The Battle of Algiers (1966) - The Criterion Collection

Synopsis

One of the most influential political films in history, Gillo Pontecorvo’s The Battle of Algiers (La bataille d’Alger) vividly re-creates a key year in the tumultuous Algerian struggle for independence from the occupying French in the 1950s. As violence escalates on both sides, children shoot soldiers at point-blank range, women plant bombs in cafés, and French soldiers resort to torture to break the will of the insurgents. Shot in the streets of Algiers in documentary style, the film is a case study in modern warfare, with its terrorist attacks and the brutal techniques used to combat them. The Criterion Collection is proud to present Gillo Pontecorvo’s tour de force—a film with astonishing relevance today.

Cast

Ali La Pointe	Brahim Haggiag
Colonel Mathieu	Jean Martin
El-hadi Jaffar	Saadi Yacef
Fatiha	Samia Kerbash
Hassiba	Fusia El Kader
The captain	Ugo Paletti
Petit Omar	Mohamed Ben Kassen

Credits

Director	Gillo Pontecorvo
Screenplay	Gillo Pontecorvo and Franco Solinas
Producer	Saadi Yacef and Antonio Musu
Cinematography	Marcello Gatti
Cameraman	Silvano Mancini
Music	Ennio Morricone and Gillo Pontecorvo
Musical direction	Bruno Nicolai
Editing	Mario Morra and Mario Serandrei
Assistant director	Moussa Haddad and Fernando Morandi
Second unit director	Giuliano Montaldo
Production Design	Sergio Canevari
Special effects	Aldo Gasparri
Makeup	Maurizio Giustini
Sound	Omar Bouksani
Costumes	Giovanni Axerio

Disc Features

SPECIAL EDITION THREE-DISC SET:

New high-definition digital transfer, enhanced for widescreen televisions
Production gallery
Theatrical and re-release trailers
New and improved English subtitle translation
Gillo Pontecorvo: The Dictatorship of Truth (1992): a 37-minute documentary, narrated by literary critic Edward Said
Exclusive 51-minute documentary on the making of The Battle of Algiers, featuring new interviews with the director, cinematographer, composer, editor, actors, and film historians
Five Directors (17 mins., 2004): Spike Lee, Mira Nair, Julian Schnabel, Steven Soderbergh, and Oliver Stone on the film’s influence, style, and importance
Remembering History (69 mins., 2004): an exclusive documentary that reconstructs the Algerian experience of the battle for independence, featuring interviews with historians and revolutionaries, including military leader Saadi Yacef
“États d’armes” (2002): a 28-minute documentary excerpt featuring senior French military officers recalling the use of torture and execution to combat the rebellion
The Battle of Algiers: A Case Study (25 mins., 2004): Richard A. Clarke, former national counterterrorism coordinator and author of Against All Enemies: Inside America’s War on Terror, discusses the film’s relevance with Michael A. Sheehan, former State Department coordinator for counterterrorism, in a conversation moderated by Christopher E. Isham, chief of investigative projects for ABC News
Gillo Pontecorvo’s Return to Algiers (58 mins., 1992): the filmmaker revisits the Algerian people after three decades of independence
PLUS: a 56-page book featuring excerpts from Saadi Yacef’s original account of his arrest, a reprinted excerpt from the film’s screenplay, a reprinted interview with co-writer Franco Solinas, a new essay by film scholar Peter Matthews, and biographical sketches on key figures in the French-Algerian War

From the Current

Jean Martin, 1922–2009

Feb 12, 2009

The Battle of Algiers: Bombs and Boomerangs

by Peter Matthews Oct 11, 2004

Legend has it that an American moneyman agreed to finance Vittorio De Sica’s 1948 neorealist classic The Bicycle Thief with one stipulation—that the role of the common laborer whose meager capital gets stolen be played by Cary Grant. Apocryphal or not, that stroke of casting...