1963 Directed by Jean-Luc Godard
During the Algerian war for independence from France, a young Frenchman living in Geneva who belongs to a right-wing terrorist group and a young woman who belongs to a left-wing terrorist group meet and fall in love. Complications ensue when the man is suspected by the members of his terrorist group of being a double agent.
"I had a dream I went to the theater. During the intermission, I met the devil. He was well dressed."
this movie is so french it has a scene where a character lights a cigarette with all the matches he has in his pocket at once. i cant even begin to describe how much of a jolt of pure cinema this is, it hits every sweet spot imaginable including sweet spots i didnt even notice in myself. absolute heaven.
Filmed in 1960 but released until 1963, Le Petit Soldat is Godard's second feature film which sensitive political content caused the French censors to ban the film for three years.
The incredible Nouvelle Vague was kicking off with a bang, and Godard is maybe the filmmaker that best envisioned the movement's eccentricities perfectly with a trademark style of his own since his debut. He didn't give birth to the movement, but he made a massive international contribution to a successful dissemination of its uniqueness. Le Petit Soldat is no exception.
The film places a man against French involvement in the war in Algeria as a protagonist. He is given instructions to assassinate Polidova, who is pro-FLN (National Liberation Front of…
I liked it more when I suspected that Godard had filmed his friends driving around Paris and simply dubbed in the narration to make the story about espionage and the Algerian War at the editing stage. The constant references to art are cute, but when characters read from Maoist texts (as Godard characters are wont to do) or act as (butt) trumpets for whatever sand was blowing up Godard's skirt at the moment, the movie grinds to a halt for me. Still kind of amazing that this early on he was breaking so radically away from the style of movie his cohort were making, and ballsy of Godard to directly confront the Algerian War while it was still occurring.
My hands-on active days are over. It's time now for thinking.
- Bruno Forestier
This one's quite interesting, even for a Godard film. It was shot in 1960 but wasn't released in France until '63 due to its subject matter - that being the Algerian war as well as the depiction of the use of torture by both sides. It's undoubtedly one of Godard's more clunky and tiresome films with a rather languid pace to match, and yet, there is excellence to be found in its sharp cinematography and claustrophobic atmosphere. The story involves a young Frenchman living in Geneva who is believed by his own group of terrorists to be a double agent after his refusal…
Love during the Algerian War, the National Liberation Front fox and the "anti-terrorist" terrorist, the joke is that it's a bit like Ninotchka or Jet Pilot. (Switzerland is the gray playpen, fittingly.) The young Frenchman (Michel Subor) is an army deserter, a shutterbug, a half-assed rightist assassin, a closet poet hoping for a death out of Cocteau. The comely anti-colonialist (Anna Karina) is Russian by birth yet shares her last name with the director of Day of Wrath, and knows that the ideals the French once had against the Germans are no more in Algeria, the war’s already lost. The camera passes over photographs of atrocities and glossy magazine covers pinned on a wall before finding the two lovers embracing…
Godard's characters are involved in a complex series of events that they don't fully understand. Instead, they go situation by situation and remove themselves through larger cultural and political beliefs and opinions. Later in his career, we discovered Godard was simply rattling on about his own ideas through his characters, but the deeply rooted ideals come through on a character-to-character basis. These are beliefs held so deeply that concepts like murder aren't treated with "should?", but rather "when?", and "how?". The "why?" is complicated, but these people have at least some idea of the bigger picture. Even if they only play a role in their corner.
Save for some amateurish sound design, this is easily among Godard's most atmospheric works.…
To the espionage film what Breathless is to noir, where alienation and boredom replace fear and despair, but without the sense of fun and experimentation that characterized that first film. Interesting to see as Godard is becoming Godard, but hard to engage with.
Depending on how you see it, Le Petit Soldat is a weak follow-up to À bout de souffle, differs in almost everything, except for the gun and girl element. It is Godard's first political movie, also marks first collaboration with Anna Karina, and only released 3 years later due to censorship. It is dark and slow, compared to the "colorful" and energetic Breathless. I would choose Jean Seberg over Anna Karina any day. But Godard is Godard: "I have the impression of loving the cinema less than I did a year ago, simply because I have made a film, and the film was well-received. So I hope that my second film will be received very badly and that this will make me want to make films again."
I don’t think I was in the mood for this, but I know I’ll like this more the second time I watch it.
75
This is my first Jean-Luc Godard film and probably a weird place to start out. A lot of his stuff is criticized by being all style and no substance but I thought there was a lot to keep me captivated during the whole runtime. Apparently this was Godard's second feature film and was meant to come out in 1960, but due to the political messages of the film and a rather tame (by today's standards) torture scene the French censored banned it for the next three years.
Really enjoyed the driving sequences and how they show off the cities. Love the noir vibe. Anna Karina is arresting. Godard's use of typography is excellent. I have to wonder if the influences Gaspar Noé.
What a ballsy man, Godard. Not only for creating a film based on hazardous current events that would cause this film to not be released until two years later due to the suspicion that it might've caused some sort of chaos for France, but also because Godard is not afraid to be as French as possible. This might not be the absolute epitome of a French New Wave film, but it does include the classic tropes of lighting cigarettes, and saying these somewhat narcissistic monologues, but the reason this may be my favourite Godard film is because it seems like the Godard film that shows his most vulnerable side to himself when it comes to how the main character, Bruno…
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