#1010: GODARD, Jean-Luc: Le Petit Soldat (1963)

GODARD, Jean-Luc (France)
Le Petit Soldat [1963]
Spine #1010
Blu-ray

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, 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 Forestier 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."

88 minutes

Black & White
Monaural

in French
1:37:1 aspect ratio

Criterion Release 2020

Director/Writer

Jean-Luc Godard was 33 when he wrote and directed Le Petit Soldat.

Other Godard films in the Collection:

#408: Breathless (1960)
#238: A Woman Is A Woman (1961)
#512: Vivre Sa Vie (1962)
#171: Contempt (1963)
#174: Band Of Outsiders (1964)
#25: Alphaville (1965)
#421: Pierrot Le Fou (1965)
#308: Masculin Féminin (1966)
#481: Made In U.S.A. (1966)

#482: 2 Or 3 Things I Know About Her (1967)
#635: Weekend (1967)
#744: Every Man For Himself (1980)
#1249: King Lear (1987)

The Film

Godard’s second feature, it was banned in France for over two years, and was finally released as his fourth (after Breathless, A Woman Is A Woman and Vivre Sa Vie).

Bruno Forestier (a superb Michel Subor) is a photojournalist who has fled France for Geneva, and despite his lack of political convictions (re: Algerian independence), is more or less blackmailed into carrying out an assassination of a suspected double-agent.

Meanwhile, is instantly smitten by Veronica Dreyer (Anna Karina) [who wouldn’t be?] …

Note the character’s last name (no doubt a shout-out to Carl Theodor) — Godard name-checks frequently throughout the movie — including his own cinematographer (Raoul Coutard).

Karina’s first appearance is a long-shot where she’s talking to man, played by Godard, himself. (They would marry shortly after this film was shot.) Later, Godard reappears as a torture specialist.

In between the political action, Bruno shoots a photo session with Veronica, where the viewer can easily see that Bruno is standing in for his director!

Godard’s style is, of course, unique to Godard. Say what one might, his films are in a category all by themselves.

The score by Maurice Leroux is subtle and well-used.

Film Rating (0-60):

55

The Extras

The Booklet

Twelve-page wraparound featuring an essay by critic Nicholas Elliott.

“As Le Petit Soldat makes clear, Bruno’s epigram (‘Photography is truth. Cinema is truth twenty-four times a second’) suggests not that cinema simply repeats a single truth but that it hunts truth down, frame after frame, as it evolves and occasionally escapes our grasp. This is rarely clearer than in Bruno’s final monologue — seven minutes of rapid-fire declarations that, for all their bluster, add up to little more than a penetrating record of a young man’s search for truth as he struggles with political engagement, freedom, and self-definition. The monologue culminates with Bruno telling Veronica that he yearns for the era of the Spanish Civil War, when there were worthy causes for young men like him to embrace. From our contemporary perspective, few causes’ worthiness seem as clear-cut as Algerian independence, but Godard, already a master of paradox, had the temerity to portray a man so overwhelmed by his ideas of the past that he is blind to the present. The result is an adventure film in which the protagonist yearns for heroism more than he embodies it. It isn’t pretty, but it feels like the truth.”

Commentary

None

Interview 1

With Godard from 1965.

Not much here.

Interview 2

With actor Subor from 1963.

The interviewer catches Subor getting ready for his usual workout in gym near the Place de la République. Subor is quite forthcoming — both regarding this film, its ban, and on his profession, in general. He talks about his time studying with Elia Kazan — fascinating.

Audio interview

With Godard from 1961.

Better than the above filmed interview. Here he is intelligently interviewed by Gideon Bachmann, in English.

Extras Rating (0-40):

34

55 + 34 =

89

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