The Battle of Algiers [Criterion Collection] [3 Discs]

MOVIE DESCRIPTION:

This highly political film about the Algerian struggle for independence from France took "Best Film" honors at the 1966 Venice Film Festival. The bulk of the film is shot in flashback, presented as the memories of Ali (Brahim Haggiag), a leading member of the Algerian Front de Liberation Nationale (FLN), when finally captured by the French in 1957. Three years earlier, Ali was a petty thief who joined the secretive organization in order to help rid the Casbah of vice associated with the colonial government. The film traces the rebels' struggle and the increasingly extreme measures taken by the French government to quell what soon becomes a nationwide revolt. After the flashback, Ali and the last of the FLN leaders are killed, and the film takes on a more general focus, leading to the declaration of Algerian independence in 1962. Director Gillo Pontecorvo's careful re-creation of a complicated guerrilla struggle presents a rather partisan view of some complex social and political issues, which got the film banned in France for many years. That should not come as a surprise, for La Battaglia di Algeri was subsidized by the Algerian government and -- with the exception of Jean Martin and Tommaso Neri as French officers -- the cast was entirely Algerian as well. At least three versions exist, running 135, 125, and 120 minutes. ~ Robert Firsching, Rovi

DVD FEATURES:

• Number of Discs: 3
• Subtitle: Eng
• Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1 (Theatre Wide Screen)
• Screen: Enhanced Wide Screen Letterbox for 16x9 TV
• Audio: Dolby Digital Mono
• Features:
  • New high-definition digital transfer, enhanced for widescreen televisions
  • Production gallery
  • Theatrical and re-release trailers
  • New and improved English subtitle translation
  • "Gillo Pontecorvo: The Dictatorship of Truth" (1992): A 37-minute documentary, narrated by literary critic Edward Said
  • Exclusive 51-minute documentary on the making of The Battle of Algiers, featuring new interviews with the director, cinematographer, composer, editor, actors, and film historians
  • "Five Directors" (17 mins., 2004): Spike Lee, Mira Nair, Julian Schnabel, Steven Soderbergh, and Oliver Stone on the film's influence, style, and importance
  • "Remembering History" (69 mins., 2004): An exclusive documentary that reconstructs the Algerian experience of the battle for independence, featuring interviews with historians and revolutionaries, including military leader Saadi Yacef
  • "Etats d'Armes" (2002): A 28-minute documentary excerpt featuring senior French military officers recalling the use of torture and execution to combat the rebellion
  • "The Battle of Algiers: A Case Study" (25 mins., 2004): Richard A. Clarke, former national counterterrorism coordinator and author of "Against All Enemies: Inside America's War on Terror," discusses the film's relevance with Michael A. Sheehan, former State Department coordinator for counterterrorism, in a conversation moderated by Christopher E. Isham, chief of investigative projects for ABC News
  • "Gillo Pontecorvo's Return to Algiers" (58 mins., 1992): The filmmaker revisits the Algerian people after three decades of independence
  • A 56-page book featuring excerpts from Saadi Yacef's original account of his arrest, a reprinted excerpt from the film's screenplay, a reprinted interview with co-writer Franco Solinas, a new essay by film scholar Peter Matthews, and biographical sketches on key figures in the French-Algerian War

AWARDS

• Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences

•     Nominated Best Director - 1968 (Gillo Pontecorvo)
•     Nominated Best Original Screenplay - 1968 (Gillo Pontecorvo, Franco Solinas)
•     Nominated Best Director - 1966 (Gillo Pontecorvo)
•     Nominated Best Foreign Language Film - 1966 (Gillo Pontecorvo)

• British Academy of Film and Television Arts

•     Won United Nations Award - 1971 (Gillo Pontecorvo)

• Telluride Film Festival

•     Film Presented - 2003

• Venice International Film Festival

•     Won Golden Lion - 1966 (Gillo Pontecorvo)

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:

• Cast:

  
       Brahim Haggiag - Ali La Pointe
       Yacef Saadi - Kader
       Jean Martin - Colonel Mathieu
       Tommaso Neri - Captain
       Fawzia el Kader - Halima
       Michele Kerbash - Fathia
       Mohamed Ben Kassen - Little Omar
       Samia Kerbash - Arabian girl

• Director:

  Gillo Pontecorvo

• Producer:

  Antonio Musu, Yacef Saadi

• Screenwriter:

  Gillo Pontecorvo

• Book Author:

  Yacef Saadi

• Screenwriter:

  Franco Solinas

• Cinematographer:

  Marcello Gatti

• Composer (Music Score):

  Ennio Morricone, Gillo Pontecorvo

• Editor:

  Mario Morra, Mario Serandrei

• Production Designer:

  Sergio Canevari

REVIEW:

• The principal characteristic of Gillo Pontecorvo's La Battaglia di Algeri (The Battle of Algiers) is its ferocious authenticity. It is a monument of neo-realism in the best tradition of Vittorio De Sica (Shoeshine, Bicycle Thieves) and Roberto Rossellini (Rome, Open City). La Battaglia di Algeri is made with such astonishing, feral realism that it effectively blurs the line between documentary and fiction filmmaking. Using professional and non-professional actors, and, unbelievably, no newsreel footage, Pontecorvo draws out the passion and story of the Algerian people trying to free themselves from French rule in the mid-Fifties. There are any number of striking, memorable sequences, and the film became influential for the revolutionary mentality which hit the United States around the same time (it was apparently a favorite film of The Black Panthers). A stylistic connection can also be made between one of the most important American films of the 1960s, Bonnie and Clyde, and this movie, which preceded it by a year. ~ Brendon Hanley, Rovi