050 - Battle of Algiers

Synopsis: Drama-documentary of the FLN uprising in Algiers in the 1950's

Director: Gillo Pontecorvo

Actors: Jean Martin, Yacef Saadi, Brahim Haggiag

Date: 1965

How viewed: Already in my collection

Rating: 5/5

David Meyer says:
It's a revolutionary film in form and content. There are no comparable films being made today, films that combine history with drama and make both so compelling. 

I say:

I can't praise this film too highly, and it's a compete travesty that it is in anyone's list of 'DVDs you've never heard of'. It follows the emergence of the Algerian National Liberation Front (FLN) in 1952 against the colonising French, and their subsequent virtual elimination by the French Army. It's worth knowing a bit of the history, though the film doesn't directly provide this information - anyway (with thanks as usual to Wikipedia): The Algerian War was a conflict between France and Algerian independence movements between 1954 and 1962, which led to Algeria gaining its independence from France. An important decolonisation war, it was a complex conflict characterised by guerrilla warfare, marquis fighting, terrorism against civilians, the use of torture on both sides and counter-terrorism operations by the French Army. The conflict was also a civil war between loyalist Algerians who believed in a French Algeria and their insurrectionist Algerian Muslim counterparts. The extraordinary thing about this film is that it does not use any images from the conflict - everything is re-enacted. It's shot in grainy black and white to look like a documentary, and the crowd scenes, riots, explosions, etc are unbelievably realistic. It's not always an easy film to watch, both sides commit atrocities and these are shown in graphic detail (including torture scenes, although these may only be in the restored version of the film). Impressively the film tries to be neutral, and depicts aspects of good and bad on both sides (for example, the Army leader fought in the French resistance and therefore has some sympathy with the fight against a colonising country), and my only gripe is that the ending is shown as the first scene - why oh why?? Nevertheless, it is gripping viewing, and very topical as it has many resonances with the current Arab Spring uprisings, and, for me, has the effect of making almost every other film feel superficial. PS and there's a fantastic score by Ennio Morricone - what more could you ask?

049 - Peeping Tom

Synopsis: Cameraman murders women whilst filming them to try to capture the ultimate face of fear

Director: Michael Powell

Actors: Carl Boehm, Anna Massey, Moira Shearer

Date: 1960

How viewed: Lovefilm rental

Rating: 3/5

David Meyer says:

.. our murderer's true pleasure lies not in murder or even in filming, but in watching the film later. It's a commentary on the voyeurism and the power of cinema, a telling parable about the relationship between filmer and filmed.. 

I say:

Another film that was generally reviled when it came out, but has now attained cult status. So, how was it for me? Well, I think the former, though I appreciate that, for it's time, it was clearly a bold piece of film-making. A film cameraman and photographer, traumatised by his scientist father using him to investigate child fear, continues in the same vein, attempting to make a 'documentary' about the fear expressed in the face of death. He does this by filming, and then murdering, 3 women. It's not a thriller, more a psychological study, with Mark (Boehm) at times seemingly realising he's mad, and almost wanting to be caught, or saved by the girl downstairs (Massey) who befriends him. I'm sure it's a film with multiple layers, especially raising issues about what's real and what's acting, the role of the film-maker, voyeurism, and the way that Mark can't bear to be parted from his camera (interestingly when he is, he almost revert to normal), and there were echoes for nowadays of people who can't bear to be parted from their phone or laptop, but generally it just comes across as a bit unpleasant and weird. Carl Boehm (intentionally) comes across as creepy, but why he was he cast as English, when he has such a German accent, why don't the murder victims fight back/run away instead of calmly accepting their fate, why is the girl downstairs so attracted to this creepy guy, and why does Michael Powell play the father in the home-movies with his real-life young son? All very odd, but not in a nice way!