeune Captive" about her.The movie was actually an opera ,but as the actors (Lualdi,Auclair and Vallone ) were not singers ,instead of having them dubbed ,director Fracassi opted for spoken parts ,using only the music for the soundtrack.Historically,the movie is not very convincing -about as much as Griffith's silent "orphans of the storm ",but the three principals are gifted thespians and give this romantic love story substance.