Le Petit Soldat
With Michel Subor, Anna Karina.
France , 1961/63, 35mm, black & white, 88 min.
French with English subtitles.
Godard’s second feature—shot just months after the release of his highly successful debut film, Breathless—was immediately banned in France for its razor-sharp reflection on the Algerian war in a politically divided nation. In Le Petit Soldat Godard utilizes the thriller format to frame the story of a confused man in a complex situation. A French agent working in Geneva during the waning era of the Franco-Algerian struggle, Bruno Forestier maintains an indifferent politics and obsessive self-examination that lead him to a romantic involvement with Algerian agent Veronica Dreyer (Anna Karina in her first role for the director). The film’s depiction of the brutality and torture used by both sides in this bloody war infuriated both the Left and the Right.
