La Bataille d'Alger

An impressive and historical film in semi-documentary style . Set when the Front de Libération Nationale (FLN) is leading the resistance in Algeria against their French rulers , the FLN that the colonial authorities believe, or want to believe, comprise only a small minority of the Muslim Algerian population in wanting Algerian independence. Subsequently , specifically violent incidents taking place in the battle in Algiers -between 1954 and the final time of independence in 1962- are introduced . The final scene happens some time later in 1960. There is a riot going on with soldiers shooting into the crowds. Finally , the Évian Accords were a set of peace treaties signed on 18 March 1962 in Évian-les-Bains, France, by France and the Provisional Government of the Algerian Republic, the government-in-exile of FLN, which sought Algeria's independence from France . The Accords ended the 1954-1962 Algerian War with a formal cease-fire proclaimed for 19 March and formalized the status of Algeria as an independent nation and the idea of cooperative exchanges between the two countries . The movie ends with the captain narrating that on July 2, 1962 a new nation of Algeria was born . The French Colonel...who was forced even to torture ! . One of the many women...who stopped at nothing to win! The Algerian Street Boy...who became a rebel hero!. The Revolt that Stirred the World!

This seminal semi-documentary style film was well directed by Gillo Pontecorvo , who also participated in the script and the music (in this last aspect, advised by the great maestro Ennio Morricone) . The main characters were represented by Brahim Hadjadj , Yacef Saâdi and Jean Martin who was the only professional actor . The Battle of Algiers was inspired by the 1962 book Souvenirs de la Bataille d'Alger, an FLN military commander's account of the campaign, by Saadi Yacef . Yacef wrote the book while he was held as a prisoner of the French , and it served to boost morale for the FLN and other militants . After independence, the French released Yacef , who became a leader in the new government. The Algerian government backed adapting Yacef's memoir as a film . Salash Baazi , an FLN leader who had been exiled by the French, approached Italian director Gillo Pontecorvo and screenwriter Franco Solinas with the project . To meet the demands of film, The Battle of Algiers uses composite characters and changes the names of certain persons . For example , Colonel Mathieu is a composite of several French counterinsurgency officers , especially Jacques Massu . Saadi Yacef has said that Mathieu was based more on Marcel Bigeard , although the character is also reminiscent of Roger Trinquier . Accused of portraying Mathieu as too elegant and noble, screenwriter Franco Solinas denied that this was his intention . He said in an interview that the Colonel is "elegant and cultured, because Western civilization is neither inelegant nor uncultured". For The Battle of Algiers , Pontecorvo and cinematographer Marcello Gatti filmed in black and white and experimented with various techniques to give the film the look of newsreel and documentary film . The effect was so convincing that American releases carried a notice that "not one foot" of newsreel was used.

Pontecorvo's use of fictional realism enables the movie "to operate along a double-bind as it consciously addresses different audiences" . The film makes special use of television in order to link western audiences with images they are constantly faced with that are asserted to express the "truth". The film seems to be filmed through the point of view of a western reporter, as telephoto lenses and hand-held cameras are used, whilst "depicting the struggle from a 'safe' distance with French soldiers placed between the crowds and camera" .

La battaglia di Algeri (1966) is an excellent film which makes most political films seem intellectual by comparison in its use o of non-professional actors , realistic violence , gritty cinematography and a boldly propagandistic sense of social outrage . The motion picture was competently directed by Gillo Pontecorvo . Although Gillo made fewer than 20 films , he is regarded as one of Italy's greatest directors . He moved to France in 1938 to escape Italy's fascist racial laws . He eventually returned to Italy and led a Resistance brigade during WWII. After the war, he studied chemistry and worked as a journalist before becoming a film director; he started out making documentaries . His first feature film was ¨The Wide Blue Road¨. Pontecorvo was born into a Jewish family , as he directed ¨Kapo¨ that was one of the first films about the theme of Jewish holocaust and one of the more realistic in its recreation . Gillo subsequently directed this successful ¨Battle of Algiers¨ and ¨Queimada¨ with Marlon Brando and his final feature movie : ¨Ogro¨ , later on , he made Documentaries and Shorts . This ¨The Battle of Algiers¨ won the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival and was nominated for three Academy Awards (in non-consecutive years, a unique achievement) : Best Foreign Language Film in 1967, and Best Screenplay (Gillo Pontecorvo and Franco Solinas) and Best Director (Gillo Pontecorvo) in 1969.

I ask myself why we never see these kind of movies on TV, instead of airing again and again the same old lethal weapons, jurassic parks, and other similar stuff? This is real cinema, this is why it is considered a form of art!

With the metaphysical crudeness of black and white, the dramatical facts of the Algerian rebellion against the French are accounted. The movie has the realistic appearance of a chronicle. And there are tons of intellectual honesty, too. I mean that there are no white hats VS black hats. You can see terrorists troubled as they are about to leave a bomb in a cafe. Policemen who struggle to save an arabian child from being killed by outraged crowd. Most of all, I like the frank words of Colonel Mathieu about the "bad methods" he's using during interrogations... Watch the movie and you will know.

..who had lived through the real battle.

Director Pontecorvo and cinematographer Marcello Gatti are true geniuses who amazingly filmed the movie in black and white and experimented with various techniques to give the film the look of newsreel and documentary film and that too making it an engrossing n enlightening experience.

Although the rebels lost the Battle of Algiers, they won the Algerian War n their freedom from the French colonial regime.

This movie showed the impact of colonialism on daily lives.

The guy who played Ali is noteworthy, one of the rebel female has a sharp contour cheeks and the character lil Omar will always be remembered.

The torture of the rebel prisoners is the most poignant relevance to the recent ongoings worldwide.

The ironical aspect is that of the Colonel, who himself suffered torture by the Nazis in a concentration camp, now torturing common civilians to obtain information.

An historian writing about the Algerian war against the French colonial authorities entitled his book "A Savage War of Peace". "The Battle of Algiers" provides many answers to that enigmatic title. It does not attempt to show us the entire war but centers on the city of Algiers. Even though you are told at the beginning that no documentary footage is used it is at times hard to believe as many of the images you see have a stark and often unsettling reality to them. Considering that this was a co production between Algeria and Italy the film is remarkable in that it does not turn itself a political tirade by taking sides. Instead the camera is a sort of neutral observer allowing us to witness events that spiraled from individual demonstrations to a full scale war of savage intensity. French officers who fought the Nazis a few years before degenerated into the mode of their former enemy while Algerians had no problems exploding bombs that would kill their own people. The camera shows no heros or villains but humanity in its darkest forms. This is a powerful film with superb direction and cinematography. It truly is one of a kind and once seen will never be forgotten.

As Algerian, I watched this movie 2 times a year for 20 years, this movie is a part of my story. It helped me to put imagines and sounds to stories I heard from my teachers, cousins, as my grand-parents and my parents still can't talk about that horrible war.

By now, as I'm growing old, I understand that this movie is not the 'Truth', it was 'war', and in a war even good people can do horrible things. And I know what I'm talking about as I was there, in Algeria, during the 'Dark Decennial', while we were fighting against our own people whom turned terrorists in the name of Islam.

So for those who will watch this film, please just remember not to judge any of the parties : Algerian /or/ French. It was a war and no war is nice, people die, and those who survive will suffer. Films/art are a form of exorcism for that pain we keep silently inside.

I like this movie, because I saw tears in the beautiful green eyes of my grand mother every time she watched it and it always gave her a good opportunity to cry for my grand father that she lost during the war. I saw my father crying for his father that he never knew, and saw him also being closer to his mom because.

For me, this movie will always be a 'Good movie to watch in Family'