The renowned author and critic Susan Sontag spoke about Jean-Luc Godard's film in her 1977 collection of essays "On Photography." About the "two sluggish lumpen-peasants" returning home bearing postcards of the treasures of the world instead of tangible treasure, Sontag noted that "Godard's gag vividly parodies the equivocal magic of the photographic image."
The Carabineers (French: Die Karabinieri (1963)) is a French war comedy-drama film by French filmmaker Jean-Luc Godard. The film is based on the stage play "Carabinieri," written by Italian playwright Beniamino Joppolo (adapted by Jacques Audiberti; Paris, 28 May 1958).
Die Karabinieri (1963) is easily one of Jean-Luc Godard's most challenging films, juxtaposing black farce with real newsreel footage of battlefield atrocities to comment on the absurdity of war. The unique visual style of the film, which is both a tribute to the silent films of Louis Lumière and the grainy texture of early photographs, also emphasizes the director's strangely detached presentation of events. Certainly one of the more memorable scenes in the film is a montage in the style of Sergei Eisenstein that catalogues the many conquests of the two moronic riflemen, rendered as postcard images. Equally notable is the sequence where Michel-Ange, experiencing his first movie, tries to enter the screen.
The source material for The Carabineers is the 1945 play "I Carabinieri" by the Italian playwright Beniamino Joppolo (1906-1963). Banned in Italy, it was first performed in Paris and Vienna. In 1962, Roberto Rossellini staged the play for the opening night of the Festival of Two Worlds in Spoleto, Italy, but he faced a hostile audience and complaints lodged by the actual Italian Carabinieri. Later, according to Rossellini biographer Tag Gallagher, Jean Gruault "recorded a tape of Roberto telling the play's story," and passed it on to Jean-Luc Godard. Apparently this was the extent of Rossellini's actual involvement with Godard's film, though he did receive screen credit as a co-author for the script. Beniamino Joppolo's son Giovanni recalls that Joppolo and Godard met frequently in Paris to discuss the adaptation. However, in an interview published in the December 1962 issue of Cahiers du cinéma, Godard claimed that the screenplay was written mainly by Rossellini, adding: "The scenario is so good that all I need to do is film it without worrying."
The film was one of the greatest flops of that era. Jean-Luc Godard's film was savagely attacked by French critics and stirred up considerable controversy.