La bataille d'Alger [videorecording] = The battle of Algiers / un film de Gillo Pontecorvo ; scénario de Franco Solinas ; production Casbah Films, Igor Film ; produit par Yacef Saadi.
Edition: Special ed.
Publisher: Irvington, NY : Criterion Collection, c2004.
ISBN: 0780028872
Description: 3 videodiscs (121 min.) : sd., b&w and col. ; 4 3/4 in. + 1 booklet (55 p. ; 19 cm.)
Series: The criterion collection ; 249
Subject: Jabhat al-Taḥrīr al-Qawmī Drama.
Battaglia di Algeri (Motion picture).
Torture Algeria Drama.
Terrorism Algeria Drama.
Autonomy Drama.
Algeria History Revolution, 1954-1962 Drama.
Kasbah (Algiers, Algeria) Drama.
War films.
War films Algeria.
War films Italy.
Historical films.
Historical films Algeria.
Historical films Italy.
Feature films.
Feature films Algeria.
Feature films Italy.
Foreign films.
Foreign language films French. local
Foreign language films Algerian. local
Historical Feature. migfg
War Feature. migfg
Credits: Director of photography, Marcello Gatti ; editors, Mario Serandrei & Mario Morra ; music, Ennio Morricone & Gillo Pontecorvo ; production designer, Sergio Canevari.
Performers: Brahim Haggiag, Jean Martin, Saadi Yacef, Samia Kerbash, Ugo Paletti, Fusia El Kader.
Notes: French and Arabic dialogue, optional English subtitles.
Originally released as a motion picture in 1966.
Special features: Disc 1: theatrical and re-release trailers; production gallery. Disc 2: "Gillo Pontecorvo: the dictatorship of truth," a 37 min. documentary made in 1992 about Pontecorvo; The making of The battle of Algiers (51 min.); Spike Lee, Mira Nair, Julian Schnabel, Steven Soderbergh, and Oliver Stone discuss the film (17 min.). Disc 3: "Remembering history," a 69 min. documentary about the Algerian Revolution; "États d'armes," 28 min. of excerpts from Patrick Rotman's 3-part documentary, L'Ennemi Intime, which focuses on the horror of the Revolution; "The battle of Algiers, a case study" a 25 min. conversation about the contemporary relevance of The battle of Algiers between former National Coordinator for Security and Counterterrorism Richard A. Clarke, former State Department Coordinator for Counterterrorism, Michael A. Sheehan, and Chief of Investigative Projects for ABC News, Christopher E. Isham; "Gillo Pontecorvo's Return to Algiers" (1992) (58 min.).
Summary: Dramatizes the harrowing events of 1957, a key year in Algeria's struggle for independence from France. Recreates the tumultuous Algerian uprising against the occupying French in the 1950s. As violence escalates on both sides, the French torture prisoners for information and the Algerians resort to terrorism in their quest for independence. Children shoot soldiers at point-blank range, women plant bombs in cafés. The French win the battle, but ultimately lose the war as the Algerian people demonstrate that they will no longer be suppressed.
