Film Analysis: The Battle Of Algiers

iulio Pontecorvo directed ‘The Battle of Algiers’ in 1966, he had attempted to depict the fight for independence which Algeria sought under French colonialism. He sought to create a realistic representation of the conflict occurring in Algeria, in a way which many consider as having been ‘approached as pseudo- or quasi- documentary’ due to it’s grainy black and white image quality. The resources used to achieve this effect included photos and film footage as well as real life testimonies. Throughout this essay, I will analyse how Pontecorvo undermines the roles of Women and children in his movie, whilst representing the role which colonialism played in Algeria with a positive bias. As a result of these narrative elements, his film can not
However, in the rest of the film women are found to be mute or only there to encourage the men off to fight. Furthermore, the scene with the Europeanised Algerian women is shown to be more romanticised - as one of them passes the frontier she is propositioned by a french soldier thus differing from the classical documentary style which Pontecorvo wished to recreate by drawing a parallel with Hollywood film characteristics. Although Pontecorvo does play a tribute to women by showing them both in the opening and closing scenes of his masterpiece, then, he fails to show the crucial role of women and children in the success of the resistance.This is shown to have been repeated throughout history and is not only unique to the Battle of Algiers. The use of innocent seeming personas within a war is often argued as leading to the victory of other resistance movements such as depicted in World War
Although he uses many accurate elements and reliable sources to create his work - thus leading many to create a parallel between his film and a documentary - his work contains a lack of accurate representation of gender and a one sided view of colonialism. . Overall, it appears he has a certain bias, which may be in part due to his communist Italian background (he was by 1942 a clandestine member of the Italian Communist Party). As such, the effect of the film is very powerful as it leads to much reflection upon past errors, with gender shown to be a powerful tool that can be used in ways which aren’t always evident and colonialism being portrayed as an element of the past which no longer has a place within our society. It is however, safe to say that the story between France and Algeria is still not yet terminated, the majority of Algerians still speak french and their relations are still very