The Battle of Algiers - 1966
A must see for cinema lovers, a re-release of Italian director Gillo Pontecorvo’s 1966 master
piece “The Battle of Algiers” has just hit the market. Rewarded with a Golden Bear at the Venice Film Festival, this is a docudrama about the Algerian struggle for independence against French colonialism. Pontecorvo's film was banned in France until 2004 and it was supposedly screen at the Pentagon in 2003 after the invasion of Iraq. Shot on location in grainy black and white, “The Battle of Algiers” shows how greatly talented in making documentaries Pontecorvo is. Cinematographer Marcello Gatti's pioneering use of a hand-held camera for the crowd scenes makes it seem as if events are being documented as they happen. “The Battle of Algiers” is not simply a good docudrama, but also an honest means of showing the ugly face of war.
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