Political Masterpiece

[oscar jubis]

LA BATALLA DE CHILE (The Battle for Chile)
Part I: La insurreccion de la burguesia
Part II: El golpe de estado (The coup)
Part III: El poder popular (The people's power)

[Chris Knipp]

Never heard of them, but I see that one or all of the parts were shown at the Human Rights Watch Festival in London in 1999. Where did you see it?

[Johann]

Gillo Pontecorvo made a film with Marlon Brando named BURN!, which Brando says contains his best acting performance.

[Chris Knipp]

I'm sorry to be such a bad movie geek. I'll try to check my facts more carefully in future. That was something I read a long time ago--but certainly not before 1969, Burn's date--I guess you could maybe say Battle of Algiers is Gillo's only really successful film. I'm saying that without seeing the Brando flick; but at least we know it's obscure, whereas Battle of Algiers is pretty famous.

[Johann]

No worries, Chris

You're right- Algiers is the only sucessful film he's done, and BURN! is a film a friend and I watched while getting drunk back in 1999 and we laughed a lot. The film is pretty cheesy, although you could tell everyone involved was trying to be serious.

[Chris Knipp]

That's what I gathered. I don't guess you can trust actors on what their best roles are.

[cinemabon]

Especially Brando... I wouldn't call "Burn" cheesy; moldy is seems more correct, and in the same vein.

[Chris Knipp]

I saw the movie at the Castro Theater (one of the Bay Area's best old movie houses) Sunday. To say it "holds up" is an understatement. It's visually splendid and the music by Morricone and Pontecorvo is unique. I posted a review on my website: http://www.chrisknipp.com/writing/viewtopic.php?t=260. There I also appended the shrewd, informative article by Stewart Klawans from the NYTimes archive, plus Michael Kaufman's piece on the Pentagon's interest which I excerpted earlier, I believe, and which is available on the Common Dreams website.

As Oscar pointed out, the full distribution schedule is to be found on http://www.rialtopictures.com/battle.html It's been added to since earlier entries in this thread. I wonder if it will get wider distribution in view of the great interest. Oscar predicts a DVD release this year, but if you're hungry to see it at home, it's already available on VHS. Note: the IMDb listing under "Battaglia di Algeri, La" has some reviews, but the Film Forum website may have more and better article links. See: http://www.filmforum.com/films/algiers.html

I am not sure I would call this a mock documentary and I prefer to place it in the Italian neorealist tradition. Not that it doesn't seem "real" and refer to "real" events, but there are limits to where documentaries can go which Battle of Algiers surpasses. This is simply great filmmaking, and a case where everything clicked.

*These last two links will expire in time.

[cinemabon]

The link you provided Chris takes one to NPR and "All Things Considered" review by David D'arcy. The review is very thorough with interviews with the filmmaker, the man who inspired the film, and those in Washington at think tanks and in the administration, with parallels between Algiers, the French, Iraq and the US.

In addition to those, there are links to reviews in the Washington Post and the New York Times.

By the way, I've been to the Castro, theater that is.

[Chris Knipp]

Yeah, there are a lot of good short pieces on the film out right now. The Castro, like the Grand Lake in Oakland, has a functioning Wurlitzer and a grand auditorium.