249 The Battle of Algiers

[Matango]

Police bomb rue de Thebes

If memory serves...I think this is where the police have a few drinks then go into the Casbah at night and blow up a house that they got the address of by torturing that old guy who was in the wrong place at the wrong time. Did you think to check the chapter titles on the DVD?

[psufootball07]

Yeah, I thought wtf might as well go ahead and watch the whole film again....it was that good.

[Matango]

After this you have to demonstrate some further understanding of the material and how it relates to culture and society at the time, which is not difficult with a film that feels like a documentary.

Especially when you have extensive extra features to reference

[Murasaki53]

There's also a brilliant book with a chapter in it about the events portrayed in the film.

It's by Alistair Horne and is called A Savage War of Peace. He's also featured in one of the documentaries in disc 3.

I use extracts from Battle for Algiers in my teaching [of Islam].

[ellipsis7]

The Algerian soccer team use The Battle of Algiers to prepare themselves mentally for their World Cup clash with England this evening!...

[dad1153]

Will they watch it again when they go against Team USA next week (a must-win for the USA to advance to the Knockout phase)? :-k

[ellipsis7]

Well it seemed to have worked so far 0-0, another day awaits...

[mikkelmark]

Seems more likely that England watched Transformers 2 before the game, it wasn't that much that the Algerians were good, more that England was bad.

[ellipsis7]

The peerless Marina Hyde sums it all up in The Guardian, beginning...

It is remarkable that a fist-gnawingly dire England performance still has the power to shock, when in some ways this one had all the exquisite unpredictability of Norman Wisdom approaching a banana skin in the immediate vicinity of a swimming pool. To draw one eminently winnable group match is unfortunate, to draw two begins to look as if England are six kinds of crap, if Lady Bracknell will forgive the paraphrase.

[colinr0380]

Announced for Blu-ray upgrade

[TMDaines]

You're fucking kidding me. I just bought this two days ago despite holding off for ages because even at 50% off it is too expensive in my opinion....

Oh well, eBay it goes.

[colinr0380]

Although the original DVD set has my vote for being one of the best packages Criterion has produced, and something I really treasure. I guess there are likely to be a number of changes for the Blu reissue. At the very least losing a disc is going to remove one of the gatefold images!

[swo17]

Beaver

[macaca]

amazing package and movie, and im probably in the minority saying this, but i wish this came out in a 1 disc version.
i hate digipaks and to be honest, the first disc is stacked with extras and id probably never watch the 2nd.
:-"

[manicsounds]

Here's what the UK will get:

Argent Films has announced the Blu-ray release of The Battle of Algiers for the 9th of July, priced at around £24.99. Details of bonus material can be found below, alogn with the artwork.

Re-mastered in High Definition from restored archive elements approved by the filmmakers
Includes previously unseen footage, making this the most complete edition ever released
Exclusive Presentation & Interview by director Ken Loach
Exclusive Presentation by director Paul Greengrass
The Making of The Battle of Algiers - An exclusive interview with Director Gillo Pontecorvo
The Real Battle of Algiers - Interview with Producer & protagonist Saadi Yacef, head of FLN guerrillas
Our War for Freedom - Interview with FLN fighter Zohra Drif Bitat (the Milk Bar bomber portrayed in the film)
Photo Galleries from the filmmaker’s personal archives
Theatrical and Argent Trailers
'Italians in Algiers' Booklet - An essay by author-scholar David Forgacs on the genesis of the film
French-Arabic or Italian audio, both with optional English Subtitles
DTS-HD 2.0 & Dolby Sound

[MichaelB]

If the transfer's decent, I'm tempted to plump for this rather than the Criterion, since the latter costs considerably more.

I already have Criterion's DVD set, so I have all their extras already (and don't care about whether or not they're in HD), and any contribution by David Forgacs is always welcome - to say that the man knows his stuff when it comes to 1960s Italian cinema is a major understatement. Some of the other unique extras look intriguing too, not to mention the prospect of extra footage.

[TMDaines]

WOW, that looks quite the set, and there should be the possibility of picking it up for a good bit less than the Criterion release. There doesn't seem to be much overlap with the Crit either.

[manicsounds]

Blu-ray.com review of the UK disc, says that the runtime is the same as the US disc, so it is the same length.

[Ashirg]

Is it being re-released on September 3? Amazon pre-order page just came up with 49.95 list price, so MSRP is not dropping. Maybe a repackage.

[Lemmy Caution]

Not sure if this is the best place for this, but this thread needed a bump anyway.
A Sacramento State professor talks about moving beyond The Battle of Algiers in using films to teach about the Algerian War for Independence.
Worth a read. He recs:

In contrast, René Vautier’s 1972 Avoir vingt ans dans les Aurès and Costa-Gravas’ 2006 Mon Colonel take us into the disturbing transformation of what Christopher Browning would call “ordinary men” into the criminals who committed the crimes for which the Algerian War is so famous, what Vice President Dick Cheney referred to as working “the dark side, if you will.” Separated by four decades and markedly different cinematic styles, the two films explore the path that led French enlisted men and officers from their homes in the métropole to the torture chambers of the colony.

[Satori]

Not sure if this is the best place for this, but this thread needed a bump anyway.
A Sacramento State professor talks about moving beyond The Battle of Algiers in using films to teach about the Algerian War for Independence.
Worth a read. He recs:

In contrast, René Vautier’s 1972 Avoir vingt ans dans les Aurès and Costa-Gravas’ 2006 Mon Colonel take us into the disturbing transformation of what Christopher Browning would call “ordinary men” into the criminals who committed the crimes for which the Algerian War is so famous, what Vice President Dick Cheney referred to as working “the dark side, if you will.” Separated by four decades and markedly different cinematic styles, the two films explore the path that led French enlisted men and officers from their homes in the métropole to the torture chambers of the colony.

A very good read, although I find that a close viewing of the news conference scenes in Battle causes students to produce a similar analysis: the Col is certainly presented as an ordinary person (a charismatic one, even, because of Jean Martin) who matter-of-factly engages in torture because it is the logical conclusion of colonial warfare. In fact, Pontecorvo's real point here is not only to demonstrate how "normal" people commit war crimes, but to turn it around on the French citizens who become complicit in the torture (the Col says "Should we remain in Algeria? If you answer "yes," then you must accept all the necessary consequences"). I think this has more radical implications if we are are trying to extrapolate to Cheney/Iraq, ect.
Of course, it seems like his argument is more about teaching the Algerian War itself; the main reason I've taught Battle in a film class is because these political issues appear within a film that allows students to think about the relationship between documentary aesthetics and the action film or "third" cinema and European art cinema.

[hearthesilence]

Rialto has finished a 4k restoration that will screen at the NYFF. Are there any labels out there known to be eying a BD release? (I imagine we won't be seeing one based on the 4k restoration here in the States due to Criterion's own release - it'll probably be a while before they re-do it again.)

[rohmerin]

New 4 K restoration Italian BD is out, apparently only with Italian sound.

[hearthesilence]

I lost track of this but apparently some people weren't happy with the grading of the 4K restoration, at least as it appears on the Cult Films Blu-ray disc, and on top of that the Blu-ray authoring was atrocious.

I bring this up because MoMA is actually screening the 4K restoration this weekend (Saturday afternoon) and on the evening of May 9, but there's a good chance I can't make either of those screenings. Anyone see the 4K restoration projected and remember how it looked? The complaints revolve around how dark it looks, to the point where it's flattened and the darker areas are crushed.

[andyli]

Don’t recall any black crush (or any other issue) when the restoration was screened at Shanghai IFF, but it was quite a few years ago so I could be wrong.