Le petit soldat / [Productions Georges de Beauregard ; Société Nouvelle de Cinématographie (SNC) ; produced by Georges de Beauregard ; written and directed by Jean-Luc Godard]
Edition:
Blu-ray special edition.
Publisher:
The Criterion Collection,
Copyright Date:
2020
Description:
1 videodisc (88 min.) : sound, black and white ; 4 3/4 in. + 1 folded sheet (12 unnumbered pages : illustrations ; 47 x 33 cm folded to 12 x 17 cm)
Anna Karina, Michel Subor, Henri-Jacques Huet, Paul Beauvais, Jean-Luc Godard. Title from screen; film lacks credits; production credits from other sources. Originally produced in 1963. Features: High-definition digital restoration, approved by cinematographer Raoul Coutard; Interview with director Jean-Luc Godard from 1965; Interview with actor Michael Subor from 1963; Audio interview with Godard and Gideon Bachman from 1961; New English subtitle translation; on insert, an essay from critic Nicholas Elliott.
Summary:
"Before his convention-shattering debut, Breathless, had even premiered, Jean-Luc Godard leapt into the making of his second feature, a thriller that would tackle the most controversial subject in France: the use of torture in the Algerian War. Despite his lack of political convictions, a photojournalist Bruno Forestier (Michel Subor) is roped into a paramilitary group waging a shadow war in Geneva against the Algerian independence movement. Anna Karina (in her first collaboration with Godard, whose camera is visibly besotted with her) is beguiling as the mysterious woman with whom Forrestier becomes infatuated. Banned for two and a half years by French censors for its depiction of brutal tactics on the part of the French government and the Algerian fighters alike, Le petit soldat finds the young Godard already retooling cinema as a vehicle for existential inquiry, political argument, and ephemeral portraiture--in other words, as a medium for delivering 'truth twenty-four times per second'"--Container.
This resource is supported by the Institute of Museum and Library Services under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act as administered by State Library of Iowa.