- The Little Soldier
Infobox Film
name = The Little Soldier
imdb_id = 0054177
amg_id = 1:99112
director =Jean-Luc Godard
writer =Jean-Luc Godard
starring =Michel Subor Anna Karina Henri-Jacques Huet
editing = Agnès Guillemot
Lila Herman
Nadine Marquand
producer =Georges de Beauregard
music =Maurice Leroux
cinematography =Raoul Coutard
released = flagicon|France1963
runtime = 88 min.
language = French"The Little Soldier" ( _fr. Le Petit Soldat) is a 1960 film, written and directed by French filmmaker
Jean-Luc Godard . It was Godard's first film withAnna Karina , who starred as Véronica Dreyer alongsideMichel Subor (as Bruno Forestier). The film was banned in France until January1963 , because of the presence of torture scenes. This is Godard's second feature film (afterA bout de souffle ) but was released as his fourth movie. This is the first of Jean-Luc Godard's movies starring Anna Karina, who became his wife soon after the filming. She would go on to become the quintessential Godard actress.Summary
During the
Algerian War , Bruno Forestrier lives inGeneva to escape the enlistment in France. Working for French intelligence, he is ordered to kill Palivoda, a pro-FLN (National Liberation Front of Algeria) to prove he is not adouble agent . Refusal and hesitation keep him from carrying out the assassination. Meanwhile, he meets and falls in love with Véronica Dreyer, who helped the FLN. Bruno plans to leave with her forBrazil , but is captured and tortured by Algerian revolutionaries. He escapes, and agrees to kill Palivoda for the French in exchange for passage to Brazil for him and Veronica. However, the French discover Veronica's ties to the FLN, and torture her to death.Themes
The situation in Algeria and the denunciation of the use of torture by both sides are the main themes of the movie. This led to his being banned for three years in France. This movie shows a typical theme of Jean-Luc Godard, developed in his later works: interrogation about the nature of cinema (Bruno Forestier in the movie: "La photographie, c'est la vérité, et le cinéma, c'est vingt-quatre fois la vérité par seconde" - "Photography is truth, and cinema is truth 24 times per second") and the image (the photo-shoot of Véronica)
External links
*imdb title|id=0054177|title=Le Petit Soldat
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.